Ecuador Train Crucero or Ecuador Tren Crucero

Ecuador Train Crucero

Ecuador train crucero

Train Ecuador crossing Chimborazo

To begin with, Ecuador Train Crucero won the Wider World Project or better tourism product outside Europe; this award was given by the British Guild of Travel Writers. Moreover, the Ecuador train project was initiated by president Gabriel Garcia Moreno in 1873 and later restored by president Rafael Correa in 2008, who declared the railroad a “National Cultural Patrimony.” In terms of routes, some of the most notable include the journey from Quito to Cotopaxi National Park and Latacunga, from Alausi to Saimbambe (Devil’s Nose / Nariz del Diablo), from El Tambo to Baños del Inca, from Duran to Yaguachi, and from Ibarra to Salinas.

History

Train Ecuador construction in 1873

Initially, the railroad started service with 41 kilometers of track from Yaguachi to Miracle on the coast. Later, in 1895, following the triumph of the Liberal Revolution, General Eloy Alfaro Delgado took over the railroad project. Subsequently, in 1897, the company “Guayaquil and Quito Railway” was established and began the construction of the Southern Railroad. Notably, ‘The Devil’s Nose,’ a very challenging feat of engineering, earned its reputation as “The most difficult Railway in the World.” Finally, in 1905, the train arrived for the first time at the Chimbacalle train station.

Train in the early 1920s

Photo: Katharine Brainard – www.railroadinthesky.com

1975 marks the beginning of the decadence of the Railways caused by competition with road transport and lack of government interest. 1992 In an attempt to recover the Railroads, the government of Rodrigo Borja acquires electrodiesel locomotives, however without any success. During 1993 the stretch of the Chanchán river is destroyed by the climatic phenomenon ‘El Niño’. On April 1, 2008, the National Institute of Cultural Heritage (INPC) officially declares the Railway Network in Ecuador as property belonging to the Cultural Heritage of the State.