Quebrada de Humahuaca tourist train

The Quebrada de Humahuaca Solar Train (Tren Solar de la Quebrada de Humahuaca) is a 42 km regional tourist service that will operate between the cities of Volcán and Tilcara in Jujuy Province, Argentina. It will use the General Belgrano Railway's Ramal C that extends from Santa Fe and La Quiaca.

This branch has an economic importance due to it connects the Argentine ports with the Bolivian railway network apart from being a potentially touristic source of income for Jujuy Province so it extends alongside the Quebrada de Humahuaca, reaching regional cities such as Humahuaca, Purmamarca, and Tilcara.

The service, formerly operated by state-owned Ferrocarriles Argentinos, will be operated by the Government of Jujuy Province, and will be launched as the first solar train in the Americas, and the second in the world after the Byron Bay Train. Originally scheduled to be inaugurated in December 2023, then in March 2024, the Government of Jujuy finally delayed the openning of the service, which was inaugurated in June 2024.

Origins and first concession
Since its inauguration at the beginning of the XX century in the Jujuy-La Quiaca branch, the line (built and operated by the Central Northern Railway of the Argentine State Railway, reaching La Quiaca in 1891) was served by several passenger and freight trains from Buenos Aires and La Paz, Bolivia. When the entire railway network was nationalized in Argentina, the FCCN became part of the Belgrano Railway and operated by recently formed Ferrocarriles Argentinos.

During the process when the administration led by Carlos Menem privatised the entire railway network in Argentina, in March 1993 all the long-distance services formerly operated by Ferrocarriles Argentinos were closed or transferred to some provincial government. Privatisation was ultimately reversed in 2015 with the creation of Nuevos Ferrocarriles Argentinos.

Two years later, the national government granted Jujuy Province the Jujuy-La Quiaca branch for a period of 30 years, endorsed by provincial law nº 5,144. Although the province had committed to maintain the branch's infrastructure, it was abandoned and subsecquently deteriorated due to lack of maintenance. Damages included rail tracks theft, bridges washed away after flooding, and even buildings intruded.

Project resumed
In 2016 the government of Jujuy led by Gerardo Morales announced a project to reactivate the branch, which would be similar to Tren de las Nubes. Project include the refurbishment of the 300 km length of the San Salvador de Jujuy-La Quiaca line (inaugurated in 1908). Works began in 2017, with Trenes Argentinos Infraestructura donating 86,000 m of rail tracks and 60,000 sleepers, with the rest of costs and manpower being borne by the province. The First stage of placement of tracks and sleepers began in 2018, with 7 km within four months, with the aim of completing 17 km at the end of that year. Nevertheless, by May 2019 only 10 km had been completed.

Route changes
At the end of 2021 the government of Jujuy relaunched the project with a substantially shorter route than the original 300 km length. The new project included only the route from Volcán to Tilcara (42 km). A term of 24 months was set for works, at an estimated cost of AR$1,300 million. The Gobernor of Jujuy, Gerardo Morales, stated that trains would be propelled by photovoltaic solar energy, also mentioning that other alternatives could be lithium battery, hydrogen, or electricity.

By March 2023 the project was 70% completed, with 35 km of tracks and 8 (out of 9) bridges finished. Other works included the refurbishment of the stations, adding a coffee house (confitería) to Volcán and Tumbaya becoming a railway museum.

Rolling stock
Although the original intention was the multiple units were propelled by photovoltaic solar energy, in May 2022 the government of Jujuy acquired two battery electric units to Chinese manufacturer CRRC Tangshan. Each unit has 70 seats and can reach a maximum speed of 60 km/h.

The local Government also announced that train batteries would be recharged at solar energy plants located in the Quebrada de Humahuaca. The Chinese company had also provided the diesel railcars serving in the Belgrano Sur Line.

Service
Trains will run with a frequency of 30' from 8:00 to 20:00 hs, with an estimated travel time of 2 hours. It is planned that the route extends from Tilcara to Humahuaca, with a third stage from Humahuaca to La Quiaca.