El Chepe Railway - Chihuahua Station (Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacífico)

The Chihuahua station is the eastern terminus of El Chepe (Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacífico), the passenger railway that crosses the Sierra Tarahumara and Copper Canyon on its way to Los Mochis on Mexico's Pacific coast. The station building itself is a modest early-20th-century structure with a ticket hall, waiting area and platform, but the real draw is the departure ritual: passengers board before dawn for the roughly nine-hour Chepe Regional run or the faster Chepe Express, and within the first two hours the line climbs out of the high desert plain into pine-forested mountains, crossing dozens of bridges and tunnels blasted through the sierra. Visitors typically arrive 45-60 minutes before departure to check luggage and find seats, since assigned seating varies by service class. Window seats on the north side of the train face the canyon views on the classic Chihuahua-Creel-Divisadero segment, the most scenic stretch of the entire route. The platform and ticket hall are busiest in the hour before each scheduled departure and largely empty the rest of the day.