QCOSTARICA – by Michael Miller – A Costa Rican passenger train derailed early Christmas Eve morning. And it happened on one of San Jose’s busiest streets.
One of Costa Rica’s Incofer commuter trains ran off the rails at about 6:30 a.m. on Thursday morning. The accident occurred in front of the KFC outlet on Avenida 2 in the Barrio Escalante section of San Jose, on the east side of the downtown core.
According to train Brakeman, Carlos Sibata, there were no injuries.
The train was on the connector line that runs between San Jose’s two train Stations, the Atlantic Station and the Pacific Station. Much of this stretch of track runs alongside, or down the middle, of the city’s streets.
The derailment happened on a section of the line that literally runs up the center of Avenida 2, the main thoroughfare between Central San José and San Pedro. The train was traveling eastbound, up the hill when the accident happened. It went off the rails and slid into the oncoming westbound traffic lane on Avenida 2.
Fortunately, since it was Christmas Eve morning, there was very light automobile traffic, and no cars were hit. On a more typical business day, this street would have been teeming with cars and buses during the rush-hour traffic.
Mr. Sibata told us that there were only 8 passengers on board the train at the time of the accident, and no one was injured. All the passengers safely got off the train and found other transportation to their destinations.
The train was traveling at a very slow speed, as it always does on this section of track, and was quickly brought to a stop by the engineer.
Michael Miller is the author of the first and only guidebook that focuses on Downtown San Jose, titled: The Real San Jose.
