Passengers now walk over a kilometer to board a colectivo

Two Tulum colectivo stops on Highway 307 went quiet this summer under a plan to unclog the road. One union now says the bays are being lined up for a different operator.

The union raising the objection is the one that agreed to stop using them.

Moisés Pool Quijano, secretary general of Untrac Section 2 in Tulum, said drivers on the Tulum to Playa del Carmen route accepted the suspension because they were told it would reduce congestion on the federal highway. What he objects to is the second half of the arrangement, which he says would open the same two bays to local vans operated by the Tiburones del Caribe union. The route is the cheapest way to travel between the two towns, and most people who gain or lose minutes on it take it to work.

The bays sit outside El Bronco and near Avenida Satélite

Pool Quijano placed the two spaces precisely. One is on the federal highway in front of the El Bronco chicken shop. The other sits close to Avenida Satélite.

Both are bays cut into the shoulder, the kind built so a van can pull clear of the traffic lane while passengers climb in. On a two-lane highway carrying cargo trucks, hotel shuttles, and every rental car heading south, the difference between a van stopped in the lane and a van stopped in a bay is measured in queues.

Untrac units stopped boarding passengers at both. The union accepted that, Pool Quijano said, and then learned the spaces were not going to stay empty.

The July plan that emptied these Tulum colectivo stops

The removal was not improvised. On July 28, 2026, Quintana Roo Hoy published a report by Roberto Lemus for Grupo Cantón describing a new mobility scheme agreed between municipal authorities and transport representatives, which eliminated intermediate stops for intercity units along the town's main road and concentrated boarding and unloading at authorized terminals.

The union leader who publicly explained the plan was Manuel Solís, secretary general of the Tiburones del Caribe taxi union. According to the same report, he described the model as one already applied in Felipe Carrillo Puerto and Playa del Carmen, where intercity vans operate from fixed points, and argued it would cut the constant stopping along a two-lane road.

The scheme included a compensatory measure. A free connecting service began operating the Friday before that report, linking areas such as Aldea Tulum and the Las Palmas subdivision to the transport terminals, and the municipal mobility office was still defining and signposting the official boarding points.

Riders walk past Farmacias Similares to reach an authorized bay

Users have complained about the distance, Pool Quijano said. He put the gap at more than a kilometer between the closed bays and the authorized points, which he located near a Farmacias Similares branch and a convenience store. In August, that is a walk in open sun, done with shopping bags, small children, or a work uniform.

The volumes on this route are not small. When the unions moved the route's second busiest stop to a bay on the federal highway in 2023, the Untrac secretary general at the time, Nicasio Canché Catzín, told La Jornada Maya that between 1,000 and 1,200 people boarded there daily, a figure that rose by roughly 20 percent during holiday periods. That was a different bay from the two now in dispute, but it gives a sense of what a single stop on this highway carries.

Tiburones del Caribe promoted the scheme and runs the town's own vans

The tension Pool Quijano is pointing at is structural rather than personal. The union whose leader publicly defended the removal of intermediate stops is the same one he says would receive the freed bays.

Tiburones del Caribe is the only union providing transport within Tulum, with taxis and some collective units, according to La Jornada Maya, which has also noted user complaints alleging a monopoly and inflated fares.

Neither the municipality nor Tiburones del Caribe has publicly confirmed that the bays are to be assigned to local colectivos, and The Tulum Times found no municipal announcement to that effect. For now, that part of the account rests on Pool Quijano's statement.

A 10-passenger cap in Playa del Carmen almost stopped the route in May

This is the second time this year the same official has warned that the route is coming apart.

On May 19, 2026, La Jornada Maya reported that he warned of a partial or total stoppage after the Lázaro Cárdenas union in Playa del Carmen limited Untrac units to 10 passengers per departure, while other groups continued to leave with up to 15. He said the three unions had signed agreements, promoted by state authorities, to work the route on equal terms. With tourism down, he added, a van leaving with five fewer passengers barely covers its fuel.

That argument was about who fills a van. This one is about where a van may stop. Both rest on the same foundation: the busiest intercity route in the municipality operates under agreements between unions rather than under a published rule a passenger can consult.

Pool Quijano wants the mayor's office and the transport department in the room

He asked the municipal president and Tulum's transport department to intervene and prevent unilateral decisions that benefit a single organization, and said any change to the stops should be agreed with the unions that have worked the Tulum to Playa del Carmen corridor for years. Diego Castañón Trejo has been mayor of Tulum since 2024.

Untrac Section 2 is also comparing notes beyond the municipality. Pool Quijano said the section is in contact with colleagues in Playa del Carmen and other Untrac sections to track changes to the stops and the new terminal, and he called on authorities and union leaders to meet quickly before the disagreement reaches passengers.

No date has been set for that meeting. Until one is, the bay outside El Bronco stays empty, and the people who used to board there keep walking.

Do you use the colectivo between Tulum and Playa del Carmen, and how far do you walk to catch it now? Join the conversation and share your perspective with us on Instagram and Facebook at @thetulumtimes.