Antioquia Railway

The Antioquia Railway (Spanish: Ferrocarril de Antioquia) is a historic railway system in Colombia of freight and passenger trains that joined much of the central regions of the Antioquia department along the Magdalena river, and ultimately extended to provinces located south of the department, including Caldas and the Valle del Cauca. It took 55 years to build: from 1874 to its opening on 7 August 1929. The Antioquia Railway was for decades an important link among regions that had previously been isolated and was a large contributor to economic development in the region. With the construction of alternative forms of transportation, especially roads, the use of the train declined in the 20th century. The railway was officially sold in 1961.

The railway was owned and operated by the department of Antioquia. Its purpose was to link Medellín, the commercial center of the department, with the river port Puerto Berrío, located by the Magdalena river. Prior to the railway, Antioquia was a region known only for its gold mining. After the region became more interconnected, there was a boom in almost all areas of the economy, including livestock and agriculture in the Nus region, textiles in the Medellín valley, and coffee production in the whole department.

The historic Medellín station of the railway still exists in Plaza Cisneros. It is a neoclassical building designed by Enrique Olarte.

The private, non-profit organization "Antioquia Railway Foundation" was started on 26 July 1986.

In the nineteenth century, Antioquia was then a sovereign state with six departments and its capital in Medellín when the plans began for a railway. The government started to consider building a railway along the Magdalena river starting in 1864. The Magdalena river was then an important hub for import and export of goods. In 1874 the official construction contract was signed. Cuban engineer Francisco Javier Cisnero was hired to finish the construction of the railway in eight years. The biggest challenge for the railway construction was that Antioquia was geographically too steep, and the construction of railways in such difficult territory represented a huge undertaking for the technology of the late nineteenth century. The plan was for a railway bordering the river to start in Puerto Berrío and end in the Barbosa district.

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