The Caribbean Railroad: BYD’s proposal

Photo: Railroad. By: Albin Berlin. Source: Pexels

The Caribbean Train, a railroad that connects the three main cities of the Colombian Caribbean coast -Santa Marta, Barranquilla, and Cartagena- to transport both cargo and passengers, is an infrastructure project that has been in the pipeline for more than five years. This important project is part of a public partnership between the governments of the Departments of Magdalena, Atlántico, and Bolívar and is in the preliminary stages of planning and technical studies and a bidding process to evaluate the possible company in charge of the execution of the corresponding works has not yet been opened.  

In spite of this, through its representative in Colombia, Juan Felipe Velásquez, the Chinese company BYD has already submitted a proposal for the construction of the project. The representative of the multinational company met with the governments of the aforementioned departments to explain BYD’s offer for the project. For his part, Velasquez proposed an elevated system with Skyrail technology, arguing that this global trend reduces the costs and construction time needed to build a train at ground level. BYD’s plan calls for the train to move between 8000 and 41000 passengers per hour at a speed of 80 km/h. Skyrail technology also has the advantage of being environmentally friendly, in that it saves more than 8000 tons of CO2 and significantly reduces tree felling. It is worth noting that the Chinese company already has experience in the construction of similar projects in the Latin American region, including the Salvador de Bahia Train in Brazil.

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Herrera, L. (2021). ¿Cómo sería el tren que comunique a Santa Marta, Barranquilla y Cartagena?