By Sebastián Betancourt
The general coordinator of the Logistics Development Program (PDL) of the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications (MTT), Antonio Dourthé, dismissed the plan seeking to reactivate the railway connection between Chile and Argentina through the central zone, specifically between the Valparaíso Region and Mendoza, pointing to a lack of demand.
The initiative contemplates an investment of USD 9.6 billion to establish a 54-kilometer tunnel under the mountain range, between Uspallata and Los Andes, offering a new outlet to the Pacific for South American production. The project, called the Longotoma Bioceanic Corridor, considers infrastructure for freight and passenger transport and seeks to position itself as a logistics alternative to connect Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay with Asian markets.
Within the framework of the Trains and Metro 2026 Congress, Dourthé explained to PortalPortuario that “at the moment there is no demand that justifies it -the initiative-, especially because it is a project that is very complex from the engineering point of view. It is not that we refuse projects, but rather we are trying to move forward with those that are more viable and that we can complete in the shortest possible time and, above all, in a timely manner.”
The general coordinator of the PDL elaborated on his approach and noted that “if we arrive with the railway when the outlet, for example, of mineral products has already been solved by other means, then we have lost.”
Dourthé stressed the importance of having adequate demand projections that allow identifying the challenges to work on to boost the freight railway sector. Likewise, the civil engineer placed the railway’s capacities to enter Chilean ports as a pending point to review.
“The first thing is to develop demand projections. Having that, we know what the gaps are. We have gaps in the port area, which we are covering with the port tenders and, after that, we need to look at the railway capacities to reach the ports,” he indicated.
“We are very lucky, we are reaching the ports of Iquique, Mejillones, Antofagasta, so there is possibility and potential to reach with the railway lines. Now, what we have to see is whether we need more capacity from the point of origin of the product to the transit toward the point of destination, which would be the ports,” said the general coordinator.
“The idea is to periodically review how this is developing and, above all, with more specific work on regional plans that allow us to see in detail what we need to analyze,” expressed Antonio Dourthé.
