PERU: Lima municipality is to launch a commuter train service on the railway between Callao on the Pacific coast and Chosica in the capital’s eastern suburbs in 2025, using a fleet of diesel locos and double-deck coaches withdrawn from service by California’s Caltrain.
The 19 EMD F40 diesel locomotives and 90 gallery cars are surplus to requirements at Caltrain as result of the electrification of its San Franciscoto San José route. They will be transferred to Lima for a nominal US$6m.
The planned east-west commuter service is being developed by US and Peruvian companies, including Railroad Development Corp, which leads the consortium holding the Ferrocarril Central Andino operating concession.
The rolling stock agreement was announced at Lima’s Monserrate station on November 16. US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken said ’the United States will support the city of Lima as it develops the new passenger train line that’s going to connect downtown to the eastern suburbs. The Caltrain rail system in California will contribute more than a hundred high-quality railcars and engines, and American companies will provide over 50% of the services for this project and the supplies for the project, from signalling equipment to railroad tracks to engineering and design expertise’.
Blinken said the future service would ‘expand access to reliable, affordable transportation for some 200 000 passengers every single day. It will reduce traffic and congestion. It will give more people more options to get where they need to go, faster, more efficiently. It will help tourists experience more of this truly extraordinary city. It will help workers spend less time getting to and from their jobs.’
Lima Mayor Rafael López Aliaga added that having US standard trains would improve local transport, and that he dreamt of a day when the planned diesel service could be replace by electric trains.
