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FRIENDS OF LATINAMERICAN RAILWAYS FLB PR-OFFICE: Samuel Rachdi, Bahnhof, CH-6422 Steinen SZ; Tel. +41/41/832.01.34; Fax +41/41/832.01.35
9th Year, Number 6 20th December 2005
COOPERATIVE AIFFLA FOUNDED At the meeting of December 3rd, about one third of the FLB members participated. After the election of the meeting’s chairman, Samuel Rachdi quoted the reactions and proposals of interested persons who could not attend. In the following voting, the statutes were approved with big majority. On the other side, the printing of shares designed by the artist Menel Rachdi from Huttwil was postponed to a later stage. The seat of the AIFFLA cooperative will be Zurich. The assembly elected the following persons to the Board: Peter Lais, Thomas Grell and Peter Koch. In the meantime, the Board determined the functions as this is foreseen in the statutes. Peter Lais will be chairman, Thomas Grell secretary and vice president and Peter Koch will be in charge of the finances.Samuel Rachdi was appointed PR Manager. Auditors are Markus Vollack and Samuel Rachdi. If possible, all the paperwork to register the cooperative will be handed over to the Commercial Register Office in Zurich before the holidays. This means that in the first months of 2006 the first shares can be issued. The first activities of AIFFLA will be the Tren Panamericano and the tourist train projects in Bolivia. TREN PANAMERICANO Registration of interested persons is continuing, so far 24 names are on the list, about half of them FLB members. They come from Switzerland, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. The first info was published in No. 38 of the FCN magazine. Soon, the next edition will appear informing about the negotiations of Peter Lais with the bolivian ENFE. This info will only go to the registered persons. Everyone interested in the TREN PANAMERICANO is kindly asked to register at the Fahrplancenter or the FLB chairman Peter Lais. Send a fax to +41 41 832 01 34 or email info@fahrplancenter.com or peter.lais@hispeed.ch . The tour 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. LATIN AMERICA NEWS RAILROAD SPRING IN SOUTH AMERICA! Hardly ever there were so many reopenings of passenger trains in South America at the same time! Here is a brief overview: ARGENTINA On October 31st, 2005, the re-inauguration trip of the "Estrella del Norte" train from Buenos Aires to Tucumán took place (with FLB participation!). However, the first commercial trip started only on December 5. To this date, the operator Ferrocentral changed its schedules in a way that the only trainset of this firm can make one weekly round-trip each on its lines to Córdoba and Tucumán. After an interruption of several months, a second re-inauguration of the Villaguay - Concordia local train took place. América Latina Logística (ALL) and the Entre Rios province had to execute some improvements in order to allow the definitive running of this train. BRASIL: Plans and reality In 2006, the call for bids to build the 400 km long High speed line Rio de Janeiro - São Paulo should finally be issued. The location of the line had been fixed almost 20 years ago and has approved all environment tests. Only the high costs of about US$ 8 billions postponed the execution year by year. Two syndicates want to build the line. The proposed fare of USD 50 for a single trip may prevent a huge part of the people from changing to the train as this is way too much for most of them. On the other side, the governments of the Distrito Federal (Brasilia) and the state of Goiás buried their plans for a TGV train between the two cities. Instead of it and in order to lower the costs, a diesel light-rail train running at "only" 150 km/h should link the cities of Brasilia and Goiânia. Independent from the high-speed line Rio de Janeiro - São Paulo, another line of the same type should be built between São Paulo and Campinas. Partly, the existing freight line should be used, realigned and (re-)electrified. Despite this, the cost for the 105 km long line is estimated to be more than USD 1 billion. Much more concrete is the project called "Trem das Pampas" in the Rio Grande do Sul state. The Federal Ministry for Tourism approved for the first time a contribution of R$ 1,1 million to prepare a railway line for the running of tourist trains. The train, whose steam engine (in Brasil called "Maria Fumaça") comes from Tubarão, will run on the 59 km long section from Ramiz Galvão to Cachoeira do Sul (between Porto Alegre and Santa Maria). The investment does not only go to the rolling stock; also some infrastructure work is necessary like the building of a triangle at Ramiz Galvão or the repair of the turntable at Cachoeira do Sul. The station buildings of the intermediate stations Rio Pardo, Pederneiras and Bexiga will be renovated. It is expected that 120’000 passengers use the train yearly, a figure which is realistic as passenger numbers have risen considerably on all tourist trains in the country (in some cases up to 20% in 2004!). The Tourist Ministry considers this line as a test, if it is successful, others will follow. Operation of the rain should start in December 2006. The renovation of the Ramiz Galvão station was already concluded on Dec 18, 2005! CHILE At the end of November, President Lagos inaugurated the completely renewed Metro de Valparaíso (formerly Merval), Brand new trains from Alstom run every 30 Minutes on the renovated tracks between Valparaiso and Limache with additional trains running on shorter sections. New stops were built and the connection with local bus services improved. In Viña del Mar, the trains use a newly built tunnel to cross the city. During the inauguration ceremony it was announced that this will only be the first stage. In following stages, traffic should be expanded past Limache until La Calera and later to Llay Llay. In Valparaiso, another tunnel is planned, however, the city then can not boast "the only metro with view to the sea" anymore. Shortly after, the state president had to take another (rail) trip. Biotren opened its renovated stations and started operating with modernised electric trains purchased in Spain. The branch line Concepción - Lomas Coloradas was reopened after 20 years of closure. On line 1 some stations were renamed, some moved a short distance. Talcahuano is now Mercado, Las Higueras is now Hualpén, Los Condóres has been new since 2001, Universidad Santa Maria replaces Los Perales 100 m away, Lorenzo Arenas replaces Cementerio 100 m away, Poligono is now Pedro Medina, Omer Huet is now Arroyo del Obispo but is not served, and six more stations (Gasómetro, Guacolda, Caupolicán, Colón, Fresia and Araucana) closed. In spite of some "children’s diseases", after one week the trains operated at capacity and numerous additional runs had to be added on weekdays. Like in Valparaiso, this is only the first stage. The line to Lomas Coloradas will be extended to the station of Coronel. The line from Concepción to Tomé (to the north) should also be reopened, so that in the future Concepción will dispose of a modern suburban rail system with integrated bus lines. Finally, at the beginning of December traffic has been resumed on the Temuco - Puerto Montt line. With this, it is possible to travel a 387 km further south by rail. At Puerto Montt, the trains terminate at a new station in the northern suburb of Las Palomas. There are 2 daily round-trips scheduled, they run on renovated tracks and serve 12 intermediate stops. Travel time is 7 hours; the fares are very attractive and priceworthy at about €7,50 one-way in Salon class. Only a few days after, the diesel railcars with 130 seats were running at full capacity. Before the end of 2005, 2 additional railcars will be delivered from Spain; they will run a third daily round-trip. In Temuco, there is a connection to and from Santiago. Also in this case, a second stage is already under work: in about 12 months the branch line Antilhue - Valdivia will be reactivated for passenger trains. URUGUAY On December 15, 2005 and after many promises throughout the past years, the state railway AFE re-introduced passenger trains on the line Sayago - Victor Sudriers. Freight trains always have circulated on this 36 km long section. The trains start at the new terminal of Montevideo and stop at Yatay, Sayago, Peñarol, Manga, Toledo, Pando to reach V. Sudriers. One of the vehicles used for this service is the 70-years old Brill railcar Nr. 127. Local sources report that the trains are fairly well occupied although the rolling stock did not see any improvements. We need help Do you still have the overview over the numerous projects for passenger trains, tourist trains etc. in Latin America? The list seems to become endless. In 2006 we want to conduct a study which lists all those projects. Have you heard about plans in this matter? Then please let us know! Infos may be directed to info@fahrplancenter.com Thank you very much, the PR department of FLB The Volta o Trem staff wishes a very happy new year to all its readers and the FLB members.
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