Train is Moving On Up to The East Side

The Costa Rican Railroad Institute (INCOFER) has promised to extend rail routes by mid-February.

If all goes according to plan, INCOFER will add one stop to the Pavas-LatinaUniversity (ULatina) train, which will run east to Curridabat, and three stops to the Heredia-San José train, all within the next three weeks.

The Heredia-San José line, which ends at the Atlantic Station in San José, will continue to Barrio Escalante and the University of Costa Rica and will end at the ULatina. The cars will run along the same tracks that the Pavas-ULatina train uses.

The Pavas-ULatina train will end at a terminal that INCOFER has yet to install, 100 meters east of the Indoor Club in Barrio Freses, east of Curridabat’s Plaza del Sol. There will be no stops between the ULatina and the Indoor Club.

Last weekend, crews in San Pedro and Curridabat chipped away asphalt and concrete to uncover 1.5 kilometers of steel train tracks that had been paved over since the lines were last used more than 20 years ago.

The extensions represent part of INCOFER’s peripheral railway ring project, which will eventually provide train service to Cartago, the old capital east of San José, and Alajuela, northwest of San José, circling the entire San José metropolitan area.

INCOFER estimates the entire project will cost $27 million and require six years of work.

–Mike McDonald