The Kansas City Southern de México was formed during the liquidation of the NdeM after the Kansas City Southern won the bid to operate various ex-NdeM routes. The NdeM had just finished an electrification a few years previous (from Cuidad de México to Querétaro;, but the KCS didn’t want to change power or run a helper district a'la the late Milwaukee Road, so made up the excuse that you can’t run double-stack containers under wire (there was some very derisive commentary about this from the northeastern United States and eastern Canada), pulled the wire, and operated as a 100% diesel joint.
It remained as diesel only up through KCS’s merger with the CPR, but after the CPKC merged with the PV&T Trust, that policy was changed. The new United Railways Trust retained the PV&T Trust’s pro-electrification policies, and immediately directed the KCSM to start engineering works to electrify mountainous parts of their system.
Aside from the wire being pulled, the electrical infrastructure from Cuidad de México to Querétaro; was more-or-less intact, and the KCSM had wire up and energized by the end of 2026. The second section to be electrified is the line from Veracruz to Cuidad de México, which is undergoing engineering works on the climb up the mountains to the central plateau, and line surveys have started on the third section – the line from Tampico to San Luis Potosí.
Bids have been requested from the usual suspects (Progress Rail, Wabtec, and ILW) for dual-power and purely electric motive power to operate the lines, but currently the only electric freight going on is powered by some of the CPR’s eco-644/80e dual-powered locomotives.