When I was a kid in the mid 1980s, President Alan Garcia began the construction of a 21 kilometer long elevated train track to connect downtown Lima with its southern districts. The “electric train” as it was called was to be a futuristic project, quickly moving thousands of people over an ever-more congested city. In 1989 there was a sample car of the train at the annual Pacific Fair of Lima. I remember getting on it and being very excited. “Lima will soon be like Disney World with its own elevated train,” I thought. Below is a picture of that happy day. I am wearing blue pants, standing with some of my dad’s employees. What I did not know that day was that it would take twenty-two years for the project to be finished and twenty-four years for me to ride the train.
Waiting… 1989
Finally…. 2013
By 1990 the money secured for the project was gone due to corruption and Peru’s terrible financial and social crisis. Only two or three stations had been opened. The train was useless. Pillars sustaining empty air stood along much of the proposed path. Construction resumed in 2010 and the following year President Alan Garcia inaugurated the train during his second presidential term. Construction has already began to expand the line across the Rimac River into northern Lima and studies have been done to build four more lines.
After most had lost hope that the train would become a reality, the train now moves thousands quickly across the city. This last August the fifty millionth passenger was recognized. The electric train has led Lima into a much more modern third millennium.
Buying a ticket
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Video with my cousin of the train arriving at the station
Atocongo Station
Cabitos Station (Ovalo Higuereta)
Pictures are mine, all rights reserved
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