EFE Sur Talca - Constitución, Trains crossing This line was very badly damaged by the earthquake A photograph from better times!

How to reach Restaurant Sternen:

From Winterthur main station take bus No.3 towards Rosenberg, get off at the bus stop Bachtelstrasse, go across the street crossing and then go down along Bachtelstrasse towards Veltheim town centre, turn left into Löwenstrasse, and the Sternen Restaurant is just across the street from a school building.

A heavy earthquake was shaking Chile early on Saturday 27th February 2010. The magnitude reached 8,8 points on the Richter scale. The epicentre was nearly 100 km off the coast between the cities of Concepción and Constitución. So this was the first item on the agenda of the FLB Meeting on the same day, and a minute of silence was held in memory of the victims of this event. According to the demand of the FLB Members a report about the situation of the railways, 12 days after the earthquake, is given here.

Train traffic suspended until mid March, due to heavy damages on the Las Cucharas bridge and some further damages. Repairs already commenced on February 27.

March 8, Merval operated passenger trains services on two sections, Puerto - El Salto and Quilpué - Limache; these will remain until further notice.

All out of order until further notice, mainly due to damages on buildings..

Not running because of dropped catenary, vehicles not damaged.

Line 1 resumed services on the 28th, lines 2 and 4 resumed partially one day later and from March 2 on services have been back to normal including Line 4A; Line 5 resumed March 4 with normal traffic. Most damages consisted on dropped ceiling panels, damaged light systems and damaged platform edges and similar.

All traffic withdrawn until March 3, on March 4 traffic resumed from Santiago Alameda station to Nós, the 4th station south of Santiago. South of Nós mayor damages have been registered. Near Hospital station a road bridge collapsed onto the rails. San Bernardo station was heavily affected and may probably be demolished. Metrotren quantifies the loss of revenues at about USD5million per week.

On March 8, passenger services resumed with 10 services each way between Graneros, Rancagua and San Fernando.

Long sections, over 200 km out of 400 km of this line, are damaged. Near Parral a bridge was badly damaged and at Curicó there are some crooked catenary masts.

Chile has a total of 2140 km of operational railway lines, of which 1000 km must be examined closely after the earthquake. Until March 5 the Santiago - Chillán - Concepción line has been monitored and of the 400 km to Chillán, 200 km are badly damaged. Of the 70 km from San Rosendo to Concepción 43 km are heavily damaged; in some cases rails have been lifted up to 1,50 metres. On many sections the earthquake produced deep fissures in the soil and ballast dropped into these fissures and rails slipped down. According to EFE of the 150 bridges with a length of over 11 metres each, 20 suffered heavy structural damages. Overall rebuilding costs on the broad gauge lines are between USD49 and USD100 millions of which about 18% are covered by insurance. 

As seen on TV Concepción station has no visible damages, but out of the station tracks are very heavily damaged on both sides, towards Talcahuano and inland bound. The overhead catenary too is destroyed. The line to Lomas Coloradas has not suffered heavily, but the bridge across Bio-Bio River needs a lot of repairs which may take about one month. The old Concepción station building with the famous wall paintings was however seriously affected and its future is unclear.

This service is also affected because it uses the same tracks as the Biotren between Talcahuano and Hualquí. 

Not clear is the situation of this 73 Kilometres long line. This service is diesel operated and thus the interruption in electric supply wasn’t affecting it. Temuco region was less affected by the earthquake and the city of Temuco was reconnected to the electric supply two days after the earthquake. The railway lines further south will be examined until end of March.

This socially extremely important local railway was hit very hard and it is very questionable if it will ever come back into service. A decision could not yet be made. As known to date, 20 of the 88 km are very heavily destroyed, caused by liquefaction of the underground. All three rail bus compositions have been damaged. The composition which was stored overnight at Constitución was thrown across the entire station area by the tsunami. The other two trains were at Talca; one was destroyed by the collapsing depot building, the other in Talca station. The big bridge across Maule river at Rancho Astillero was heavily damaged in the foundations and can no longer be used. Many station buildings have been heavily damaged. The isolation of the villages along this line is now complete and the mayors of these towns are calling for reconstruction of the line. EFE promised at least to study the case. 

This train may not run until further notice. Along this line not only tracks have been damaged. In the Colchagua valley a lot of old churches, wine producing farms and some old station buildings have been destroyed.

After a lot of aftershocks of 5 and more points, March 11 saw again some very strong earthquakes with up to 7,2 points, according to Chilean television. The most severe shocks have been registered at Rancagua. It is not yet known if these shocks damaged more of the railways.

METROTREN has withdrawn all passenger train services from March 11, 2010, at 13.00 (Chilean time) due to the newest earthquake. Rancagua was declared an emergency region by the new president Piñera on March 11, just hours after his take over in the presidential office.

Rehabilitation of the 206 km long Arica - Visviri line was finally contracted January 31, 2010. The USD29 million work will be done by the Spanish company Comsa de Chile S.A. and freight traffic will resume December 2011.

The Talca - Constitución line saw the implementation of a third rail bus pair from February 13 on to match the great demand of passengers.

Tracks Concepción - Talcahuano after the earthquake Photo Juan Carlos Perez Neira, Concepción/Tren Rodante