The party lasted for four days when on 25th June 1908 the train chugged its way in to the Ecuadorian capital. The streets and tracks were adorned with giant arches of palm fronds and laurels, like the arrival of a king.
For this big day to take place, a lot of blood, sweat and tears had been shed since the beginning of the project over 30 years earlier – from 1874 when the first locomotive arrived at Milagro in the province of Guayas, through to 1899 when the liberal president, General Eloy Alfaro made the construction of one of the most greatest infrastructure, transport and commercial projects in the country’s history a national priority.
And so the railway became the dream of tens of thousands of workers and ordinary Ecuadorians. Bit by bit. Rail by rail. From the coastal plains to snow-capped peaks, the train united the coast and the Andes, thus creating a truly united Ecuador for the first time in its history.
But time passed, and various stretches of the route fell into disrepair and eventually, ruin. Maintaining the challenging engineering system became increasingly difficult and expensive. The train and railway operators had to look elsewhere for work as the skills they had dedicated their lives to applying became obsolete. The giants fell into a deep slumber.
From Sleep to a New Dawn
But three decades later, the trains are waking to a new dawn in rail travel in Ecuador. Today, the tracks are ready to receive the roaring engines, the stations renovated to receive travellers from every corner of the globe, and the bells and horns readied to call out the crossings as the locomotives wend their way through the most beautiful landscapes imaginable. Machinists, brakemen, coalmen, engineers, controllers and sandboxers are once again reaching for their hats, as children wave them on their way through the countryside.
The Ecuadorian Railways (
EFE,
www.efe.gov.ec ) in May 2009 re-launches the
“most difficult railway in the world”, following an investment to date of $14 million.
The train rehabilitation project encompasses the whole country, but has focused initially on the stretch connecting Quito with Latacunga, 100 km to the south of the capital. The work will continue to connect Latacunga with Riobamba, linking the dramatic stretch of line, known as the Devil’s Nose, which descends down from Riobamba as far as Sibambe. From there, the track splits. One branch heads southwest towards Durán on the coastal plain (a short drive from the city of Guayaquil), while the other carves its way southwards through the mountains to Ecuador’s third largest city, Cuenca.
There is also a branch that runs north of Quito towards the provincial capital of Ibarra in Imbabura Province. However that track will take some time to repair. In the meantime, the branch which runs from Ibarra northwest to the coastal town of San Lorenzo is working in part, with a service at weekends as far as the small town of Salinas.
The Quito-Latacunga route will initially run only on Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays, using the ‘autoferro’ train (which is effectively a bus on rails). See our Trains Times page for more information.
20°C 
