History of rail transport in Venezuela

The State Railways Institution (Spanish: "Instituto de Ferrocarriles del Estado", or IFE) is a state-run organization of Venezuela that manages the railway systems of the country. Its headquarters are located in Caracas, Venezuela.

According to the 1999 Constitution, its renovation is a national priority, with new infrastructure being added, including the first new above-ground train line constructed in Venezuela for more than 70 years, the Ezequiel Zamora Mass Transportation System inaugurated on October 15, 2006, by President Hugo Chávez.

Historically, much of the original Venezuelan network was designed in the 19th century in the Federalist period and under the administration of Antonio Guzmán Blanco, in order to open up the country for trade and earn foreign revenues. However, the first licenses were signed and revoked nine times before the first stretch was operating.

The first lines connected Caracas to its port of La Guaira and then the Great Venezuela Railway to Valencia in the 1870s–80s. Notable engineers associated with its original development include: John Grover and Robert Fairlie. Some of the later lines were designed by William A. Welch and Thomas Kavanagh (Caracas subway).

Rail transport in Venezuela was neglected and went into a major decline from the 1950s, with bus and road transport taking its place, just Caracas maintaining its 51 km (32 mi) of subway system and local railway.

In 1975 was devised by the "Instituto Ferrocarriles del Estado" (IFE) a National Plan Ferrocarrilero that began in Maracaibo and reached Barquisimeto-Puerto Cabello-Valencia-Caracas-Cua, following from Cua to Barcelona and Ciudad Bolivar-Ciudad Guayana. The company "Saprolate-Tranarg" made all aerial photographic surveys and the Plan was approved by the then President Luis Herrera Campins, but in the 1980s the Plan IFE was blocked for economic reasons after the devaluation of the Bolivar in 1983 and then was finally canceled with the Caracazo of 1989. Only the section Caracas-Cua was maintained as a budgeted project (and was made, being inaugurated in 2006 by President Hugo Chavez) .

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