Puerto Cabello and Valencia railway

The Puerto Cabello and Valencia railway is a defunct railway in Venezuela. The 55 km railway was constructed in the 1880s to link Valencia, then the country's second city, with the Caribbean port of Puerto Cabello. It closed in the 1950s.

Planning the railway

The project involved a climb of 500 metres, crossing the mountains of the Venezuelan Coastal Range; the route chosen involved a short coast run from Puerto Cabello to El Palito at the mouth of the River Aguas Calientes, after which the line mostly followed the course of the river.[1][2]

Gauge

The gauge was 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm). The use of a narrow gauge to help with the problems caused by hilly terrain was consistent with the principles of the engineer Robert Fairlie, who was involved in the initial surveying of the route.[3] However, it was not possible to avoid steep gradients, and a rack and pinion section was constructed at Las Trincheras.[2]

The same gauge was used by the slightly later Great Venezuela Railway, which also ran to Valencia. The two lines were originally separate, but were eventually connected.

Construction and history of the railway

Guzmán Blanco, the president of Venezuela, gave a concession to a British company to build the railway. The railway was inaugurated in February 1888 by Guzman Blanco's successor Hermógenes López.

The railway was nationalised in 1916.[4]

Stations

As the site chosen for Valencia's terminus was at Camoruco, a suburb 3 km from the city center, plans were made in advance for a tramway (initially horse-drawn) from the station to the Plaza Bolívar.[5]

There were six other stations,[4]

New railway

In the 21st century work began on a new railway from Puerto Cabello to La Encrucijada (Venezuela), a transport hub in Aragua State. The project has been planned by the State Railways Institution. The route partly replicates the former railway, but the scale is more ambitious. Among the tunnels is the 7,702 m Bárbula Tunnel, between Las Trincheras and Naguanagua, which is claimed to be the longest in South America.[6] In 2016 work on the Puerto Cabello railway was described as "irregular and marked by slow payments by the client as a result of the country’s poor economic conditions, mainly related to the drop in the price of oil." [7]

See also
  • Rail transport in Venezuela

References
  1. "Valencia (Venezuela)". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911.
  2. Carruthers, J. 1889. The Trincheras Steep Incline on the Puerto Cabello and Valencia Railway, Venezuela. Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 96 (1889):120-130. doi: 10.1680/imotp.1889.20790.
  3. "FAIRLIE, Robert". Dictionary of National Biography.
  4. Alcántara Borges, A (2018). "El Ferrocarril Inglés" [The English railway]. Notitarde (www.notitarde.com) (in Spanish).
  5. Morrison, A. "Map of Valencia". Retrieved 14 April 2019.
  6. "Puerto Cabello-La Encrucijada Rail Line in Venezuela is 50% Complete". 2008. Retrieved 2019-04-27.
  7. Guthrie (2016). "Salini Impregilo beats targets - KHL Group". www.khl.com. Retrieved 2019-04-27.
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