On Tuesday, a train arrived at the port of Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, for the first time in years. The cargo was tons of pulp from the Finnish forest giant UPM.
In the South American country’s media and public debate, the huge railway project has been named “UPM train”. Activists who oppose it and the Finnish company also call the railway by this name.
UPM and the Uruguayan government do not sign the nickname, but emphasize that the renovated railway will also be used by other companies and even passenger traffic.
However, without UPM, the new railway would not exist.
When the company decided to build its new pulp mill, Uruguay committed to building a railway that would take the pulp from the countryside 273 kilometers to the port of Montevideo and from there to the world market.
– It has been said that the British brought the railway to Uruguay, and now the railway is making a comeback with the support of the Finns, says Gonzalo Giambrunowho is UPM’s director of industrial logistics in Uruguay.
Britain was largely responsible for the ownership and operation of Uruguay’s railways until the beginning of the 20th century. Since the end of the last century, there has been no train traffic in Uruguay, and the railways have fallen into disrepair. That is about to change now.
For geographical reasons, the renewal of the railway was a threshold issue for UPM to build a new mill, so that its pulp can be efficiently transported to the port and from there on to China, the United States and Europe.
– Uruguay is located really far from the main market. The railway connection brings us the competitiveness, reliability and safety we need. The railway is completely different from truck transport, Giambruno tells in a video call.
The price tag rose to the level of a pulp mill
The railway was supposed to be in working condition already when the pulp mill was completed a year ago. However, the railway project was delayed by a year, and during that time the pulp has been transported to the harbor by trucks. Pulp trains will gradually replace pulp trucks during this year.
UPM and the Uruguayan government modified their agreement in such a way that Uruguay did not have to pay compensation to the Finnish company if the new schedule was kept.
The railway project had already turned out to be much more expensive for Uruguay than initially estimated: the 900 million dollar budget swelled to almost 3 billion dollars over the years.
So Uruguay has put roughly as much money into the railway as UPM invested in building its new pulp mill.
This has been brought up by activists who accuse their government of making a bad contract with a Finnish company. According to them, the train is specifically a “UPM train” because the renovated section of the railway runs directly from the pulp mill to the company’s port terminal in Montevideo.
In addition, UPM uses 50 percent of the railway’s capacity, and its cargo has priority in rail traffic.
Passenger traffic far in the future
Other use of the railway is minimal, at least initially. Focusing on exports, Uruguay plans for the network to expand and more and more national companies to transport their products to the port of Montevideo by rail.
– This is a very expensive project for our country, but in the long term its effects will be very good, says an expert from the Uruguayan Ministry of Transport, who works in the rail project’s management team Luis Ceiter To .
The railway project is quite popular in Uruguay. Over the years, UPM has conducted opinion polls at a local research institute, according to which about 80 percent of citizens consider it a good thing.
The positive attitude towards the train is partly due to nostalgia and the fact that people hope that passenger trains will connect the countryside with cities in the near future. This is what the researcher thinks Javier Takswho leads a sustainable development research project at Uruguay’s largest university, the Universidad de la República.
– I don’t think that passenger traffic will materialize in the near future or even in the medium term, Taks tells .
The government is investigating the possibility that passengers could travel 60 kilometers from Montevideo on hydrogen trains, says Ceiter, a representative of the Ministry of Transport. The survey work is only in its initial stages and the first decisions can be made in two to three years.
Concern for safety and the risk of suicide
In the meantime, much more topical discussions are taking place at the civic level about the effects of the railway.
For people living near the track, the arrival of busy train traffic is a big change. UPM and the government are running a joint awareness campaign, which advises people to exercise caution near the railway.
– The whole society needs to get used to what it’s like to live with a new, modern railway, UPM’s director of logistics Giambruno says.
In some places, the trains run very close to people’s homes. Many residents of the trackside have been worried about possible chemical leaks and the fact that the always passing trains could cause damage to the foundations of the buildings.
UPM and the Uruguayan government assure that the safety of the railway and trains is at the level of European standards. The German Deutsche Bahn, among others, is responsible for operating the trains.
University researchers surveying the thoughts of the residents of Radanvarre also came across a concern that surprised them: that train traffic would increase the risk of suicides.
The concern was raised by residents who remembered similar incidents 30 years ago, when trains last ran on the tracks. Suicides in Uruguay the number is more than double than the Latin American average.
– In some places, of course, the railroad tracks are real, but I’m not sure what kind of public health measures the government has prepared to prevent the risk of suicides on the railways, researcher Taks says.
About 200 people were forced to leave their homes
One of the most common concerns in population centers has been that the renovated railway will cut through towns and neighborhoods. Suddenly, the nearest school or workplace can be on the other side of a busy train track.
– Some residents feel that their everyday life is severely disrupted when they can no longer easily move from one side of the track to the other, says Taks.
The planning and construction of overpasses will continue along the track for a long time to come.
People have also been evicted from their homes in the path of the track. According to Taxi, in all cases people have not received fair compensation and treatment from the state.
The Transport Ministry’s Ceiter says that he has personally consulted with several residents, and says that the situations have been very different.
– I understand that it is not desirable for people to have such a large structure in front of their own house. Or that the government comes to the door and says you my friend have to get out of here and we will pay for your house.
According to Ceiter, there were a total of 1,200 land expropriations, and about 200 people eventually had to move out of their homes because of the railroad.