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FRIENDS OF LATIN-AMERICAN RAILWAYS FLB / AIFFLA PR-OFFICE: Samuel Rachdi, Bahnhof, CH-6422 Steinen SZ; Tel. +41/41/832.01.34; Fax +41/41/832.01.35 
Patagonia soon without steam train? El Maitén Workshop 1989, Foto Archiv FC . VOLTA O TREM Year 7, Issue 2 25th April 2003
FLB / AIFFLA INTERNAL NEWS 19 people attended the Annual General Assembly on March 1, 2003 at Steinen Railway station. Minutes from the chairman and the different officers were presented rapidly and were unanimously approved. Some discussion was caused by the motion from Líneas Férreas Uruguayas about financial help to restore a former Argentine Railways Diesel railcar, which should be used as soon as possible on the Florida - Kilómetro 329 line in Uruguay, when this line will again open for freight traffic. Members voted for payment of this help after proof of scheduled progress. The amount will be paid in 3 parts. Chairman Peter Lais is in permanent contact with the LFU people at Montevideo. FLB/AIFFLA is now represented in North America by a Membership Officer, Oscar Jalice, former staff member of Cuban Railways UFC. Oscar is a big fan of AIFFLA, and he wants to help our organisation as much as possible. He also is maintaining some relationships with Cuba which may help us to get more information about this country. He fears also that Cuban Railways will suffer hardly if one day the socialist regime will end, and he hopes that AIFFLA will be able to demonstrate then how the railways of Cuba could be saved. With AIFFLA now entering North America, more publications may be edited in English, as it is the case with this issue of Volta o Trem. In April 2003 the Comisión Organizadora del Centro de Estudios Ferroviarios - Ferroclub del Sudoeste Bonaerense was founded at Punta Alta in the Argentine province of Buenos Aires. This organisation aims to rehabilitate trains services and to promote the use and expansion of railways. AIFFLA Chairman Peter Lais is in contact with this new organisation for the exchange of ideas. ARGENTINA What happens with La Trochita (the Old Patagonia Express)? The economical crisis is hitting also Chubut province hardly. There is no longer money available to maintain the infrastructure of the El Maitén - Esquel line. Hopes that the Benetton company, which owns an estate along the line, is investing in the railway have dwindled. Rio Negro province neither has money to rehabilitate their part of the line in the near future from El Maitén to Ñorquincó and Ingeniero G. Jacobacci. All the state programms for job creation or monuments maintenance have been heavily reduced and are not sufficient. During 2002/2003 season domestic tourism has seen a great decline. Foreign tourists have not visited the region because the short parts of the line from Esquel to Nahuel Pán and out of El Maitén, which are worked with Charter trains, are not worth to undertake this long trip from outside Southern Argentina. Soon the province may reduce the number of staff, which may hit further possibilities for rehabilitation. AIFFLA will observe the development closely. Soon again a state owned railway? There are some news which may bring in this hope, and probably several rail companies may arise. The government under President Lula is looking to rehabilitate some long distance passenger services on the most important rail corridors of the country. But this will probably not end up in a real network, but for administral purposes it may be something similar to a "Brazilian Amtrak". Such a solution looks pretty reasonable. On the other side, Mato Grosso do Sul state undertakes serious steps to take over all railway lines on its territory, and they can count on the help from the federal government at Brasília. The current concessionaire Novoeste, which operates the Baurú - Campo Grande - Corumbá and Campo Grande - Ponta Porã lines, has not met the contractually fixed investment goals in its nearly 10 years old history. Since Novoeste’s merger with other São Paulo based railways to Brasil Ferrovías, freight volumes reached former Federal Railways level between Baurú and Campo Grande only. Mato Grosso do Sul state has now asked the federal government to take the Campo Grande - Corumbá and Ponta Porã lines out of the concession of Novoeste/Brasil Ferrovías and to transfer these two lines to the state. The state is willing to invest own money and the income from trackage right payments coming from Bolivia’s FCO which runs through to Brazil and from Brasil Ferrovías, to rehabilitate both lines and reopen them for passenger traffic. Some stainless steel passenger coaches of the former "Bandeirante" train (Campinas - Brasília) have been found in São Paulo state, and may be renovated at reasonable cost. With this rolling stock a new "Pantaneiro" train may be formed to serve the lines to Corumbá and Ponta Porã on a weekly basis. Reintroduction of passenger services on these lines has very high priority, as tourism has decreased by 60% since withdrawal of passenger trains and depopulation has reached an insupportable level. Seven municipalities have been extinguished and others lost up to 80% of their population. Several local initiatives tried to reactivate the train, such as the cities of Aquidauana and Miranda and others, but none of them had the money needed for this and Novoeste’s opposition against those plans was too strong. 
Terrasur service, the fastest long-distance passenger trains of Latin America ! Photo EFE Chile Chilean railways EFE are further growing: On 10th March 2003, EFE has introduced an additional Terrasur electric multiple unit between Santiago and Chillán. This new service offers, apart from two others, a rail/road combined service between Santiago and Concepción, bringing the number of connections between both cities, including the overnight train to 4 each day, which are available with through ticketing. Apart of the two overnight trains to Concepción and Temuco, passengers can now choose between several daily departures of Terrasur services from Santiago Alameda to Chillán at 07.45, 09.45, 12.45, 16.45, 18.45, returning at 07.45, 09.00, 13.45, 15.45, 17.45, with a journey of 4h15. In addition EFE introduced two local railcars between Santiago and Talca, leaving the capital at 11.45 and 19.55 and from Talca at 07.15 and 16.30. Talca has now 9 trains a day to and from Santiago! The closely observed Buscarril service on the metre gauge Talca - Constitución branch line continues to run up to two services each day in both directions. During the Easter holiday, EFE had a lot of additional passengers, the Santiago - Talcahuano overnight railcars have been doubled and the Temuco train got additional carriages (sleepers and sitting accommodation). EFE long distance and Metrotren services transported together 91’000 passengers in 5 days Even if we keep receiving bad news from there, the railway is still alive. Incofer runs a passenger service (round trip) every Saturday and Sunday between San José and Caldera on the Pacific line. At Caldera a connecting road service to Puntarenas is offered. Freight traffic has been revamped, especially on the Atlantic network. Apart of cement, also bananas, fertilizer, agricultural products and manufactured items are more and more conveyed by train. It has proven very clear that the road network does not meet the demand for transportation of all goods. Despite great efforts of the staff the run down of the infrastructure is going on. All electric traction has been abolished. The government is still looking for privatisation, in spite of all those quite curious consortia which bid for rail concessions. Privatisation rules are still very favourable to private companies. Traffic may remain unchanged until privatisation; and a new complete shut down, as it ocurred a few years ago, may not happen again. For interested people: "El Yayabero" is the name of the train Habana - Sancti Spiritus, which runs every second day; it is formed completely of coaches from the former German State Railways (DR of the German Democratic republic), all still in original colours but without the DB logo. The following compositions of passenger trains have been reported from Cuba in the time since november 2002: "Tren Francés" (French train) now daily Habana - Santiago, all of air conditioned stainless steel cars of former Trans-Europe-Express rolling-stock. Habana - Artemisa, several daily services formed with ex-DR (East German) railbuses still in original livery. North of Santa Clara (mostly on Sagua services) "Canadian trains" formed of VIA-Rail blue-yellow coaches and Canadian National red-white-black locomotives. Habana - Cienfuegos via Santo Domingo Budd Diesel railcar ex-VIA Rail Canada. A few services are run with ex-Nacionales de Mexico coaches, but not with Mexican locomotives, because these are used in freight traffic. At least one Fiat Argentina railcar was rebuilt and repainted in blue and white; it is used on the Habana-Morón service and for special Habana - Santiago trips (then a Budd Railcar runs to Morón). Some trains are still formed of Argentine built coaches only, some still with running air condition. At the end of 2002 passenger traffic between Sonsonate and Armenia was suspended. Therefore, the mixed train between Texis Junction and La Toma is the only survivor as a regularly running train in the country. There are now news that the entire railway should be sold for 50mio. US$. This in contrast to governmental statements still published mid-2002 that the railway should remain state owned. Most parts of the network are served only by special trains. The suburban sections from San Salvador to Apopa and Soyapango can’t be used because squatters boothes are reaching the trains loading gauge. A solution to relocate this people has not been found yet. Furthermore the westerly sections Santa Ana - Ahuachapán, Metán - San Jerónimo (border station to Guatemala) and Sonsonate - Acajutla are in such bad shape that they can’t longer be used without risking a derailment. Because of some still not removed war damage on the Panamericana road, the Soyapango - San Miguel - Cútuco - La Unión line has partly been used to relocate the road provisorially. Rail traffic is thus heavily hindered. But there are just 2 or 3 trains a month using the line to Cútuco.
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