View Comments With a cry of "All Board!" in January 1986, Corpus Christi welcomed back passenger rail service after an almost 40 year absence. That's when the Tex-Mex Express left for its inaugural trip from the city to Laredo. The Texas-Mexican Railway Co. hadn't offered passenger service from Corpus Christi to Laredo since the early 1940s, when it became more popular to travel by car or bus. The idea of the renewed passenger service was the brainchild of A.R. "Andy" Ramos, president and CEO of Texas-Mexican Railway Co. in Laredo. He had been working on the idea since the early '80s when devaluation of the peso hit the railway's freight profits. After working with city officials, he approached the Corpus Christi City Council in November 1984, and they agreed to build a passenger depot in Corpus Christi if Tex-Mex would operate the rail service. The company still ran freight between the two cities.