Buenavista-Cuautitlan Suburban Rail

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In August 2005, the Mexican Secretary of Communicayions and Transport (SCT) granted a 30 year Greenfield contract for a 27 km. suburban railway from Buenavista (in northern Mexico City) to Cuatitlan (Mexico State), to consortium Ferrocarriles Suburbanos. Ferrocarriles Suburbanos is formed by Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) SA with a 70% share in the operating company, and Inversiones en Concesiones Ferroviarias (ICF) with a 30% stake. SCT carried out the public tender. Two consortia presented offers to the SCT for the project: the consortium formed by Allston-ICA-Hermes made an offer for a tariff of US$1.09 (11.41 pesos); while the consortium headed by CAF was for US$0.91 (9.49 pesos). SCT awarded the project to the Ferrocarriles Suburbanos since it presented a proposal that complied with the technical, legal and financial requirements established in the bidding documents, and requested the lowest tariff. The consortium headed by CAF was expected to have to invest an estimated amount of US$639 million (6,700 million pesos). The project reached financial closure on February 2006 when CAF reached an agreement with Banco Santander for over US$300 million (3,144 million pesos) in project finance. The project was expected to reduce average travel times between the Buenavista rail station in northern Mexico City and Cuatitlan in neighboring Mexico state by over two and a half hours (round trip). The construction of the first part of the project –between the Buenavista and Huehuetoca- was expected to be concluded by the end of 2006.