The Transandine railway, which ran between Los Andes (Chile) and Mendoza (Argentina), was conceived in the 1870s to be inaugurated in 1910, basically because the terms of the concessions were not enough of an incentive for potential investors. Once put into service it was proven that the doubts of the bankers were justified, as the Railroad was never commercially profitable, not only because of operational and climatic difficulties, but also institutional. In order to avoid the stoppage of the trains once the government guarantees of minimum profitability had expired, both companies were nationalized, but in the 1980s they did not gave more support to the Railroad; the last trains ran in 1984. Despite this, 20 years later the governments of both countries announced the tender for the reconstruction of the Transandine Railway, in circumstances where profitability prospects do not seem better than a hundred years earlier.
Keywords:
Chile, Argentina, Transandine Railway, Profitability, International Connectivity
Author Biography
Ian Thomson
B.A. en economía y estadística de la Universidad de Manchester, Reino Unido; jefe de la Unidad de Transporte. CEPAL; autor de numerosos estudios sobre ferrocarriles y colaborador de revistas internacionales en el área del transporte.
Thomson, I. (2005). El ferrocarril transandino : un desastre financiero de cien años que todavía atrae a los inversores. Estudios Internacionales, 38(148), p. 39–54. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-3769.2005.14423
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