Rail transport in Ecuador

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The rail transport in Ecuador is - apart from a few little lasting projects - carried out mainly by the Ecuadorian railroad. It connects the two populated parts of the country, the coast and the highlands. Due to insufficient maintenance of the line on the one hand and damage from natural disasters on the other hand, operations came to an almost complete standstill during the 1990s. Only small stretches were operated for tourist purposes.

However, the railroad is experiencing a renaissance since President Rafael Correa declared it a symbol of the national unity of Ecuador and decided to rebuild it. As a result, the main line from Durán near Guayaquil to Quito was repaired from 2008 to 2013 .

railroad

development

The main line of the Ecuadorian Railway ( Ferrocarril del Sur ) was built between 1873 and 1908 and connected the country's largest cities, Guayaquil on the coast and Quito in the Andes . It was of enormous importance for the development of the country, especially the Andean highlands.

Origins

After he had asserted himself in the civil war-like political crisis of Ecuador of 1859/60, the now elected president Gabriel García Moreno obtained the means from the constituent assembly to take a railroad from the coast in line with his program of political unification of the country Build Quito. In terms of infrastructure, this should connect the country's political and economic centers, Quito in the northern Andes and Guayaquil in the coastal region. Some members of the government were so enthusiastic about the idea that they wanted to forego their salaries in favor of the railroad. Nevertheless, the financing of this demanding project turned out to be difficult from the start.

It was not until December 18, 1872, that García Moreno gave instructions to sign a contract with foreign investors to build the first section between Sibambe in the Andean province of Chimborazo and Yaguachi in the coastal province of Guayas . Initially, however, there was no investor to be found in the USA and Great Britain, as more attractive railroad projects existed in the world at that time. It took months before the first material could be imported. On July 18, 1873, work began in Yaguachi.

García Moreno promised to complete the 140-kilometer route by January 1875. However, the project was delayed. On May 1, 1874, the route from Yaguachi to Milagro was inaugurated. In August 1875 García Moreno was murdered. By 1896, the line from Durán (on the Guayaquil opposite bank of the Río Guayas river ) to Chimbo in the province of Bolívar was completed.

Under Eloy Alfaro

Railway workers the day before the Quito – Durán line opens (1908)

In 1896 the radical liberal Eloy Alfaro became president after another civil war-like situation that followed García Moreno's death. In an address to the National Congress on September 27, 1898, he said: "My dream, my delirium, my only program is concretized in this one term: railroad!"

In 1897 he signed a contract with the North American entrepreneur Archer Harman , who then founded the Guayaquil & Quito Railway Company in New Jersey . The contract was highly controversial at the time. There was a strong counter-campaign in the press and a majority in parliament called for renegotiations. In 1898, parliament obtained changes to the treaty, which in turn irritated foreign investors. Harman had to raise new capital in the UK before the project took off.

The railroad was considered the most difficult in the world. In particular, the rise of the Andes on the Nariz de Pistishi, later called Nariz del Diablo (Devil's Nose), which was built in 1901, is a masterpiece. In several switchbacks , 500 meters of altitude are overcome. Due to the difficult terrain and the deadline pressure for completion, fatal accidents occurred at the construction sites. Eventually the Ecuadorian workers refused to risk their lives any longer. As a result, 4,000 railroad workers were recruited from Jamaica.

On June 25, 1908, Eloy Alfaro's birthday, the Guayaquil to Quito railroad was inaugurated and the first train reached Quito. This was followed by weeks of festivities across the country.

Further sections of the railway

In 1915 the construction of a section of 145 km from Sibambe via Azogues to Cuenca was started in order to connect the southern Andes region to the railway. The line was finally opened in 1965 and was mainly used for freight transport until 1990.

Another line, known as the Ferrocaril Norte (Northern Railway), was built from Quito to the north . It was completed in 1957 and ran from Quito to Ibarra and from there via the Primer Paso train station to San Lorenzo in the Esmeraldas province , where it came into contact with the Pacific in the north of the coastal region.

In the 1930s to 1950s, a route between Guayaquil and Salinas , mainly used for freight traffic, was in operation that was not directly connected to the Quito – Durán route. It led mainly from the port metropolis to the first oil production facilities in the country around La Libertad and lost in importance in the 1950s in favor of road traffic and was finally shut down and dismantled.

In 1900, a small isolated section in the province of El Oro between Machala and its port of Puerto Bolívar was inaugurated. This was included in Eloy Alfaro's original plan as part of a network consisting of routes from Machala to Loja , Cuenca and Durán. However, none of these routes was completed, so that the line never closed with the rest of the route network. However, a rudimentary network emerged at the beginning of the 20th century, the Ferrocarriles de El Oro , which connected parts of the hinterland of the province with its main port, from where goods could be shipped to Guayaquil by water. Until 1908, the line originally planned to Cuenca was built to Pasaje ; the railway to Loja ended at Piedras station belonging to Piñas and the line to Durán was completed in 1909 only as far as La Iberia in today's canton of El Guabo , where flooding of the Jubones River prevented further work. With the advent of road transport, these routes lost their importance and were eventually also discontinued. The name of the Avenida Ferroviaria ("Railway Avenue ") in Machala still reminds of the first section.

Operation of the railroad

The railroad only operated profitably for a few years. In 1925, the Guayaquil & Quito Railway Company finally sold its majority stake to the state of Ecuador. The route was very expensive to maintain, mainly due to rainfall, landslides and floods, which often hindered traffic, especially in the Andean region. The damage was often only sparsely repaired and fundamental renovations were not carried out for decades.

Although the journey was arduous and the wagons were often very full, the railroad was very important for the transport of goods and workers. Until then, goods were mainly transported by donkeys, but also by horses, mules and llamas. Even after the inauguration of the railway, the donkey remained competitive. Automobiles in large numbers did not appear until the banana boom of the 1950s.

By El Niño , the railway line was badly damaged in 1998, it not that more could be completely busy. Unlike in other countries, however, the railway was not completely abandoned or dismantled. Small sections of the route remained in operation as tourist routes. In particular, the tourist heart of Alausí - Sibambe ( Nariz del Diablo ) enjoyed unbroken popularity. A special feature was that tourists were allowed to ride on wagon roofs there.

reconstruction

Under President Rafael Correa , the entire network was restored. For this purpose, the Empresa de Ferrocarriles Ecuatorianos (EFE), organized under private law, was transferred to a public company in 2009: Ferrocarriles del Ecuador Empresa Publica (FEEP).

First, the section from El Tambo to Baños del Inca was put into operation on the side route to Cuenca. The opening of the line from Quito to Latacunga followed in several stages . A section of the coast was also opened in October 2010: the Durán – Yaguachi section. Work then concentrated on the Riobamba – Bucay section, with the Alausí – Sibambe ( Nariz del Diablo ) section being put into operation at the beginning of 2011. In October 2012 the Riobamba – Colta line went into operation. At the end of December 2012, the entire highland route from Quito via Latacunga, Ambato, Riobamba to Guamote was opened. At the end of January 2013, the rest of the main route followed (from Guamote via Alausí, Huigra, Bucay, Milagro to Durán).

The line in the north (Ibarra – Salinas) has also been repaired. At the beginning of 2015, the Ibarra – Otavalo line was restored.

In addition to the repair of the track systems, the train stations and stations were restored. A technology transfer is also taking place with the Spanish railway company FEVE. In the course of this, the Ecuadorian Railway received some modern cars. Most of the existing diesel locomotives were repaired.

According to its own information, the Ecuadorian Railway operates 32 stations and 5 workshops. It has 8 diesel locomotives, 7 steam locomotives, some rail buses and 24 passenger cars .

Current operation

Current rail network in Ecuador

Rail buses and trains are currently running according to schedule

Since June 2013, the Tren Crucero, a tourist panoramic train , has been running on the route from Durán near Guayaquil to Quito. The journey takes three days, but the overnight stays are not on the train, but in hotels. The train is pulled by steam locomotives over two short sections.

Ferries

Not as a rail-based means of transport, but as an important part of the railway line, a passenger ferry is operated between the commercial metropolis of Guayaquil and the southern end of the railway line in Durán, which connects the cities west of the Río Guayas to the railway.

Trams

Tram in Guayaquil

Ferrocarril de Aduana de Guayaquil

The first horse-drawn tram was opened in Guayaquil on July 20, 1873 . From 1909 steam-powered trains were used on some lines, but they were not very popular because of the smoke and noise.

In 1904 the company Empresa de Luz y Fuerza Eléctrica (ELFE) was founded to supply Guayaquil with electricity. In 1906 the ELFE received permission to operate an electric tram . The first lines opened in 1910. Horse trams, steam trains and electric trains ran parallel until the 1920s .

In 1925 ELFE was bought by the American Electric Bond And Share Co. (Ebasco). This founded the Compañía de Tranvías de Guayaquil, which took over the operation of the trams. In 1927 there were 18 electric trams and 10 trailers on a 13 km network. In the 1930s, the last horse and steam trains disappeared. The electric railways were also discontinued around 1950. Since then, local public transport has been used with diesel buses.

Tram in Quito

In Quito there were also plans to set up a horse-drawn tram, but these were never realized due to the uneven topography and the large cobblestones.

When the railroad came to Quito in 1908, a connection between the station in the very south and the city center was necessary. For this purpose, the Quito Tramways Company (QTC) was founded. Construction work began in 1911, and on October 8, 1914, the tram connection between the station and the city center was inaugurated. There were two lines: one from the train station to downtown and the San Diego Cemetery, and one north to Av. Colón, almost exactly on the same route as the Quito trolleybus today .

In 1921 the Compañía Nacional de Tranvías built from Av. Colón from a tram further north to Cotocollao. Since the QTC had a monopoly on electric railways, it ran on gasoline. Engines and chassis were supplied by AEG , but the trams were built in Ecuador. This line opened on June 23, 1923 and ran until 1928. The Quito tram service ceased around 1948.

In 1995, the Quito trolleybus was again introduced as an electric means of transport. Recently there are again plans for a light rail in Quito, the “Tren Ligero de Quito” (TRAQ). It should be faster than the trolleybus and have a higher capacity.

A metro is also under construction for Quito. This should initially consist of a line that crosses the city lengthways. Operations are scheduled to start in spring 2020.

Tram in Cuenca

A new tram company has existed in Cuenca since 2019 . Construction work on the first line began in 2012. From 2015, Alstom delivered the first vehicles. The opening, originally planned for 2016, was delayed until 2019, among other things due to the insolvency of the contracted construction company. The tram finally started passenger traffic on May 25, 2020.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Felix Schulte: A work of the century. The Ecuadorian Railway . In: Matices , Heft 76 (2013/3), pp. 33–34.
  2. ^ Railways in Ecuador on the Ferrolatino page . The railways of Latin America .
  3. ^ Gustavo Cáceres Castro: El tren de esta ciudad a Salinas. In: El Universo . July 10, 2008, Retrieved March 18, 2014 (Spanish).
  4. ↑ Datos puntuales de la evolución histórica de Machala. In: Homepage of the municipality of Machala. Archived from the original on September 27, 2009 ; Retrieved March 18, 2014 (Spanish).
  5. ↑ El tren Pito otra vez en Latacunga. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original ; Retrieved March 18, 2014 (Spanish).
  6. ↑ unknown. (No longer available online.) In: Diario Los Andes. January 31, 2011, formerly in the original ; accessed on January 31, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.diariolosandes.com.ec
  7. ↑ flickr.com
  8. ↑ Locomotoras de Ecuador serán reparadas en España. In: El Universo . January 12, 2011, Retrieved March 18, 2014 (Spanish).
  9. ↑ perfilcontratante.feve.es  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / perfilcontratante.feve.es  
  10. ↑ NN: Tren Crucero . In: Klaus Viedebantt u. a .: Around the world on rails. The 55 best journeys by train . 2nd edition Bruckmann 2016. ISBN 978-3-7654-6793-6 , pp. 118f.
  11. ↑ Documentation on Phoenix
  12. ↑ José Solís: El trole Colapso, surge el tren ligero de Quito. In: El Universo . October 2, 2005, Retrieved March 18, 2014 (Spanish).
  13. ↑ Tren Ligero de Quito TRAQ. Archived from the original on July 13, 2011 ; Retrieved March 18, 2014 (Spanish).

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