Q24N – The Government of El Salvador hopes that the Tren del Pacífico (Pacific Train) will become a model for other countries in the region, mainly for Honduras and Guatemala, seeking to improve the transportation service to move cargo and transport people.
This work will bring jobs, tourism and investments, according to the director for El Salvador of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), Luis Rodríguez, an entity that supports the mega-work step by step.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s vision is to be a country with open doors to foreign investment. The objective is for the Salvadoran project to extend the route and establish a connection with similar works in neighboring countries, given that the Tren Maya (sometimes also Mayan Train or Maya Train) is already being built in Mexico. This will boost tourism in the region.
The Pacific Train is a proposal of the Plan Cuscatlán that is about to materialize. The Legislative Assembly has already approved the Law of Special Regime for the Simplification of Procedures and Administrative Acts Related to the Pacific Train, which will allow to accelerate the construction process of the project.
The Ministry of Public Works explained that the first line of the train will start in the west and end in San Salvador. Within this initial section, the first phase will run from the Port of Acajutla, in Sonsonate, to Sitio del Niño, in La Libertad.
Before assuming his mandate, President Bukele had that integrationist vision. Because El Salvador has an enviable strategic position to connect the Atlantic and Pacific; he presented in Antigua Guatemala, the regional project “Somos uno”, part of his Government Plan.
Rodríguez recalled that at the end of the 18th century the railway was built in El Salvador by a British company that ceded it to the Autonomous Executive Port Commission (CEPA) back in 1970. Due to the war, it suffered damage in the 1980s and was forgotten. With the Peace Agreement (1992), previous governments were able to resume the project, but chose to hide ir.
“Far from having made a decision to rebuild it, they turned into a museum (2018), something as important as rail mobility, today, put in a museum, is not worth it,” lamented Rodríguez.
For Rodríguez, the Mayan Train project in the south of Mexico, among others, that will connect with the center of the country, is a logical thing to connect with Central America, at least Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
