THE ECUADORIAN RAILWAY

THE ECUADORIAN RAILWAY

The construction of the South railway was a task that began in the days of Gabriel García Moreno.



In 1875, 273 kilometers of the highway from Quito were concluded; a part of the passage was realised by waterway and 30 kilometers by the railway line. The construction, since then, would advance slowly. Borrero extended the line in 14 kilometers, until Barraganetal. Veintemilla arrived at Chimbo, just 5 kilometers farther. The section between Yaguachi and Durán was a work of Caamaño, with 22 kilometers. Flores Jijón continued the work from Chimbo, with 12 kilometers.

When Alfaro arrived, it was a practically nonexistent construction, whose railroads, in addition, were narrow and not the ones required.


Before the railway, the mule and the guandos - Indian that carried the heaviest loads were the energetic base for the transportation between the Highlands and the Coast, situation that helped to maintain a disintegrated society and affected mainly the disarticulation of these two regions, without forgetting the Amazon.


The Liberal Revolution, with Alfaro at the top, undertook the company, but it faced the chronic shortage of the State financiers average and the impossibility to get new external credits, while the British debt problem was not solved, that affected a lot to the Ecuadorian credit image. In addition, the necessary financial resources could not be reunited by " The Guayaquil and Quito Railway Company", company set up for the effect in New Jersey.


The 10 of July, 1899 the work started. It began with great enthusiasm, but progressed with slowness. Landslides took place one after another, especially in the spurs of the mountain range, destroying the done work. Time after time it was necessary to reconstruct the embankments and to rectify the course. The work faced financing limitations. The rocks of the “devil’s nose and ear” and the stubborness of the clerical-conservative reaction obstructed its development.

After a mammoth task, realised by Indians, black and many men brought from the Caribbean, and that received numerous victims, the goal that the locomotive climbed the mountain range was obtained.





The railroad was a reality on June 25th, 1908, one hundred years ago: the first locomotive entered Quito, in the middle of the popular enthusiasm.



The first centenary of the arrival of the trasandino railroad to Quito was marked, a public work that accomplished the historical function of integrating the national space.

The work concluded thanks to the determination of the alfarista government and to the work of thousands of black, mestizos, indian and montubios laborers, as well as to the technical and economic persistence of the contractor-constructor equipment led by Archer Harman. All the involved people had to surpass colossal adversities and challenges. Not in vain the feat was identified as “the most difficult railway of the world” and “the redeeming work” of the nation.


That 25 of June of 1908, in Chimbacalle, president Eloy Alfaro expressed that it was “the most glorious day” of his life because he fulfilled a collective and personal ideal, and he was thankful to those who collaborated “to turn into a tangible reality, which seemed from all point of view, impossible”.

The obstacles were many. To the shortage of resources and the lack of credit, a rosary of controversials were added on the work and the formidable technical challenges that provided the designing and the final positioning of his rails. The axis of the railway won finally to the imposing mountainous chain of the Andes, the second highest one of the world, and fulfilled the dream to connect the coast with the Highlands; and, to its step, it connected to a considerable number of towns and cities.




It was of gold the last nail put on the last rail, and, placed by a President Alfaro’s daughter in the morning of the 25 of June which gave practically end to the huge work construction. Immediately, the first train of passengers covered with flags and palms entered to the Chimbacalle Station and on it the industralist Mr Archer Harman arrived triumphant. Then the President of the Republic, his family and the State Ministers did a route until Chiriyacu, in this form the railway service from Guayaquil to Quito was inaugurated.

With opportunity the Police General Intendant Mr. Ulpiano Páez had prevented the traffic of cars and automobiles towards Chimbacalle to take step to the multitude that crowded itself to know the “divine monster” as they called to the locomotive.

And in that same train, his greatest integrating work, General Eloy Alfaro was taken like prisoner to be assassinated on January 28th, 1912.

The contribution of the railway to the national development and integration is undeniable. Its contribution must suitably be valued, in spite of all the problems that arose in their administration


Bibliografía:
GARCÍA IDROVO, Galo. “El Ferrocarril más difícil del mundo”
http://asambleaconstituyente.gov.ec/blogs/virgilio_hernandez/2008/06/24/cien-anos-de-ferrocarril/
http://www.asambleaconstituyente.gov.ec/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12925&Itemid=1