Ocean to ocean: Argentina is moving toward linking itself with Chile by rail and road

RIO DE JANEIRO BRAZIL – Argentina is moving forward with the plans for establishing a rail corridor between the Atlantic port of Bahía Blanca in southern Argentina and the northern Pagagonian port city of Talcahuano, Chile to create a Pacific-Atlantic link.

Under the first of the two rail projects, around 216km of tracks will be recovered while the tracks connecting Zapala, Neuquén, and the Chilean port will be expanded by 93km, reported Bnamericas.com.

The project will be jointly executed by railway corridor administrators and Chilean ports.

Neuquén Investment Agency  president José Brillo was quoted by news portal Mejor Informado as saying: “The idea is that they also advance, in what little they have left toward Lonquimay and then establish the connection with our section on the Neuquén side. There is the possibility of moving forward firmly. First, because there are four Chilean Patagonian ports that have idle capacity. Concepción and Talcahuano, to name two, are the ones with the greatest capacity.”

The cost of executing this stage of the project will be around $792m, reported BNamericas. Both Russia and China have evinced interest in assisting with the rail project.

The first stage of the train route will help hydrocarbon exports from Neuquén and Río Negro provinces, along with the mining products from Mendoza.

In a statement, the Argentine Secretary of Energy Darío Martínez said: “We are talking about building a bi-oceanic train, of being able to send production to the Asian market through the Pacific Ocean. It is an important development that must be worked on.”

The “Norpatagónico” train will be developed in the second stage while around 420km of tracks and nearly 197km of the Roca Cargas railway line will be renovated.

The Bioceanic Corridor is a separate road project between Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile. The project would at its final stage join the port of Santos, Brazil on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean with the ports of Iquique and Antofagasta, Chile, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.

The route should reduce the travel time of exports from the Midwest of Brazil to Asia and Oceania (China, Japan, India, Australia) by up to 2 weeks. With the route, part of the Brazilian production, which currently leaves the country through the ports of Santos and Paranaguá, will be exported by Chilean ports at lower prices.