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Friends of Latin American Railroads FLB PR-OFFICE: Samuel Rachdi, Bahnhof, CH-6422 Steinen SZ; Tel. +41/41/832.01.34; Fax +41/41/832.01.35 Email: info@fahrplancenter.com
VOLTA O TREM 10th Year, Number 2 25th March 2006
FLB NEWS GENERAL ASSEMBLY The 9th General Assembly took place on February 25, 2006 in Winterthur. 12 members and 2 guests were present while 8 members excused themselves. All annual reports were unanimously accepted. Some articles of the statutes had to be adapted in order to respect the changes occurred by the establishment of the cooperative AIFFLA. The financial competencies of the board were also changed. It was set that FLB will purchase shares of the cooperative AIFFLA annually; it will be fixed in the annual budget how big this figure will be. For 2006, FLB will purchase participations over the amount of CHF 5’000.00. All those proposals were accepted unanimously. Elections: all the actual board members were re-elected for another 1-year term. However, there was a complete change of the auditors. Thomas Grell and Markus Rubin resigned. The FLB thanks them for their work over many years. Unanimously elected as new auditors were Ulrich Meier and Stefan Wölfli. After the assembly, a slide presentation was held by Mr. Dieter Hauss. He showed very impressive pictures from the Chilean desert. Railways in northern Chile from Arica until Iquique, Antofagasta and Copiapó including the famous Tocopilla al Toco railway and the "hole" of Chuquicamata. As those pictures date from past periods, they show a variety which in this region is more and more disappearing. A truly worthwhile conference! During the General assembly, the question was discussed if the member list can be made available to all members or not. As the discussion did not lead to a final decision (there were voices in favour and others against), the PR department of FLB proposes a solution. ALL MEMBERS are called to express their opinion to the following questions until May 15, 2006: 1. Do you agree with us sending the member list out showing your name and address? 2. Are you interested in receiving a copy of this list? 3. Are you interested in receiving continuous updates of the list (by e-mail, only exceptionally by mail)? If your answer to question 1 is negative, your name and address will be deleted from the "public" list. This "public" list will be sent to those members who answer question 2 and 3 with "yes". Those who DO NOT ANSWER AT ALL express herewith their silent agreement that their data (name and address) are forwarded to all members, but will not receive the list. We hope that with this we can cover all the needs and respect the data protection rules. However, we are open for other proposals. The distribution of the member list is thought to be a means to enable direct contact among FLB members as i.e. common trips to Latin America etc. Registration of interested persons is continuing, so far 40 names are on the list, about one third of them FLB members. They come from Switzerland, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. The first info was published in Nr. 38 of the FCN magazine. The second info sheet, informing about the negotiations of Peter Lais with the Bolivian ENFE, has been distributed. During the General assembly, it was decided that all FLB members automatically will receive the info sheet. Info No. 3 will appear during this spring. Everyone interested in the TREN PANAMERICANO is kindly asked to register at the Fahrplancenter or the FLB president Peter Lais. Send a fax to +41 41 832 01 34 or email info@fahrplancenter.com or peter.lais@hispeed.ch . The tourist operators Comet Reisen AG in Zurich (peter.koch@cometreisen.ch) and INTI Tours in Deggingen (info@inti-tours.de) also accept inscriptions for the list. Leaving: due to many other activities, our member Férid Rachdi from Wallisellen has left the FLB. We wish him all the best for his future.
Within the scope of the contracts about the purchase of used rolling stock from Spain and Portugal, some material has already arrived within the first months of the current year: 20 passenger coaches (Inox coaches from Sorefame) and some English Electric diesel locomotives of the 1400 class. The passenger coaches were forwarded to Ferrocentral and LSM (Suburban railway in Buenos Aires from Retiro to Pilar), while the locomotives went to the suburban railways LSM and TBA and to the freight railway Ferroexpreso Pampeano (Fepsa). On TBA and Fepsa, they are already working on infrastructure works. LSM will use the Portuguese rolling stock for fast trains on its Retiro - Hurlingham section. Another shipload of rolling stock from Portugal is expected to arrive at Buenos Aires in May. Especially in Rosario there is a great hope that TBA will use the new material for an improvement of its Buenos Aires - Rosario service; one round-trip per week between the two cities is simply not enough. Rayo del Sol As from April 10, 2006, Ferrocentral has doubled the frequency of its weekly round-trips between Buenos Aires and Córdoba from one to two services. Despite previous speculations, no Portuguese rolling stock is used for these trains. Rather as a surprise, Ferrocentral appointed some workshops (Alta Córdoba, Rosario and Junín) to overhaul rolling stock which was in custody of the Córdoba province. Also, Ferrocentral has announced to change the schedule of its Buenos Aires - Tucumán service at the end of May but it is still unclear if this means the introduction of additional frequencies. Temuco – Puerto Montt The newly re-inaugurated passenger train from Temuco to Puerto Montt did not have the fortune on its side. The new offer was accepted very well by the local users, however, the 2-coach railcar which was purchased at a quite high price and in freshly renovated state from the spanish RENFE broke down after a couple of days only. Bathrooms and air condition equipment could be fixed by EFE employees, but when a train with about 180 passengers (with 138 seats available!) broke down on a level crossing, the Spanish technicians had to be called. Their conclusion: the train had been overloaded, under no circumstances would the railcars bear more than 138 passengers! In the middle of the summer high season in January, the train service had to be cancelled during 3 days and all the intermediate stations had to be quickly equipped with booking offices. Immediately, only passengers holding seat reservations were accepted (in regional trains!). This measure reduced the demand for this service over a couple of weeks as the people only gradually accepted this change. After protests by the city of Victoria, the services to and from Puerto Montt were extended from Temuco further north to Lautaro and Victoria at the beginning of the winter schedule at the end of March. A maintenance facility for the railcars was established at Victoria; it will also serve the railcars for the Antilhue - Valdivia trains. This line is currently being renovated. Infrastructure works The new 3-year plan of EFE can be kept in force thanks to the political continuity having reserved huge sums for the infrastructure. Large construction work will be executed in the winter of 2006 south of Santiago, in particular between San Fernando and Talca. It comprises track renewal and a completely automated signalisation system. As from 2007, the trains will run at a significantly higher speed; travel time from Santiago to Chillán will be less than 4 hours. Winter schedule As usual, the winter schedule is somewhat less dense, however, there are 10 daily round-trips between Santiago and Chillán; 2 of them continue via Concepción to Talcahuano and one (overnight only) to Temuco. The day train to Temuco only runs in summer and on some peak days in winter. On top of it, there is an additional round-trip between Santiago and Talca (daily except Saturday to Talca and daily except Sunday to Santiago). All this seems to be the highest level of frequencies offered in long-distance passenger service in Latin America within at least 25 years! The railbus (meter gauge) between Talca and Constitución is again running twice daily; while the regional trains "Corto de Laja" cover 6 daily round-trips between Hualqui (terminal of the BioTren suburban trains from Talcahuano and Concepción) and Laja, one of them continuing to Renaico. Safe railway and other figures Until 31st of December 2005, 980 days had passed without one single accident in passenger transport of EFE. Within this period, more than 22 millions of passengers were carried. In 2005, 486.6 km of track were fenced. Between 2003 and 2005, 16 stations were reopened and completely refurbished for this purpose; another 55 have been modernised. The suburban railway of Santiago called "Metrotren" continuously carries more passengers: in 2003 the figure was 7.246 millions, in 2004 7.516 millions and in 2005 it rose to 7.757 millions. After the purchase of 12 locomotives of the DF7G-C class in China - they entered service at the end of 2005 - the state leader Fidel Castro himself announced that another huge order will be placed in the Asian country. In 2006, 7000 buses, 100 diesel locomotives, passenger coaches and freight wagons will follow. The Caribbean country intends to enhance the entire transportation system. As Venezuela provides petroleum (in exchange, Cuba sends medical doctors) and China purchases everything which the island produces, sending vehicles of all kinds to pay for it, Cuba is drifting away more and more from the western hemisphere. Unfortunately, there are already reported some incidents when western (European) railway enthusiasts were not so welcome as before. The times are changing! With FCCA to Huancayo, yes or no? As a "New Year’s present", FCCA announced: "As from April 13 we will travel EVERY WEEK until the end of November to Huancayo!" The people in charge asked for help to make publicity for the train. Of course, the Fahrplancenter immediately put the information on its internet page and contacted many customers individually. The bookings started coming in, but what happened in March? Suddenly, an e-mail from Perú arrived, informing that the coaches of the trains had to be equipped with new seats; therefore, the train would be running only as from May 19. Enquiries in Lima confirm this. So, the potential passengers had to be informed that their Easter trip by train over the Andes would not take place. This means many activities for the people concerned with cancelling flight tickets etc. All enquiries asking if it would be possible to connect a coach to one of the freight trains were answered negatively from Lima. Everything seems to be definitive. Of course, Inti Tours, Incas del Perú, the Fahrplancenter and others insist in order to bring FCCA to fulfil its promises, but no chance - until… In the last days of March, a message arrived saying that the train will run on April 13! But this would be the only run, after that the coaches must be withdrawn in order to install the new seats (the new, significantly higher fare needs its justification…). For the only April train, the fare of 2005 still applies. Well - it seems like FCCA will comply with the new program; however, there is a lot of damage done. Almost 170 people only from the Fahrplancenter clients are concerned, and some of them consider taking legal action against FCCA as they suffered in 2004 and 2005 from short-term cancellations. RAILWAY BLOSSOM IN SOUTH AMERICA! The (re-)openings continue! On April 21st 2006 operations will start on the historical train between Ouro Preto and Mariana (state of Minas Gerais, Brazil). Two steam locomotives of the Santa Fe class have been adapted and entirely renovated at the Tubarão shops. The track between the two cities had to be rebuilt completely as freight traffic ended more than10 years ago. The two picturesque station buildings have been renovated in original style. The schedule contains services on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Ciudad de México will see the opening of its first suburban railway line in mid-October 2006. The line will link the main station Buenavista and Cuautitlán in the north of the capital city. The same can be said about the capital of Venezuela. The opening of the first suburban railway line from Caracas to Charallave Sur is scheduled for October 15th, 2006. There are already some test runs on a portion of the line. The Tuy Medio Line, as it is also called, is becoming operative with a delay of almost 12 years. In Valencia (Venezuela) the
opening of the first Metro line (in fact a modern LRT) is scheduled for
the end of 2006.
New suburban railway lines? The national enterprise for suburban railways (CBTU) is planning to participate with the construction of some new suburban lines or to counsel some regionalised companies to start such projects. CBTU is counselling the company "Central" - successor of Flumitrens in the Rio de Janeiro area - with the reactivation of the "Barrinha" train from Japerí to Barra do Piraí. CBTU is counselling the "Metrofor" company of Fortaleza in order to convert the rail access to the port of Mucuripe into a suburban railway as soon as the whole freight traffic is redirected to the new port of Pecém. CBTU wants to co-operate with the state of Paraíba in order to reactivate the line João Pessoa - Campina Grande, over 100 km long, for passenger trains. The chances to get a loan from the Bank for Social and Economical Development (BNDES) are good. Problems in the Pantanal The firm Brasil Ferrovías BF which comprises the lines of the former FEPASA, Novoeste and Ferronorte had to file for bankruptcy in March 2006 when one of the shareholders demanded the re-purchase of his shares by BF and BF could not raise those funds of BRR5.6 millions. A court decision prevented BF from shutting down, however, the new tourist passenger train "Trem do Pantanal" could not start operating. Ferronorte continues unswervingly planning the extension of its line to Cuiabá, capital of the Mato Grosso state, and Ferroban has finally started to renovate the track from Baurú to Panorama in order to run freight trains to Panorama at the western border of the São Paulo state. However, the dice seems to be thrown. ALL/Delara has placed a bid for the entire BF network while a Chinese syndicate and another from Corea are seeking to take over the metre-gauge line Santos - Sorocaba - Botucatú - Baurú - Campo Grande - Corumbá with the ulterior motive to set a base for the transcontinental railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
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