Santiago Central Station

The Santiago Central Station (originally Central Railway Station, officially called Alameda Station until May 2021) is the main railway terminal in Chile located in the commune of Estación Central of Santiago de Chile, head of the Southern Network of the State Railway Company (EFE). Opened in 1857, the station has had three different buildings; Its current structure was originally built by the French firm Schneider-Creusot. The building is located in the commune of the same name, south of Avenida Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins, between Avenida Expósito to the east and San Francisco de Borja Street. by the west.

For decades it was the great gateway to the capital from the south of the country. The station was declared a National Monument by Supreme Decree 614 of June 29, 1983, in the category of Historical Monument.

Long-distance services to the south of the country and the Metrotren commuter train departed from this terminal. In addition, it functions as a modal exchange station with the Santiago Metro, through the homonymous station, and with intercity buses from the nearby San Borja Bus Terminal. In the same area, the Arauco Estación shopping center is located, which has a hundred stores, a food court, a multiplex cinema and an underground cultural hall.

Since 2017, it has become the terminal station for the suburban train services Tren Nos-Estación Central and Tren Rancagua-Estación Central along with the Terrasur service bound for Chillán, with the platforms of the services previously known as Metrotren being completely remodeled..

History

First station

With capital approved in 1855 for the construction of the railway that would connect Santiago with Curicó plus the primitive accumulation of capital, on March 31, 1856, the Southern Railway Society was officially established. In January 1856, the construction works of the track and the station were inaugurated, from north to south, under the directions of the engineer Emilio Chevalier.

In 1857 the construction of the first station was underway, and on September 14 of the same year the first train ran on the tracks, as a route test, and the next day President Manuel Montt inaugurates the section between Santiago and the San Bernardo station in the homonymous commune. On June 10, 1858, Santiago's first animal-drawn tram departed from the eastern side of the station: the "Cañada branch" installed by the Southern Railway to transport passengers between the station and the area of the old church of San Diego. At the beginning of 1859, the iron roofs of the station had already been installed and the masonry-built offices were ready.

The first station had three large structures: a central nave that housed four lines arriving from the south, while only one left to the north. In addition, the station had two other buildings on the sides that functioned as administrative offices, a porticoed office volume, located to the east, and two warehouses that protected the platforms. Years later, two more sheds were added to one side of the first, of similar design, to accommodate the Railway to Valparaíso.

This station was the headquarter for the railway projects of the time, such as the Valparaíso to Santiago Railway (built between 1853 to 1863) and the Santiago railway to the San Fernando station (started in 1856 and completed in 1863, the which later continued to extend southward, and finally ended up being the Longitudinal Sur).

Second station

Already in 1884, the infrastructure was not up to par with the advances and development achieved; Thus, Eulogio Altamirano, first Director of the State Railway Company (EFE), presents an expansion project. During 1885, the old warehouses were replaced by two steel hangars joined together by a tower, and framed by two identical office buildings, in neoclassical style, one of which (the one on the east side) was in front of the first station, hiding it. This transformation was influenced by the then senator for Santiago and Coquimbo, Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna.

The Circunvalación railway, which linked the Mapocho station and the Yungay station in the north with the Central Station and which extended, surrounding Santiago, to the Providencia station, was built in 1897, on the then branch Alameda-San Diego. Its operations ended between the 1970s and 1980s.

Current station

Towards 1897, with Ramón García Rodríguez being the general director of the State Railway Company, the first station was demolished to expand the office buildings of 1885, generating long unitary pavilions. In addition, the two hangars were replaced by a single large steel structure, designed and built in the city of Chalon-sur-Saône by the French company Schneider-Creusot of Le Creusot, being shipped to Chile in 1897 and consisting of 990 tons of steel beams, which were assembled under the supervision of Carlos Camus, Schneider representative. The new station was inaugurated in 1900.

Part of the station and the line was burned and destroyed in 1905, with the purpose of preventing the return of troops to Santiago by anarchist workers, during the meat strike.

Since 1900, plans were being planned to eliminate the three railway lines that originated from the station heading north, along Matucana Avenue, due to the increase in human, vehicular and tram traffic, which led to in 1935 to the official layout of constructions and the survey of roads. In 1936, the construction of the Matucana tunnel had begun, works that were completed in 1944. By then, the only connection road between the north and south network of the country was through that tunnel. During the 1930s there was a detour to the current former Besa factory.

Modernization projects

In 1996, the project called "Operation Central Station" was presented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning, developed by the architect Fernando Montes and which sought to reconvert the land of the railway terminal and optimize transport intermodality in the sector. Among the planned projects was to build a bus terminal in the basement of the Central Station next to an underground suburban train station, leaving the surface level for the installation of a "National Gastronomic Center", and enabling residential buildings next to an urban park in the old maneuvering yard; On the other hand, it was planned to retract the railway tracks for long-distance services to Blanco Encalada Avenue, generating a new railway terminal in said sector and enabling industrial spaces on the sides of Expósito and San Borja streets. The long-distance train station would be connected to the suburban train station and the bus terminal in Alameda through a hectometric transportation system. The project was ultimately not carried out.

Due to the modernization process undertaken by EFE, and framed in the 2003-2005 Triennial Plan, a remodeling of a smaller magnitude than the previous ones was carried out, which essentially consisted of retracting the tracks by 50 meters, leaving a free area after the bars on the front where access to the Metro, ticket offices and seats are located. The work began on June 6, 2003, and ended on January 28, 2004, with an investment of US$3.1 million at the time.

As of 2017, within the framework of the entry into operation of passenger services to Nos and Rancagua, this station once again takes center stage in the country's railway network. Specifically, it becomes the terminal for Train services. Nos-Central Station and Rancagua Train-Central Station. However, it also houses the Terrasur service to Chillán and occasionally to Temuco, also including the tourist service Train of Memories with destinations to the south and coast of the country, upon confirmation of the service.

On May 24, 2021, within the framework of EFE's corporate image change process and the reunification of its brand, the station officially acquired the name "Estación Central", abandoning the name "Alameda".

Detail of the watch in the dome of the structure, 2012 Andenes de la station, 2012. Pictogram that identified the station in 2001.

Future

On November 11, 2021, EFE entered an addendum to the Melipilla-Central Station Train project, in which the passenger section between Central Station 2 and Santiago Central Station will be tunneled, with an approximate extension of 3.2 km of length. The platforms - underground - would be located to the west of the station, and it is planned that the tunnel will have a continuation to the north, parallel to the already existing Matucana tunnel, connecting with the Fifth Normal Station; This project has a cost of 250 million dollars and would avoid territorial disruption in the commune. It was estimated that the construction process should last 2 years.

During 2021, the president of EFE, Pedro Pablo Errázuriz, indicated that the intention of connecting the Melipilla-Estación Central train with the Santiago-Batuco train at a station is to be able to provide more transfer alternatives between these services with lines 1, 3, 5, 6 and 7 of the Santiago Metro.

In January 2023, the Environmental Evaluation Service favorably rated the underground project for the section between the Santiago Central Station and the second station of the Melipilla-Central Station Train. The underground platforms will be located to the south of the main building of the Central Station, behind the future EFE corporate building on Expósito Street.

Railway services

Current

Passengers

The Central Station of Santiago has three regular passenger services that connect the regions of Santiago, O'Higgins, Maule, Ñuble, and sometimes, the regions of Bíobío and Araucanía, using the Southern Railway Network.

Tourist trains

• Train of Remembrance
  • Tourist service between the Central Station of Santiago and the San Antonio station, which recalls the service carried out between these cities in the early centuryXX. in the branch Santiago-Cartagena.
  • Service between the Central Station of Santiago and Limache station. The tourist service traveled through a section of the railway from Valparaíso to Santiago; it carried out two services during January 2020. There has been no travel of passengers between these stations since 1996.
• Sabores del Valle Train: is a tourist train from the Wine Route of the Colchagua Valley. The service arrives at San Fernando station and has monthly exits.
• Train Sabores Wine & Sparkling: is a tourist train from the wine route to the Viña Echeverría. The service arrives at Molina station and has monthly exits.

• Tastes of Maule

Load

• Pacific Railway S.A..

Previous

Future projects

Passengers

Transportation and surrounding commerce

Since the beginning of the construction of the station in the 1850s, at that time in the western urban end of the city of Santiago, the increase in commerce was notable due to the flow of people coming from regions to the north and South of the country; This led to the development of blood cars that later became Santiago trams, transporting people to all parts of the city.

Increasing the flow of passengers, in addition to urbanization towards the south-west and north-west area of Santiago, Alameda Avenue became the main axis, leading to the construction of the Matucana tunnel, expanding Alameda and building railway tracks for trolleybuses, and later appearance of diesel buses.

The area became a commercial, industrial and residential neighborhood, building universities, places of commerce such as Barrio Meiggs or Mall Paseo Estación, operational since 1980 and owned by Parque Arauco and EFE.

In September 1975, line 1 of the Santiago Metro was inaugurated and with it the metro station called Estación Central.

The station has 11 stops of the Metropolitan Mobility Network in its surroundings, which correspond to:

Cultural impact

Since its creation, the Central Station has been a cultural icon for Santiago, due to being for a long period of time the nerve center of long-distance transportation between the capital and the rest of the country.

Violeta Parra writes the tenths «The train arrives in l'Alamea», Francisco Coloane writes «The city under the trains», Nicanor Parra writes in his Hojas de Parra collection of poems the poem «Central Station» and «Instant train project (between Santiago and Puerto Montt)».

In 1990 the Chilean rock band Los Prisioneros released the song "Tren al sur", which has scenes filmed at the railway station in its video clip.