The Metrotrén (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

compound for ''metro'', ' subway' + ''tren'', '

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

') was a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

and

regional rail Regional rail is a public transport, public rail transport service that operates between towns and cities. These trains operate with more stops than inter-city rail, and unlike commuter rail, operate beyond the limits of urban areas, connectin ...

service operated by the state-owned rail company

EFE Agencia EFE, S.A. () is a Spanish international news agency, the major Spanish language, Spanish-language multimedia news agency and the world's fourth largest wire service after the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. EFE was ...

. The system started as a line between

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

and San Fernando, unifying between them the city of Rancagua and 23 other towns in the Metropolitan and O'Higgins regions. This line was first connected with the

Santiago Metro The Santiago Metro () is a rapid transit system serving the city of Santiago, the capital of Chile. It currently consists of seven lines (numbered 1-6 and 4A), 143 stations, and of revenue route. The system is managed by the state-owned Metro S. ...

at Alameda station, which gave the name to the service. In 2017, after 5 years of renovation, the service was split into two, a fully renovated, commuter service between Santiago and Nos, a neighborhood in San Bernardo, in the south of the city, and an regional rail between Santiago and Rancagua. This caused the suppression of all Metrotren services to San Fernando, a second connection with the Santiago Metro at Lo Valledor station, and the integration of the Santiago-Nos service to the Metropolitan Movility Network, introducing the railway services into Santiago's integrated public transport fares. The integration was responsible for a large increase in annual ridership, and growing demand from the public for more rail services. Since 2019, the government has announced the construction of two brand new commuter lines from Santiago, with services to

Melipilla Melipilla (Mapudungun for "four Pillans") is a Chilean Communes of Chile, commune and Capital (political), capital List of cities in Chile, city of the Melipilla Province, province of the same name. It is part of the Santiago Metropolitan Region ...

, in the south-west, and the recovery and restoration of the line to Batuco, in the north. Both of them will be partially integrated to the city's public transport fare. In 2021, EFE decided to eliminate the brand Metrotren, and establish the services as separate brands, still fully operated by the company.

History

Pre-Metrotren era (1965-1979)

The first precedents of a commuter rail service in Chile are from 1965, during the administration of Eduardo Frei Montalva, in which it was implemented a service called ''"Trenes populares"'' (''People's trains''), which circulated from Alameda towards Lo Espejo and San Bernardo in the south, and Mapocho in the north. The stations weren't established as such, and it had more resemblance to a bus stop. The services were eliminated in 1979 by the

military dictatorship A military dictatorship, or a military regime, is a type of dictatorship in which Power (social and political), power is held by one or more military officers. Military dictatorships are led by either a single military dictator, known as a Polit ...

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean military officer and politician who was the dictator of Military dictatorship of Chile, Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader ...

, because of low profitability and the

economical An economic system, or economic order, is a system of production, resource allocation and distribution of goods and services within an economy. It includes the combination of the various institutions, agencies, entities, decision-making proces ...

and administrative reformulation process that the state was having during those years.

First era (1990-2017)

After the fall of the military dictatorship, and with the return of democratic rule in 1990, pollution in Santiago became a health priority issue for the new authorities. In May 24, regional authorities declared a 4-digit no-drive days. In order to avoid collapse in the public transport, the government decided to create an improvised commuter rail service to connect Santiago with

Talagante Talagante () is a commune and the capital city of the province of the same name in the Santiago Metropolitan Region of central Chile. The word ''Talagante'' in Quechua comes from ''talacanta'', meaning "Lazo de Hechicero", which was the prope ...

in the west, and Rancagua in the south. The service was a success and it was decided to test the capabilities during the following week. Given the success of the service between Santiago and Rancagua, it was formally established in October 25, suspending all services to Talagante because of low demand. One year later, on May 11, 1991, a service to Til Til and Batuco, both towns in the north of Santiago, was created using the old line between Santiago and Valparaíso, yet the service was also suspended because of low demand. The rolling stock consisted in three reconditioned AEL (''Automotor Eléctrico Local'', Local Electrical Motorcar) made by

Kawasaki Heavy Industries is a Japanese Public company, public multinational corporation manufacturer of motorcycles, engines, Heavy equipment (construction), heavy equipment, aerospace and Military, defense equipment, rolling stock and ships, headquartered in Minato, To ...

and

Hitachi () is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable ener ...

, and exported by Nissho Iwai in 1973, in order to serve the lines between Santiago and

Valparaíso Valparaíso () is a major city, Communes of Chile, commune, Port, seaport, and naval base facility in the Valparaíso Region of Chile. Valparaíso was originally named after Valparaíso de Arriba, in Castilla–La Mancha, Castile-La Mancha, Spain ...

, and between Santiago and

Talca Talca () is a city and commune in Chile located about south of Santiago, and is the capital of both Talca Province and Maule Region (7th Region of Chile). As of the 2012 census, the city had a population of 201,142. The city is an important ...

. In 1997, the Chilean government reached an agreement with

RENFE Renfe (, ), officially Renfe-Operadora, is Spain's national state-owned railway company. It was created in 2005 upon the split of the former Spanish National Railway Network (RENFE) into the Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias ( ...

, in order to buy 16 UT-440 trains. The purchase was completed in 2001, with 4 of the units destined to the

Valparaíso Metro The Limache-Puerto train service (Previously known as the Valparaíso Metro (), and colloquially known as "Merval") is the commuter rail system serving the urban conglomeration of Gran Valparaíso, Chile. It consists of one line, long, serving ...

, and the remaining 12 to the Metrotren line. On December 28, 2000, the service was extended from Rancagua to San Fernando, and on June 27, 2002, a new station was added near the Buin Zoo. In 2006, given the crisis inside EFE after a corruption scandal that led the company to almost bankruptcy, it was decided to empower the most profitable services in order the national rail system. The Metrotren line received a complete renovation in communications, electrification, signaling and station infrastructure, as well as the rolling stock was painted orange in order to facilitate the use in other EFE services like Biotren. In 2009, the services were again changed in painting and seat configuration. During that year, the first administration of

Michelle Bachelet Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (; born 29 September 1951) is a Chilean politician who served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2018, becoming the first woman to hold the presidency. She was re-elected in December ...

left planned an express service to Rancagua, in order to reduce travel time to 55 minutes. The project was taken by the first administration of

Sebastián Piñera Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique (; 1 December 1949 – 6 February 2024) was a Chilean businessman and politician who served as President of Chile from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022. The son of a Christian Democratic Party (C ...

in their public transport master plan towards 2025, and it was decided to add another express service to Nos, integrating the commuter rail services with the public transport of Santiago, facilitating the transfer to and from buses and Metro system with the integrated fare that existed within the latter two since 2007.

Second era (2017-2021)

In 2016, after 4 years of construction, the service between Santiago and Nos was completed. The project added two, brand new lines for exclusive use of the service, renovations in electrification, infrastructure, and rolling stock, with the tunneling of every level crossing and station mezzanines, and the purchase of new X'Trapolis Modular trains, based in the

Civia Civia is a class of electric multiple unit trains built by Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, CAF and Siemens for the Renfe Cercanías commuter railway networks in Spain. The first units entered service in 2003. The Civia train concept w ...

train, to

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

. The services reduced the time of travel to Nos to less than 40 minutes. In 2017, the service formally started and it was definitely integrated to the Santiago public transport system. During this time, it was decided to scrap the plans for an express service to Rancagua because of the costs of the new rolling stock, and the service restarted in 2017 as it was before the renovations. Also, given the low profitability of services to San Fernando and the renovation work, the Metrotren stopped all frequencies to the town in 2013, letting the station only served by the Santiago-Chillan service with 2 frequencies every day. The local authorities of the towns between Rancagua and San Fernando, and the authorities of San Fernando itself had continuously demanded to the central government to restart services, specially after the effects of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, which represented a hard hit to the tourism sector of the zone. The government promised the restoration of rail services in the second half of 2021. In 2021, all EFE services, with the sole exception of the Biotren, were rebranded to give generic and separated denomination to the services. This led to the end of the Metrotren brand after almost 31 years. The services are branded now as the Santiago-Rancagua line, and the Santiago-Nos line.

Stations

* Estación Alameda, Estación Central * Pedro Aguirre Cerda,

Pedro Aguirre Cerda Pedro Abelino Aguirre Cerda (; February 6, 1879 – November 25, 1941) was a Chilean political figure, educator, and lawyer who served as the 22nd president of Chile from 1938 until his death in 1941. He was Political moderate, moderate. A me ...

* Estación San Bernardo, San Bernardo * Maestranza, San Bernardo * Nos, San Bernardo * Buin Zoo, Buin * Buin, Buin * Linderos, Buin * Paine, Paine * Hospital, Paine * San Francisco, Mostazal * Graneros, Graneros * Estación Rancagua, Rancagua * Requínoa, Requínoa * Rosario,

Rengo Rengo is a city and commune located in the Zona Central of Chile, situated in the Cachapoal Province of the O'Higgins Region at a distance of south of the city of Rancagua and south of the national capital Santiago. It was named after the c ...

* Rengo,

* Pelequén, Malloa * Estación San Fernando, San Fernando

References

External links

Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado

Metrotrén
{{DEFAULTSORT:Metrotren Rail transport in Chile Transport in O'Higgins Region Transport in Santiago Metropolitan Region Transport in Santiago, Chile Rapid transit in Chile 5 ft 6 in gauge railways in Chile