The Vía Central Group will carry out tests on the freight transport routes, which are already in their final stage.
The works of Central Railway The last stages are already advancing and, soon, the new cargo transport that will link Montevideo and Centennial Town as a transit alternative for the mobilization of products in Uruguay —in principle, exclusively for UPM—, will begin to circulate temporarily on the tracks. Because?
The announcement was made by the Via Central Group, concessionaire of the long-awaited railway project that has been delayed for almost a year in its inauguration. The group warned residents of the areas where the tracks cross that, in the coming days, there will be “increased traffic.” The reason is because rehearsals by future operators will begin, as the countdown—apparently definitive—for the Central Railway start working, move forward.
“Grupo Vía Central informs the population that a series of use tests by the future operators of the new infrastructure built,” the concessionaire said in a statement.
In that sense, the text indicated that the affected areas of the road “are being subjected to a major traffic than expected” in future cargo transportation. Given this, they asked the population to take the necessary precautions.
As detailed in the statement, the tests include the signage of the different crossings, which are already installed “in 100% of them.”
When will the Central Railway officially start functioning?
Just as the engineer had anticipated Luis Ceiter, advisor to the Ministry of Transportation and Public Works (MTOP)in January, the Central Railway is expected to be operational in April and fully operational by the end of the first half of the year.
“We are convinced that this is going to be a before and after for the transportation of Uruguay. The railway mode is going to burst into our country with another dynamic, with another reality, with other volumes of cargo and it will be a different way of operating, in which there will no longer be a place for that old train,” the member of the railway management committee, also highlighting the modernization of the railway mode and the lower pollution of this transport.
Through the paths of Central Railway —works for which the railway freight transport activity was stopped— seven locomotives and 140 wagons will pass only to transport the merchandise of UPM, In the first moment. The company will make about six trips per day, that is, between 21 and 31 trips per week.
Still, there is capacity for other companies to use it, and there are already several private sector stakeholders negotiating with the government to use the rail infrastructure.
Source: Ambito
