Is There a Train in Guatemala? Metro Riel Status and Mexico's Tren Maya [2026]

No passenger train appears on any official Guatemalan page read on October 21, 2026. Ferrocarriles de Guatemala (FEGUA), the State rail entity, describes its own job as promoting the “reactivación del sistema ferroviario del país” (the reactivation of the country’s rail system). Guatemala City’s rail project, Metro Riel, exists as a project sheet and a government priority, not as a line you can ride. This page sets out what the State’s own sources say about it, and where Mexico’s Tren Maya stops across the border. For the cable car between Guatemala City and Mixco, see Aerometro; for Guatemala City’s bus rapid transit system, see Transmetro.

Quick summary

• Passenger trains running in Guatemala: none listed by FEGUA, ANI or the government news agency AGN (pages read October 21, 2026).
• Metro Riel: a planned light-rail line from Centra Sur to Centra Norte on the existing rail right-of-way, 20.5 km with 20 stations and 35 trains, 41 minutes end to end (ANI’s project sheet).
• Status on ANI’s sheet: “Actualización de estudios para proceso de factibilidad para proceso de precalificación de inversionistas” (studies being updated for feasibility, ahead of investor prequalification).
• Government position: on June 23, 2026 the President called the metroriel his government’s infrastructure priority, in the negotiation phase, with talks under way with the United Kingdom government.
• Fare, start of works, opening date: none published in the sources read.
• Passenger rail across the border: Mexico’s Tren Maya, with stations at Palenque (Chiapas) and Chetumal Aeropuerto (Quintana Roo).

Metro Riel: what the State’s project sheet says

ANI (Agencia Nacional de Alianzas para el Desarrollo de Infraestructura Económica) structures the State’s public-private partnership projects. Its Metro Riel sheet, read October 21, 2026, gives the project’s formal name as an urban passenger rail and road interconnection on the north-south axis of Guatemala City, and these figures:

The sheet gives the reason for the project as road saturation: it says traffic exceeds the road network’s capacity, with average saturation of 95% at peak hour. It does not give a fare, a construction start or an opening year.

Project timeline

ANI’s sheet, read on October 21, 2026, still showed the study-update status. In the June 23 statement the President separated the two projects in one sentence: “El aerómetro es proyecto de la municipalidad, el metroriel, el que va de norte a sur, es el proyecto del gobierno” (the Aerometro is the Municipality’s project; the north-south metroriel is the government’s). He also said the government had never given up on the metroriel and was in discussion with the government of the United Kingdom for the possible contracting of its construction.

The Puerto Quetzal to Escuintla rail item in the January announcement is a conceptual-design task linked to a logistics station. AGN’s report does not describe it as a passenger service.

Train, cable car or bus: what exists in Guatemala City

Across the border: Tren Maya in Mexico

Mexico’s Tren Maya sells passenger tickets on its official site, which lists Palenque, in Chiapas, as “Esta primera estación” (its first station), and a Chetumal Aeropuerto station in Quintana Roo. This page quotes no Tren Maya fare; prices are on the operator’s site.

From Guatemala, both stations are reached by road:

• Palenque: the shuttle from Flores through the El Ceibo border, on Flores to Palenque.
• Chetumal: the shuttle from Flores through Belize, on Flores to Chetumal, Bacalar & Cancún.
• Flying to the Mexican Caribbean instead: Guatemala City to Cancún.

FEGUA: the State rail entity

FEGUA’s home page describes it as a decentralized, autonomous State entity whose mission is to promote the reactivation of the country’s rail system and to recover and protect the rail property it owns, and whose vision includes promoting rail history through the Centro Cultural Museo del Ferrocarril. Its stated general objective is to provide complementary services and other economic activities, “no necesariamente de transporte ferroviario” (not necessarily rail transport), within the rail right-of-way and properties.

FEGUA’s office, as listed on its site: 9a Avenida «A» 18-03, Zona 1, Guatemala City; telephone 2208-4747 ext. 101; email infopublica@fegua.gob.gt.

What is not published

• Metro Riel: no fare, no construction start and no opening date on ANI’s sheet or in the AGN items read (January 27 and June 23, 2026). The 252,000-passenger figure has no time period on the sheet.
• Tren Maya fares: not quoted on this page; check the operator’s site before you travel.

For every other way to get around the country, see transport in Guatemala.

Sources

• ANI, Metro Riel project sheet, read October 21, 2026.
• AGN, President reiterates that the Metro Riel is a priority, June 23, 2026.
• AGN, President reports on projects to ease traffic in the capital, January 27, 2026.
• FEGUA, home page, read October 21, 2026.
• Tren Maya, official site, read October 21, 2026.