As part of the President’s Trains for Chile commitment, the Transport and Telecommunications Minister, Juan Carlos Muñoz, together with the president of the State Railway Company (EFE) board of directors, Eric Martin, have presented the first two of a total of six modern trains. The trains will revitalize the Santiago-Chillán service, reducing transfer times between the two cities by 80 minutes.
"I received the mandate from President Gabriel Boric to update the story of our country’s railways, providing more trains and better infrastructure. This is a task that we are committed to and is in line with the EFE’s modernization plan,” Juan Carlos Muñoz, Transport and Telecommunications Minister.
The new engines will be the fastest and most modern in South America. They will form part of the country’s only long-distance train service that currently runs regularly.
The new trains are part of a total US$70 million investment that EFE has allocated to the new railway engines. The trains are made in China by CRRC Sifang.
The new trains will undergo calibration and testing for an estimated six-month period. This will allow them to come into operation during the second half of 2023.
Details about the new Chillán-Santiago trains
With a maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour, these Chinese trains will connect the Metropolitan Region with Chillán. The journey will take 3 hours 40 minutes, 80 minutes less than the current train service.
The improved features of the new trains and their lower maintenance cost will make it possible to offer 12 daily services, six in each direction. There are currently three services in each direction, and four in the summer months.
The trains have a capacity of 238 seated passengers and will provide coverage to four regions: Metropolitan, O’Higgins, Maule and Ñuble. Passengers will therefore increase from just over 315,000 transported in 2022 to around 800,000 once the service is fully operational.
It is expected that the order of the six newly-acquired trains will be completed by the middle of the year, when the four remaining engines will arrive.
Other features of the new trains
- Automatic access and level doors. This is different from current trains, which use stairs for passenger entry.
- Bathrooms with universal accessibility. Current trains do not operate to these standards.
- Spaces conditioned for wheelchairs for persons with reduced mobility (PRM), improving accessibility.
- Cafeteria space and self-service machines on board.
- Space for bags, suitcases and other packages (racks above seats, at the end of cars, etc.), thus increasing available space.
- Reclining seats. The cheapest seats on current trains do not recline.
- Passenger information systems using LED screens and a sound system that provide information on travel conditions in real-time, similar to air services.
- Change of power supply for train traction. Automatically switches between electric and diesel mode (bimodal or BMU) in the event of failures in the electric power system, which increases reliability.
Providing Chile with an extensive train network is a wide-ranging and long-held desire in our country, and President Boric’s Government has committed to this aspiration. We continue to make progress, and today’s announcement is a further example of this.