History of the railroad in Atacama Region, Chile

History of railways,  Atacama:  p.1 І p.2 І p.3 І p.4

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Historic Railroad Network in the Atacama Region, Chile

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The distribution of the railway lines in the Atacama Region clearly indicates a decentralized regional planning of different companies and different purposes. Finally 1914/1916 all the insulated lines were connected to the longitudinal line (red line in the map).
The initial routes were extended in accordance with the axes of mining industrialization and technical feasibility. In Atacama, the following main axes can be defined:
1) Huasco Valley: Huasco - Vallenar - Pedro León Gallo
2) Carrizal Ravine: Carrizal Bajo - Merceditas / Yerbas Buenas
3) Copiapó river valley: Caldera - San Antonio, Puquios, Chañarcillo
4) Valle Chañaral: Barquito - Potrerillos - Las Animas

The often highly ramified railway systems were connected by the Longitudinal Railway until 1916.
Unfortunately, the desired economic activation of this billion-dollar infrastructure project could not be observed. The route was intended as a major activation project, but also to provide the country of Chile with a modern transport system that could act as the backbone for future economic activities.
For various reasons, the development did not proceed as desired:
The economic decline of the mining industry continued into the 40's, the competence of trucks and cars in the 60's, but also a shift of the industrial centres caused that the longitudinal track could never fulfil its real role. The planning wasn't optimal either. Cost-effective routing was often preferred, which did not permit high travel speeds.

Notes:
1) It must be taken into account that infrastructural works do not necessarily have to generate profits. As a government (in this case Chile) there are several objectives that are more important than a monetary advance (social gain): social role, connectivity, competitiveness, future projection, preventing situations of dependency, showing presence, levelling out cyclical economic variations or simply subsidizing a sector or an activity indirectl.

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