The ticket printing machine for railway toys
It seems that the Federal Government has found a gold mine, or rather, a ticket printing machine that works 24 hours a day, and has decided to allocate the modest sum of 142 billion pesos to its favorite projects: passenger trains. Because what better investment priority for 2026 than transporting a lucky few on rails, while the rest of the country wonders if they’ll ever see a pothole repaired on their street?
But, oh surprise! The subsidies party does not end there. Six parastatal companies, those newborn creatures in the last six-year term and that are now pampered and controlled by the Armed Forces, have extended their hand to ask for their allowance. They need a subsidy of 58 thousand 212 million pesos for next year. The reason? It turns out that they do not generate enough resources to operate and, of course, to pay the salaries of their 8,200 employees. Who would have thought: creating companies that are not profitable costs money. A truly revolutionary revelation.
The bottomless pit of pharaonic projects
These fabulous subsidies, elegantly packaged in the 2026 Expenditure Budget that reached Congress, are basically intended to plug the holes in the pending railway works. Yes, we are talking about the eternal protagonists: the Mayan Train and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec Railway. Because nothing says “successful project” like needing a constant injection of billions to avoid collapsing.
And as if that were not enough, the trifle of 14,386 million pesos has also been requested for the Saltillo-Nuevo Laredo Train. Because, clearly, the solution to the country’s connectivity problems is to continue adding more railway sections to the infinite list of works that consume money at a rate that would make a compulsive gambler in Las Vegas pale.
Carlos Barreda, a specialist in the sector who probably laughs so as not to cry, enlightens us with a wonderful figure: the sum of all these sections of passenger and freight trains is equivalent to 1,430 kilometers of track to be built. That is, enough iron to reach the moon… or at least to circle the circumference of the Mexican bureaucracy several times.
And then comes the masterful calculation: “If the 142 billion pesos contemplated in the Expenditure Budget 2026 are taken as a basis, it can be concluded that during the first year of starting works, 105 million pesos will be invested for each kilometer of road.” What a bargain! Only 105 million per kilometer. At that price, one would expect the tracks to be made of solid gold and the trains to be powered by unicorn tears. And all this, with a “completion horizon of at least three years.” Translation: see it as a perpetual subscription to a financial black hole.
In short, while ordinary citizens worry about inflation and the cost of the basic basket, our government demonstrates once again its incredible ability to prioritize. Because, at the end of the day, what is more important: education, health, or a train that maybe, just maybe, in the distant future, can take someone from point A to point B? The answer, clearly, is on the rails.
Do you find it incredible how the budget pie is distributed?Share this gem of public administration on your social networks and help us make financial surrealism viral. And if you have the stomach for more, explore our content on other pharaonic projects that demonstrate that imagination in public spending has no limits.
