News from El Salvador *LINK*

From the "ferrolatino.ch" website:
It has not yet died completely, the state railway of El Salvador (FENADESAL). After 10 months of an total stand-still it was reactivated, at least on the few kilometres which separate San Salvador from Soyapango. When, at the end of October 2004, a road bridge between those two cities collapsed due to flooding, they remembered the “good old train”. Since November 2004, a train composed of a diesel locomotive and 5 passenger coaches operates 5 round-trips from Monday to Friday and 2 round-trips on Saturdays. In fact an intensity of trains that hardly ever was reached on this section. This traffic will last until the end of April 2005, then the new road bridge will be opened.
As a matter of fact, things do not look good for the railways in this small Central American country. The train station of San Salvador now serves as a building material market which has to be crossed in order to get to the mentioned train. Each coach is accompanied by an armed police agent because the train passes through some of the poorest neighbourhoods of San Salvador. Although locomotive and coaches are in fair technical condition, they are equipped only with wooden benches and lack of all windowpanes. Just one female manager administrates this traffic. No other train is running on the rest of the network, and as from May it will be very silent on the railway tracks of this country.
Plus a plug for my own website: