Brownsville has always been a gateway for trade. Now, it’s the front door to a rail shortcut connecting Mexico’s industrial heartland with the Southeastern U.S. — a corridor that could reshape ground transportation logistics across the Rio Grande Valley.
The Southeast Mexico Express (SMX), launched Dec. 1, 2024, is the result of a partnership between Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) and CSX. The Class I freight line links cities in Mexico: Monterrey, Matamoros, and Reynosa directly with South Texas, entering through Brownsville before pushing east across CSX tracks into the U.S. states of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida.
“The Southeast Mexico Express has created new opportunities across intermodal, carload, and bulk,” said Keith Creel, CPKC President & CEO. “Together, we are delivering faster transit times, greater efficiency, and enhanced reliability.”
Economic impact of the Brownsville rail line
For Valley businesses, the implications are immense: shipments that once took nearly a week by truck now arrive in just three days by rail. Each SMX train replaces up to 300 trucks, a shift that cuts bridge congestion, reduces emissions, and creates new efficiencies for exporters.
Brownsville is expected to see the most direct impact, cementing its role as the Valley’s rail hub and primary SMX entry point into Texas. But the benefits are expected to ripple outward. The bridges of Pharr and Donna could experience reduced truck congestion and more opportunities to grow multimodal logistics, where cargo flows seamlessly from trucks onto trains.
The demand is already visible. Logistics players like Schneider National are among the first to use the service, touting improved reliability and supply-chain performance for customers across North America. That momentum could mean more investment in the Valley: intermodal yards, warehouses, and distribution centers to handle the increased flow.
“This new corridor highlights how we are taking concrete, measurable actions to expand our network and unlock long-term growth,” said Joe Hinrichs, CSX President & CEO.
The new rail link also increases economic opportunities regionally and enforces the idea of collaboration between the Valley and Laredo, which is the busiest land port in North America. An industrial trade integration is emerging between Monterrey, San Antonio, Laredo, and the Rio Grande Valley. As commerce and cooperation increase between those municipalities, a powerful manufacturing, logistics, research, and educational economy forms with the reach to compete on a global scale.
The Brownsville-Laredo connection
“Port Laredo and the RGV already handle about 50 percent of all US-Mexico trade, $400-$500 billion, through some 20 crossings,” said Teclo Garcia, Mission Economic Development Corporation CEO. “Imagine if a new synergy and strategy were employed to synchronize security, logistics, and production in this region? Exactly.”
Garcia spoke to 300 bi-national business and government leaders for a “Pathways For Trade” symposium in Laredo. CPKC Rail, which was also represented at the event, now owns two of the international bridges in Laredo and has 20,000 miles of rail connecting North America and Mexico.
For the Rio Grande Valley, the SMX positions the region not just as a trucking corridor but as a strategic rail link in North America’s trade network. With nearshoring driving more manufacturing into Monterrey and border cities like Matamoros and Reynosa, the Valley now sits at the hinge point between Mexico’s factories and the U.S. Southeast’s ports and markets.
