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FLB Friends of Latin American Railways 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 Information Organ of the Association Friends of Latin American Railways 14th Year, Number 4 20th May 2010
FLB INTERNALS ITINERARY TO THE MEETING POINT RESTAURANT STERNEN FOR MEETINGS FROM APRIL 2009 ONWARDS 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. The Löwenstrasse can be found on the town map under: http://maps.google.ch/maps?hl=de&q=Winterthur,+Schweiz&ie=UTF8&ll=47.506824,8.724539&spn=0.006682,0.019999&z=16 LATIN AMERICA NEWS ARGENTINA The government of Entre Rios province plans to reopen the Paraná - Basavilbaso - Concepción del Uruguay line for passenger service on May 25, 2010. Two weekly services in each direction are planned over the 280 km line. BRASIL The Brasilian railcar builder Bom Sinal at Barbalha (Ceará state) has a bright future. Several trains are now ordered: Sobral (Ceará) 5 trains of 2 coaches each for a new urban railway of two lines, to be delivered until August 2011. Fortaleza (Ceará) 6 trains of 4 coaches each for the Caucaia line, to be delivered from July 2010 on. Recife (Pernambuco) 7 trains of 3 coaches each for the Western line, delivery Oct. 2010 to Jan. 2011, to replace loco hauled trains. Arapiraca (Alagoas) 2 trains of 2 coaches each for new urban railway. Maceió (Alagoas) 8 trains of 3 coaches each, to replace the 2 existing loco hauled trains and for reopening the section to Jaraguá port. Macaé (Rio de Janeiro) new urban railway of 25 km and 10 stations will receive 4 two-car trains. The two car trains on the Metrô do Cariri between Juázeiro do Norte and Crato are well running and passenger numbers are exceeding expectations by 20% even with not all stations opened. The CBTU systems at Natal and João Pessoa postponed the acquisition of railcars. On the other side Teresina is studying the possibility to buy railcars for the urban services and use the Ganz-Mávag trains (of which one more was rebuilt) for planned regional services to Altos (42 km) and Caxias (80 km). More cities are studying the implementation of urban rail services with Bom Sinal railcars as in Caruarú (Pernambuco), São Francisco (Bahía), Divinópolis (Minas Gerais), Campos (Rio de Janeiro), Ribeirão Preto (São Paulo) and Aracajú (Sergipe). CBTU has announced the acquisition of 10 four coach electric multiple units for Belo Horizonte and 15 identical trains for Recife. CHILE Finally repairs of the Chilean section of the Arica - La Paz railway have started. Slowly back to normality: EFE, METROTREN, Santiago - Rancagua - San Fernando The number of services is increasing slowly, and section for section journey times are back to normal. EFE, TERRASUR, Santiago - Talca - Chillán A limited service of two pairs of daily trains started end ofApril between Santiago and Curicó, and from early May on this increased to three round trips. Despite being a historical monument, the heavily damaged station building at Talca must be demolished. Since the end of April some services run again between Talcahuano and Hualquí, and two round trips are offered between Talcahuano and Laja. The line to Lomas Coloradas could not yet be opened, because work on the bridge over the Bio-Bio River could not yet be completed. See under Biotren. BUSCARRIL, Talca - Constitución May 7 railcar services resumed between Talca and González Bastias with a journey time of about two hours, due to some slow order sections. According to EFE, traffic to Constitución should resume in July.
TREN DEL VINO, San Fernando - Santa Cruz As mentioned in Volta o Trem 14-3, reconstruction is going ahead in the vineries, and on the infrastructure of the Colchagua Valley, but it takes a lot of time. There are again some trips offered to this region, by bus or small aircraft. The train will be back at some time, according to newspaper notices probably in 2011. MINAZ ceased to operate railways. The state railway FNH is operating on a limited basis: The suburban train of La Ceiba (3 km), and the tourist operation to the Cuero Salado national park. Bank interests and state subsidies are the main income from which FNH pays its 22 active staff and 80 pensioners. Further income comes from hiring out an unused railcar to a hotel for USD500 a month over the next 5 years. The railway’s CEO plans now to reintroduce the San Pedro Sula - Puerto Cortés passenger train, and he wants to rehabilitate the line with the help of the municipalities of San Pedro Sula, Choloma and Puerto Cortés. The project may cost HNL90 mio. (Lempiras) (€3,8mio.), about twice the total value of FNH. There is no date for commencing the service. Damage on the only serviceable railcar of the Tacna - Arica Railway resulted in withdrawing the service over several days. AIFFLA was urging the local government and state authorities to realise the existing rehabilitation projects. At the Tacna railway museum 56 parts of bronze have been stolen from displayed steam locomotives. The flood damaged railway to Machu Picchu is gradually reopening.
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