The government has spent a great deal of money in recent years in dredging the channels, placing buoys at the dangerous points and erecting lighthouses along the coast, until to-day there are more than fifty lighthouses which are regularly maintained by Chile.
What will eventually prove to be the backbone of the Chilean railway system is termed the Longitudinal Railway, work upon which is being prosecuted actively by the government at various places. When completed it is planned to have a continuous railway from Tacna, in the north, to Puerto Montt, at the south, a distance of almost two thousand miles. It has been found that wherever the railroad has been extended, development has followed. This has been especially true of the great central valley through which rails have been laid as far as Osorno, only seventy-eight miles from Puerto Montt. This line has been constructed entirely by the government. It is built of standard gauge width, and also upon the same gauge for some distance north of Santiago. Through the north central part of Chile the government roads have all been built upon the narrow gauge plan, one metre in width, because the occasional transverse spurs of the Andes, which run toward the coast, have made construction more difficult, and it has been easier to make the necessary curves by using that gauge, so that the line could be built as inexpensive as possible. At the present time nearly all of the energies of the government are being applied to the completion of this great project, which has already cost it many millions of dollars.
A little more than one-half of the railway mileage in Chile has been built and is owned by the government itself. It has not been a profitable enterprise, for it costs about ninety-five per cent. of the gross income for operating expenses and maintenance. One reason for this, of course, is that the government lines, many of them, have been built through thinly-settled territory, and where traffic up to the present time has been very light. Then, again, the charges upon these state railways are entirely too small, for nowhere can one travel so cheaply as upon the government railways of Chile. Then there is also the problem which a government must always face, in operating a public utility enterprise, that the officials, whose duty it is to look after the work, do not apply to it the same careful attention to detail, do not get as much work out of their employees as a private corporation, and are likely to take a chance at some form of graft when the opportunity affords. The question has been seriously considered by the government of placing the operation of the principal lines in the hands of a private company; in fact, one company has made a proposition to operate the road between Santiago and Valparaiso, and take for its profit simply what it can save in the cost of operation over the present cost.
In the northern provinces there are a number of railways operating from the coast up a greater or lesser distance inland. The oldest railway in the republic, as well as in South America, runs from Caldera to Copiapó. As heretofore mentioned, this great undertaking was due to William Wheelwright. It was his plan to continue this railway over the Andes, and it is said by engineers to present fewer difficulties than the one finally chosen, which was partly on sentimental grounds. It is quite possible that the dream of the American captain of industry may some day come true as development continues. It was never extended further than the first terminus, over which the first locomotive was run in 1851. The first locomotive exported from the United States was used on this railroad. A number of short branches have now been built connecting with this main line, but rail connection with the Federal capital is still a thing of “to-morrow.”
The most northern railway runs from the port of Arica to Tacna, and is only about forty miles in length. From Arica an international railroad is being built across the Andes into Bolivia, in accordance with a treaty entered into between the two countries. It will not pass through Tacna, as an independent route has been selected which promised fewer difficulties. It is only about one hundred and forty miles to the Bolivian frontier by this route, and only a little greater distance from there to La Paz. This will make the shortest and most direct route to the Bolivian capital. The contract has been let for the entire work, but it is proceeding very slowly.
Proceeding along the coast the next railway centre is in the nitrate district, where a number of short railways connect Iquique, Pisagua, Tocapilla, Caleta Buena and other towns in that district, making up a total of nearly four hundred miles. Antofagasta also has some short spurs which run back into the mineral regions, and carry the ore down to that port. The principal line at this place, however, is the international railway which runs from Antofagasta to the Bolivian city of Oruro, and there connects with a Bolivian railway which runs to the capital, La Paz. This railway is constructed upon an extremely narrow gauge of thirty inches. The Chilean section of the railway ends at Ollague, a distance of two hundred and seventy-five miles. This railway was originally built to aid in developing some of the rich mines in Potosi, Bolivia. By the aid of a government subsidy, it was finally completed in 1892. This is the largest private railway enterprise in Chile. It would be difficult to imagine a more dreary route over which a railway could be planned than the Chilean section of this railway. At first the question of a water supply for the engines was a serious problem, as the water which they were able to secure easily was so permeated with minerals that it destroyed the boilers. The concession of supplying the city of Antofagasta with water was finally conceded to the railway company, and, with that monopoly as an aid, pipes were laid for a distance of more than two hundred miles to supply the water tanks of the railway and the city of Antofagasta. The freight hauled over this road is quite considerable, since it is one of the two lines which at present reach from the coast to the republic of Bolivia. Half or more of the freight, to and from that inland republic, is shipped by this route, in addition to the product of the mines of the famous Huanchaca Company.
In the province of Coquimbo there are several short sections of railroad, all of which were constructed by the government. In all these lines total about two hundred miles. It will not be long until Coquimbo will be connected with the main line by a longitudinal railway. In the northern section of the country there are no less than fourteen different lines, and at least three different gauges of track.
The railways of the central valley from Santiago south form the most extensive system in the republic. All of these railways, with the exception of a very few branches, belong to the state, and they form a single system which unites the principal sections of population throughout that section. The main track follows the longitudinal valley from north to south in a line which keeps to the same general direction until it ends at Osorno. In its course this system crosses no less than a dozen of the provinces of Chile. Construction has been fairly difficult, and the expense of bridges has been unusually high. There are many long and high bridges, such as those across the Maule, Maipo, Mallico, Laja and Bio-Bio rivers. Most of them have been of French construction. From Santiago to Llanquihue, there are a number of cross railways which run from this main line to the ports, and also some that run inland toward the Andes for a short distance. These were built by the government in its efforts to open up the unpopulated sections. In the carboniferous zone around the Bay of Arauco there are a number of branches which connect the mines, the mining towns and the ports. It will not be long until the railway will be extended to Puerto Montt, which will complete the present plans of the government for southern extension.
There are no less than half a dozen transandine railways which have been planned, and for which concessions have been granted by the government of Chile. Two have been completed, two more have had actual work done in the way of construction and the other two are still visionary. One project, which bodes very fair to reach completion, is a railroad that will have for its terminal points the Chilean port of Talcahuano and Bahia Blanca, Argentina. It will run through Monte Aguila and Cholguan, and cross the Andes at Lake Laja. There it will connect with the Great Southern Railway of Argentina, which has already been built from Bahia Blanca to Neuquen, and which is now being extended from there to Chos Malal. The Andes at this point are not nearly so high as farther north, so that fewer difficulties will be encountered in the construction than on those transandine railways which have already been built. It will necessitate a tunnel about one mile in length only to pass the summit. Engineers who have surveyed this route report it as very feasible and strongly recommend it. It is several hundred miles south of both Valparaiso and Buenos Aires, passes through an extremely rich agricultural country and ought to be constructed before many years. It will be of distinct advantage to both republics.
Interest in railroad construction in Chile in recent years has centred in the transandine railway via Juncal and Uspallata pass, the historic route by which General San Martin led his conquering legions into that country. Its completion in the spring of 1910 was a significant event, which was duly celebrated by both Chile and Argentina. Just a half century had passed since Wheelwright first suggested to English capitalists the feasibility of a railroad across the Andes to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific, when the first train passed through the two mile tunnel that pierced the international barrier of rock at this point. Trains are now running regularly, and the interruption caused by the winter snows is at an end. This is the first line to connect the two oceans, and, to the South Americans, it was as great an event as the opening of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States. The distance from Valparaiso to Buenos Aires is eight hundred and eighty-eight miles, and the trip is made in thirty-eight hours. It is hoped by the officials, however, to reduce the running time to twenty-nine hours in the course of time.