Trains across Mexico and Central America

452 routes and 1 operator across 1 country Fares and journey times below come from the same engine that answers the search box.

Villahermosa, Parque-Museo La Venta, Colossal Head, Monument 1 The Olmec colossal heads are at least seventeen monumental stone representations of human heads sculpted from large basalt boulders. The heads are a distinctive feature of the Olmec civilization of ancient Mesoamerica. All portray mature men with fleshy cheeks, flat noses, and slightly crossed eyes; their physical characteristics correspond to a type that is still common among the inhabitants of Tabasco and Veracruz. The backs of the monuments often are flat. The boulders were brought from the Sierra de los Tuxtlas mountains of Veracruz. Given that the extremely large slabs of stone used in their production were transported over large distances, requiring a great deal of human effort and resources, it is thought that the monuments represent portraits of powerful individual Olmec rulers. Each of the known examples has a distinctive headdress. The heads were variously arranged in lines or groups at major Olmec centres, but the method and logistics used to transport the stone to these sites remain unclear. Dating the monuments remains difficult because of the movement of many from their original contexts prior to archaeological investigation. Most have been dated to the Early Preclassic period (1500–1000 BC) with some to the Middle Preclassic (1000–400 BC) period. The smallest weigh 6 tons, while the largest is variously estimated to weigh 40 to 50 tons, although it was abandoned and left unfinished close to the source of its stone. The Olmec civilization developed in the lowlands of southeastern Mexico between 1500 and 400 BC. The Olmec heartland lies on the Gulf Coast of Mexico within the states of Veracruz and Tabasco, an area measuring approximately 275 kilometres east to west and extending about 100 kilometres inland from the coast. The Olmecs are regarded as the first civilization to develop in Mesoamerica. The Olmecs were the first inhabitants of the Americas to construct monumental architecture and to settle in towns and cities. They were also the first people in the Americas to develop a sophisticated style of stone sculpture. In the first decade of the 21st century evidence emerged of Olmec writing, with the earliest examples of Olmec hieroglyphs dating to around 650 BC. Examples of script have been found on roller stamps and stone artefacts; the texts are short and have been partially deciphered based on their similarity to other Mesoamerican scripts. The evidence of complex society developing in the Olmec heartland has led to the Olmecs being regarded as the "Mother Culture" of Mesoamerica, although this concept remains controversial. The seventeen confirmed examples of Olmec colossal heads are known from four sites within the Olmec heartland on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, namely San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, La Venta, Tres Zapotes, and La Cobata. La Venta Monument 1 is speculated to have been the portrait of La Venta's final ruler. Monument 1 measures 2.41 metres high by 2.08 metres wide by 1.95 metres deep; it weighs 24 tons. The front of the headdress is decorated with three motifs that apparently represent the claws or fangs of an animal. Above these symbols is an angular U-shaped decoration descending from the scalp. On each side of the monument a strap descends from the headdress, passing in front of the ear. Each ear has a prominent ear ornament that descends from the earlobe to the base of the monument. The features are those of a mature man, with wrinkles around the mouth, eyes and nose. Monument 1 is the best preserved head at La Venta but has suffered from erosion, particularly at the back. The head was first described by Franz Blom and Oliver La Farge who investigated the La Venta remains on behalf of Tulane University in 1925. When discovered it was half-buried; its massive size meant that the discoverers were unable to excavate it completely. Matthew Stirling fully excavated the monument in 1940, after clearing the thick vegetation that had covered it in the intervening years. Monument 1 has been moved to the Parque-Museo La Venta in Villahermosa. The head was found in its original context; associated finds have been radiocarbon dated to between 1000 and 600 BC. (source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec_colossal_heads)

452 Trains routes run across Mexico and Central America, reaching 16 places in 1 country through 1 operator On the 16 busiest of them, priced on 10 October 2026, the cheapest fare is €17.39 and the fastest journey is 1h 34m door to door. A median route runs 210 km.

Checked 10 October 2026Priced for 10 October 2026One passenger, all fees included

The network

Trains in Mexico and Central America, in numbers

What we actually sell, counted rather than claimed.

  • 452Routes we sell
  • 113Corridors
  • 16Places served
  • 1Countries
  • 1Operators
  • 452Domestic routes
  • 0Cross border routes
  • 0Routes out of the region
  • 210 kmMedian route
  • 441 kmLongest route
Routes

The corridors that matter in Mexico and Central America

Ranked by how much service runs, then priced. The country and city pages carry the rest.

The busiest routes we sell in Mexico and Central America, priced on 10 October 2026 for one passenger with every fee included.
RouteFromFastestDistance
Las Choapas to Acayucan train€17.391h 34m87 km
Pijijiapan to Tapachula train€25.641h 57m134 km
Cintalapa de Figueroa to Minatitlán train€32.232h 9m171 km
Juchitán de Zaragoza to Coatzacoalcos train€36.082h 32m200 km
Cintalapa de Figueroa to Acayucan train€36.092h 17m190 km
Santo Domingo Tehuantepec to Tuxtla Gutiérrez train€36.642h 38m232 km
Comitán to Villahermosa train€37.192h 27m212 km
Chiapa de Corzo to Juchitán de Zaragoza train€37.192h 40m216 km
San Cristóbal de las Casas to Tapachula train€38.292h 25m207 km
Cárdenas to Comitán train€38.292h 38m236 km
Tapachula to Tuxtla Gutiérrez train€41.582h 42m225 km
Las Choapas to Pijijiapan train€43.243h 5m265 km
Acayucan to San Cristóbal de las Casas train€44.883h 1m277 km
Salina Cruz to Cárdenas train€47.093h 18m280 km
Pijijiapan to Coatzacoalcos train€49.833h 29m304 km
Salina Cruz to Villahermosa train€52.033h 34m313 km
Countries

Countries in Mexico and Central America

Every country in Mexico and Central America we sell in, most routes first.

Routes, places and carriers in each country of Mexico and Central America.
CountryRoutesPlacesOperators
Mexico452161
Booking window

When to book in Mexico and Central America

The same search run at seven lead times across 3 corridors in Mexico and Central America.

  1. €42.693 days
  2. €57.547 days
  3. €41.5821 days
  4. €30.5945 days
  5. €34.4484 days
Cheapest lead time
Across the routes we sampled the typical fare is lowest around 45 days ahead, at €30.59.
How much it moves
The gap between the cheapest and dearest lead time is 47 percent. At the dearest point the typical fare is €57.54, 7 days out.
Catchment

How far people travel to get here

Every origin we sell by Trains, grouped by how far it is in a straight line.

Straight line distance from each origin we sell, not the distance the route runs.
DistanceRoutesShareNearest of them
Under 200 km19242%Coatzacoalcos, 45 km
200 to 600 km26058%Acayucan, 200 km
Carriers

Train operators

The carriers with the largest networks inside Mexico and Central America.

Train destinations

Other ways to travel across Mexico and Central America

Common questions about Trains across Mexico and Central America

How many Trains routes does Orlero sell across Mexico and Central America?

452 of them, across 1 country reaching 16 places through 1 operator

How much does travelling by Trains cost in Mexico and Central America?

On the 16 busiest Trains corridors in Mexico and Central America, priced on 10 October 2026, the lowest fare is €17.39 and the median is €37.74.

Is Trains the fastest way across Mexico and Central America?

On the corridors we priced, train is the only way we sell, at a median of 2h 38m door to door.

Which countries in Mexico and Central America have Trains routes we sell?

Mexico.

Who runs the Trains services in Mexico and Central America?

Ferroistmo, among 1 carriers we sell across Mexico and Central America.

When should I book travel across Mexico and Central America?

Fares on the corridors we sampled bottom out about 45 days before departure. Booking then rather than 7 days ahead was 47 percent cheaper on this sample.

How far apart are the places we sell in Mexico and Central America?

The median route runs 210 km in a straight line and the shortest is 45 km. The longest we sell is 441 km, from Acayucan to Tapachula.

Where these numbers come from

Places, coordinates, operators, which operator serves which pair, and every distance on this page are real and come from open data. Where a corridor has a filed timetable the departure times are real too, and ferry fares are the prices the operators publish themselves.

Where no operator publishes a fare for a corridor, the price here is our own estimate, worked out from the real distance and the real operator through a fare curve that follows lead time, day of the week and season. It tells you roughly what the journey costs. It is not a seat anyone has agreed to sell, and the payment step will not take it.

Defined in full at Door to door, Fares

Regions
A region is a set of countries, and a route counts for it when either end is inside it. Countries are grouped from their ISO code alone, so the map grows with the data and nothing here is drawn by hand.
The sample
Fares, journey times and carbon are measured on the 16 highest ranked corridors in this region, spread across it rather than taken from the top, so the figures describe the region and not its busiest country.
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