Chile: Train Santiago-Valparaíso

The train, passenger and cargo, will leave Santiago, connect with the airport and continue to the city of Valparaiso. In December 2014, the Regional Council of Valparaiso and EFE approved the allocation of 150 million pesos each to carry out the studies that ended in May 2015.

The pre-activity studies were awarded to the company Geodata and started in May 2015. Although the project is still not very advanced and the route is not defined, it is known that it will be a railway that will carry cargo and passengers.

The study commissioned by EFE ensures that the project is viable and that the train could be operational in 2026.

The possibility of connecting Santiago and Valparaiso by means of a fast train that could take less than an hour between both cities is a possibility that grows.

Last May, El Mercurio de Valparaíso reported that the prefeasibility study of the project commissioned by the Empresa de Ferrocarriles del Estado (State Railways Company) was already completed and that it included three hypothetical tracings. The first establishes the construction of a parallel road to the one existing between Santiago and Til Til, and then deviate with direction towards the north and finish in Viña del Mar. There would be constructed a new intermodal station, that would allow the interchange between the passengers of the fast train and Metro Valparaiso.

The second alternative consists of a railroad line parallel to Route 68 and connecting with Placilla and Quebrada Verde, and then ending at the Port Station. In this case a tunnel would be built close to eight kilometres.

And the third corridor corresponds to a route also parallel to Route 68, but only to the commune of Casablanca. From there it would deviate towards the north, passing by Villa Alemana and Quilpué, finishing in Ciudad Jardin. Although each route has different budgets, building the train would have an amount of about 3,000 million dollars. Experts in transport and urban planners argue the importance of executing this work and also have doubts regarding the great investment that implies.