Former Train Station of Izamal

The sisal fiber industry was once the Yucatán Peninsula’s most important. Its production and transport led to the development of an extensive rail network connecting haciendas, where the plants were grown and the fiber produced, and the ports from where the products were shipped out to the rest of the world.

Izamal’s train station was built in 1883 as a modest wooden building. Eventually, it was painted in the yellow-and-white palette used across the town. Rail transport wasn’t exclusively for freight, as it is known that the Izamal station was once part of a popular passenger service between the town and Mérida, the Peninsula’s largest city. This station was part of the Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán company (United Railroads of Yucatán).

With the decline of rail transport in all of Mexico, Izamal’s station was abandoned, although the rails can still be seen near it, often lost among the asphalt of the streets nearby.

As of early 2022, it had become little more than a storage space for the Municipal Police Department, which seems to be in charge of the structure. Given the Tren Maya (Maya Train) project that has been in construction since December 2018, and that Izamal will be one of its stops, it is likely that the town’s rail history has not come to an end.