Passenger Trains > Passenger traffic in Chile by mode

Chile is slowly getting back to normal as far as the quarantines being eased in most of the nation.  People have followed the protocols to protect from the virus and the number of new cases/deaths have for the most part stayed flat from day one.  That said,  transport of passengers by all modes have dropped precipitously from mid-February to mid-September.  The Minister of Transport reported the following stats yesterday.   Santiago Metro subway:  minus 67.8%;  air (domestic/international):  minus 61.8%;   Rail:  minus 56.6%;  Interurban toll roads:  29.5%;  Urban toll roads:  minus 32%.  Like many places,  public transport has declined the most.   Since this is a rail site, here are the numbers of passengers, which have declined from 35.4 million to 15.3 million.   The great majority of rail travel is metro trains in the metropolitan areas of Santiago/Valparaiso and Concepcion.   Intercity rail travel is nil.  They didn't list interurban bus travel,  but that has been decimated too.  Buses tended to be dirty and dangerous (accident-wise) before C19 ever came along plus ultra low-cost airlines like JetSmart have taken much of the bus business.  JS is owned by the same hedge fund as Frontier in the US.   Same level of service too.  Full recovery of all modes is now projected for summer 2022 and that assumes a vaccine.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/20 08:48 by masterphots.

I am always interested in Chile.   I assume if you live there you have a better grasp.  Some of the articles I have read are not so rosy. 
1)  they mention the time many parts of the country were in full lock down, so enforce lockdown is not really voluntary compliance
2)  lack of transparancy and lack of testing early on, data not relaiable
3) has a history of totalitarianism probably leads to enefrocement.

Bob



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/20 09:40 by robj.

I didn't say quarantines were voluntary,  just that people follow the rules for whatever reason. As far as I'm concerned and having lived here full-time since 2009,  they've been quite transparent in the daily listing of infections,  rate of same, deaths, hospitalizations,  those on ventilators, etc.  And where people refused to mask-up in the early days,  they just ended up in quarantine for a longer period.  At any rate it's worked in the sense hospitals have never been overwhelmed and there haven't been shortages of PPE or anything else.  The social unrest, which began a year ago, has had a far worse effect on things.   That will probably continue, despite the virus,  until the government addresses some of the issues. 

Is there any intercity passenger rail in Chile?

Posted from Android

Very little.

Been about 18 months since I've heard anything about HSR between Valparaíso/Viña del Mar and Santiago. Two proposals were under review. Modest improvements are coming to TerraSur (EFE) for Santiago-Chillán, but airlines have captured a lot of that traffic.

Jimvb this seems to be the only vaguely long distance operation https://www.efe.cl/nuestros-servicios/tren-chillan/
I went on it about 4 years ago.

Today, there are a couple of round trips between Santiago and Chillan,  250 miles south.  Service by EMUs.  

Metro EMUs from Santiago as far south as San Fernando.   Concepcion area has metro EMUs.   That's it.

The Valpo HSR was a Chinese proposal, which for unannounced reasons seems to have gone away.  Due to the geography there is just no good way to connect Santiago and Valpo that would be competitive with the hour or so drive time on the toll highways.  But there are proposals to upgrade the existing line to the port of San Antonio so as to greatly increase container train capacity.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/20 16:05 by masterphots.