Costa Rica’s new Cartago train service almost ready

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On September 15, 2010, I posted (click here) about the Costa Rican government’s plans to introduce a new commuter train service between the capital, San José, and the nearby city of Cartago, the neophyte nation’s original capital city.

Less than two years later, the service is almost ready to launch as the latest effort in the government’s plans to establish a network linking major cities throughout the Central Highlands.

Last Wednesday the government purchased six Apollo 2400 trains (for €751,000 apiece) from Spanish state owned Ferrocarriles Vía Estrecha (FEVE), or Spanish Narrow Gauge Railways, for €4.5 million (about $ 5.6 million). FEVE also supplied identical trains (which have a capacity for 180 people) that operate between San José and Heredia (inaugurated in August 2009) and San Antonio de Belén (inaugurated in April 2011).

The Apollo 2400 features two carriages, each with a diesel engine.

At the purchase-signing ceremony, in the Presidential Palace, Vice-President Luis Liberman (one of Costa Ricas two vice presidents) and Costa Rican Railroad Institute (INCOFER) president Miguel Carabaguíaz said that the route should be inaugurated on September 14, coinciding with the visit to Cartago of President Laura Chinchilla for her participation in the nation’s Independence Day celebrations and the arrival in that city of the torch of freedom.

The trains, which will be painted white, red, and blue, are expected to enter service in October on the rebuilt railway line.

The 23-kilometer journey between San José and Cartago will take about 35 minutes, helping (it is hoped!) to ease congestion on the heavily-trafficked Autopista Florencio del Castillo.

I imagine, too, that the new train service (which is expected to cost about ¢400, or US$0.75, for the journey) might give a small boost to tourism, making a visit to Cartago an attractive sojourn for josefinos (residents of San José) and tourists alike.

Carabaguíaz and Liberman also announced that INCOFER is studying the possibility of adding a Cartago-Heredia route.

Once the Cartago service is inaugurated, the government also plans to restore the railway lines between San José and Alajuela.

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