Mexican rail is winning freight share, and 150-car rail ferries are part of the story. Bill Stephens of Trains Magazine breaks down what Grupo México Transportes is doing differently: taking volume from highway and short-sea moves, expanding rail ferry capacity, and running a more aggressive security strategy that has cut cargo theft incidents.

Grupo México Transportes, the largest railroad in Mexico, has ordered two additional rail ferries capable of carrying 150 railcars each across the Gulf of Mexico, according to rail journalist Bill Stephens, who visited the company's headquarters in Guadalajara this week. The expansion comes as demand on the joint-venture ferry service — operated with Genesee & Wyoming — outpaces capacity and volumes surge on finished-vehicle shipments manufactured in Mexico. That surge fits a broader pattern: Mexico has become one of the world's largest vehicle producers, and its automotive output — much of it destined for U.S. buyers — has grown steadily as manufacturers expand North American production under the USMCA trade framework.

The ferry service runs from the Port of Mobile and connects to Mexican ports, offering faster transit for some U.S. origin points than an all-land routing. Rail equipment is carefully shoved onto tracks aboard the vessels, secured with chocks, and sailed across the Gulf — eliminating the transloading step that adds cost and time to competing barge moves out of the Port of Veracruz.

"Volume is so strong and demand is so strong, and they're taking share from those barges that they've ordered 2 more rail ferries that can carry 150 cars each," Stephens said.

Stephens described Grupo México — which operates the Ferromex and Ferrosur railroads — as the fastest-growing Class 1 railroad year to date, gaining share not only from barge operators but also from highway carriers. The company is part of the broader Grupo México conglomerate, one of the world's largest mining companies, and has largely avoided the industry spotlight despite its scale.

Stephens also detailed Grupo México's cargo security operation, which underwent a strategic overhaul in 2016 when the railroad moved away from armed guards aboard trains toward a proactive, technology-driven model. The railroad's security monitoring center tracks every train's speed and air brake line pressure in real time, deploys drones to surveil track corridors ahead of high-value intermodal and automotive trains, and embeds a Mexican National Guard liaison on-site. In its most recent weekly snapshot, the railroad logged 72 incidents out of 30,000 total shipments, with most incidents involving nothing more than open container seals. That shift toward a technology-and-data approach mirrors a wider trend among North American railroads, which have increasingly leaned on sensors, telemetry, and analytics — the same capabilities railroads use for predictive maintenance and network dispatching — to monitor assets in transit.

To suppress theft hotspots — which Stephens said tend to be local in nature, sometimes involving gang-instigated derailments followed by community looting — Grupo México deploys 30 mobile trailers that house National Guard members near problem areas, covering their food and lodging costs in exchange for rapid response to criminal activity along the right-of-way.

The contrast with the United States was notable, Stephens said. While organized international crime syndicates drive rail theft in the U.S. Southwest, Mexico's challenge is more localized gangs operating within roughly a 30-mile radius. In the U.S., the Association of American Railroads and major retailers are backing federal legislation that would create a coordinated federal, state, and local response to cargo theft — a proposal that drew an enthusiastic reaction on the broadcast from advocates of the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act. Cargo theft has drawn increased attention from U.S. shippers and insurers in recent years as organized retail crime has climbed policy agendas in Washington and multiple state capitals.

Source: FreightWaves