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US company starts updating Panamá-David-Frontera rail link master plan [1]

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Date: 2025-03

US company AECOM was selected to revise the master plan for the Panamá-David-Frontera train, a flagship project of President José Raúl Mulino.

AECOM will review technical studies, conceptual design, demand analysis, budget estimations and implementation strategies, according to a press release.

The master plan also includes the pre-feasibility studies for a priority 150km stretch, and considers a bridge across the Panama Canal or another tunnel, apart from the one being built for metro line No. 3.

AECOM has 210 days to evaluate criteria and conduct a preliminary analysis, then update the master plan along with the demand analysis, conceptual designs and budget estimations, and lastly conduct the pre-feasibility studies.

Initial feasibility studies involved a US$4bn link only between Panama City and David and were carried out by China Railway Design Corporation (CRDC) during the Juan Carlos Varela administration, which ended in 2019. But progress stalled because Varela’s successor, Laurentino Cortizo, did not prioritize the project.

During his campaign, Mulino promised to resume works and expand the project. His plan included capex of US$5bn and an expansion to Paso Canoas on the border with Costa Rica. Mulino asked Henry Faarup Mauad to lead the project at the rail ministry with the help of Roberto Roy, who supervised construction of Panama City’s metro lines No. 1 and No. 2.

The Panamá-David-Frontera train will connect the provinces of Panamá, Coclé, Herrera, Veraguas and Chiriquí. Congress declared it a project of public interest in October, and it is part of Mulinos’s five-year public investment plan.

French industrial association Medef and Chinese officials have expressed interest.

In October, Mulino was quoted by daily La Prensa as saying that “we are updating the route that the Chinese government developed and we’re carrying out a technical study, the mapping of the route to identify the inhabitants along it because we will have to negotiate the purchase of land and property.”

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[1] Url: https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/us-company-starts-analyzing-panama-david-frontera-rail-link-master-plan

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