Alan,
The train accident happened while I was in Ecuador in Jan 2009. The Presidental train special was December of 2008 when the new restored line was opened for a grand opening. Also the three steam locos were moved to the north to support this event. Loco #17 failed to pull the train all the way and the President had to bus ahead to Machmichi to be pulled by loco #58 into Quito on the final lap.
The train accident was a school special that was the first heavy train to operate over the restored trackage in the Quito area. The train split a switch, maybe due ballasting problems. One of the coaches with about 30 children turned on it's side. Several kids were injured but not killed. Fortunately they were not riding on top of the cars. If they had been on the top they certainly could have had fatalities.
It seems that management has gotten a better handle on the repairs than a year ago. You are correct about the SUV's that were purchased for the managers, instead of using the money to repair the track. This is now a pet project of the present President of the Republic and gets more attention than in the past. Let's hope that most of the work gets done to the track before the Government changes and decides that this is not the best use of Government funds for the new administration.
Also much of the first funds were spent on the restoration of stations, coaches and other less needed restorations than having good track. Now the money has to hold up so that they can complete the track rehabilitation project. Poor choice to spend $100,000's of dollars on stations that will not serve any major support of the railroad, other than to pay some workers to repaint and repair the buildings along the line. Some stations are neccessary, others are just being done to appease the local communities along the line. Each community thinks that thousands of tourist will stop at each stop every week to buy some of their local handicrafts.
Bolivia has done the same thing in Guaqui, Bolivia on former FCG for a tourist train. Former warehouses next to the former Lake Titicaca ferry slip have been remodeled for tourist trains and locals to sell items.
Dale
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/2010 10:04PM by DWBrown.
