This major railway line is a project promoted by the Bolivian government. The plan is to cross the South American continent from east to west (Brazil, Bolivia, Peru), connecting the three countries and possibly adding branches to Paraguay and Argentina. The project involves building a total of approximately 4,700 kilometres of a freight and passenger line in order to establish a high-capacity transport route between the Pacific and Atlantic.

To analyse the feasibility of the project, the Spanish engineering company Ineco, in consortium with Incosa, carried out a feasibility study for Peru’s Ministry of Transport in 2016 and 2017. The work, which focused on Peruvian territory, included analysis of possible route options and optimum technical and financial solutions; examination of freight demand forecasts until 2055; assessment of Bolivia’s infrastructure situation; studies of the compatibility of the different existing track gauges; and calculation of works budget distribution. The analysis concluded with a social assessment of the project and its feasibility.

This is a large-scale project whose profitability depends on freight and passenger demand originating in Bolivia and, especially, Brazil

Analysis of options

In order to define the best route, the consortium carried out a study of options on three corridors: two departing from the Desaguadero border post south of Lake Titicaca between Peru and Bolivia, and a third from a location proposed in the Bolivian government’s project known as Milestone 4, located southeast of the Desaguadero border post.

The three routes would reach ports on Peru’s Pacific coast: option 1 (originating at Milestone 4) and 2 (originating in Desaguadero), measuring 406.6 and 458.7 kilometres in length respectively, would join in the city of Moquegua into a common branch that would terminate at the port of Ilo; option 3 (originating in Desaguadero) would be the most extensive route, measuring 633.4 kilometres in length, 194 kilometres of which already exist and 439 kilometres which would need to be built. The latter would skirt Lake Titicaca, pass through the cities of Puno, Juliaca and Arequipa and terminate at the port of Matarani.

In all three options, the railway would need to negotiate considerably uneven terrain. The border between Peru and Bolivia is located at an altitude of 4,000 metres, which means that the railway would be required to wind between mountains and highlands to descend to a port on the coast. The basic geometric conditions of the project call for minimum radii of 250 metres and maximum slopes of 2.5%, in addition to the need to minimise the number of bridges, tunnels and earthworks.

In terms of social benefits, the study assessed savings on the operation of freight diverted from the roads; freight and passenger traffic times; environmental benefits; and reduced accident rates

Demand study

An important part of establishing the feasibility of the Bioceanic Railway Corridor was a demand study to calculate freight volumes in Peruvian territory for all of the route options and their projections for the time horizon under assessment.

The time horizons of the CFBC project to which the study worked were 2025 for entry into operation, 2055 as the end of the maturity period and 2075 as the final time horizon.

In order to determine future demand for the Railway Corridor, a transport model was drawn up using spatial referencing (zoning) to relate the network (supply) with mobility data (demand). It was a macro transport model that enabled prediction of the layout of an origin-destination matrix (demand) across different transport mode networks (supply).

To create this model, Ineco used TransCAD, a powerful transport planning software that uses aspects such as socio-economic variables, the general characterisation of the infrastructure and road and railway demand as baseline information. In addition, field work was also required to collect additional data to calibrate the supply network entered and the demand in the final origin-destination matrices together with the Bolivian review of the transport model.

Demand scenarios were simulated for three time horizons: 2025, entry into operation; 2050, intermediate year; and 2075, the project’s final time horizon. And the three supply scenarios for the three route options.

As a result of this model, the CBFC’s demand corresponding to the area of direct influence was estimated as follows:

• Internal Peru: representing flows captured by the line between internal areas within Peruvian territory.
• Bolivia-Desaguadero: representing flows captured by the line between internal areas within Peruvian territory and Bolivia.

Track gauges

The Peruvian rail network has standard gauge (UIC), except on the Cuzco branch to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu), which has metric gauge, meaning that any new railway line built in Peru must have standard gauge. Traffic on this gauge also has more transport capacity than on metric gauge.

For its part, the CFBC in Bolivia would have metric gauge, which would require trains to change gauge at the border with Peru. To solve the problem of gauge difference between the two rail networks, 3 options were analysed for the Peruvian section of the CFBC: metric gauge, standard gauge and mixed gauge. A set of indicators was considered such as, among others, compliance with the terms of reference, transport capacity, rolling stock requirements, network effect, benefits obtained by Peru and possible logistics activities in order to identify the possible advantages and disadvantages of the different gauge options.

Analysis showed that the standard gauge option would be the most beneficial for Peru.

To make decisions regarding the different CFBC options, an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used in order to select seven criteria: construction, environmental impact, economic aspects, social improvement services, concessionaires, operations and ports

Social assessment of the project: cost and benefit

In the study carried out by the consortium, the parameters and values applied to the evaluations for quantification of costs and benefits were those indicated by the methodology defined by the National System of Public Investment (SNIP), with the following concepts assessed:

• Infrastructure conservation costs.
• Variable costs of freight train operation (fuel consumption).
• Variable costs of passenger train operation (fuel consumption).
• Rolling stock maintenance costs.
• Fixed costs of train operation (personnel costs and general expenses).

In terms of social benefits, the study assessed savings in freight vehicle operation diverted from the roads; time savings for freight and passenger traffic; and the benefits of reduced accidents (material losses and loss of human lives and injuries) and environmental benefits (noise, atmospheric pollution, climate change, nature and landscape, loss of biodiversity, soil and water pollution).

The project has negative NPV social indicators because it only considers Bolivian freight in its analysis. In addition, IRR social indicators are below investor expectations. For the project to be socially profitable, the railway must be assessed taking the Bolivian and Brazilian freight that the railway could potentially use into account.

Multi-criteria analysis

To make decisions regarding the different CFBC options, an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used. This is a system used in large infrastructure projects in Peru which is acknowledged and valued for the multiple benefits it provides in the analysis of complex problems involving multiple variables.

For the analysis, seven criteria were selected –construction, environmental impact, economic aspects, social improvement services, concessionaires, operations and ports– and each one included a set of sub-criteria that were analysed for the three proposed options. The AHP system uses a scale of 1 to 9 to rate the relative preferences of the two elements to be compared. This method is based on the comparison of all of the options in a paired way for each of the sub-criteria selected.

Once the summarised values of the sub-criteria and criteria had been acquired, they were multiplied to obtain the weight of each of the sub-criteria. With these weights and summarised values of the comparison of the options, the matrices were multiplied to obtain the overall value for each one of the options.

The main conclusion of the study was that this is a large-scale project whose profitability depends on freight and passenger demand originating in Bolivia and especially in bordering countries, whose rail networks will need to upgrade their infrastructure and rolling stock, and, in the case of Bolivia, also complete the merging of its two railway sectors.

How can we ensure that a taximeter is reliable or that a nuclear facility is safe, that a bulletproof vest is really bulletproof or that the MOT that reviews a vehicle does not act arbitrarily? In Spain, more than 1,600 entities ensure that many products, procedures and services available in the market comply with the regulations of their respective sector. A Spanish government body, the National Accreditation Entity (ENAC), is responsible for authorising who guarantees the safety of consumers and end users. Entities must renew their accreditation every year, demonstrating that they comply with the strict requirements of independence, rigour and transparency that are required for this work.

Rail lines

The wide range of products and services subject to receiving a certification endorsed by an ENAC entity covers any type of production and different types of entities, such as testing or calibration laboratories, inspectors, or certifiers and environmental verifiers from practically any sector: industry, energy, environment, health, agriculture and food, research, development and innovation, telecommunications, tourism, services, construction, transport, etc.

The inspection activity of Ineco falls within the latter, specifically within railway, and in 2009 it obtained its first ENAC accreditation as an ‘independent safety assessor’ with the number 76/EI058. In 2015, it was renewed and extended to the fields of rolling stock, energy, infrastructure, maintenance and exploitation and traffic management. The company has a multidisciplinary team consisting of professionals accredited by ENAC. The work of the entities certified by ENAC, moreover, is not only valid in Spain, but also in the over 70 countries with which it has mutual recognition agreements, including the European Union, United States, Canada, China, Japan, Australia, Brazil, India, United Arab Emirates and Mexico, amongst others.

Why an independent safety assessment?

In addition to rolling stock, since the beginning of rail at the end of the 19th century, the main rail elements related to safety have been signalling systems, in order to avoid the greatest risk of all: collisions between trains. From manual signals to lights, to digital systems and radio without physical signals on the tracks –as is the case for ERTMS level 2–, the different control, command and signalling systems (ASFA, LZB, ERTMS, etc.) have evolved to become more complex and sophisticated, always with the objective of guaranteeing the safe circulation of trains.

The current rail lines –conventional and high speed–, are very complex infrastructure that consist of a large number of elements and undergo very extensive legal and technical regulation that requires a high degree of specialisation by the inspectors. From the time they are planned until they are commissioned, European and international regulations require verification that each and every one of the elements and subsystems work correctly, from the simplest, such as the ventilation of a tunnel, to the most complex, such as software.

For this purpose, two types of safety study are carried out. On one hand, risk analyses, in which threats are identified that could bring the system to a potentially dangerous situation and work is being carried out on mitigation measures or barriers to avoid them. They can be carried out in any stage of the project and seek to detect the weak points of the system. Moreover, and on a higher level, there is the type of study known as ISA (Independent Safety Assessment). Unlike risk analyses, ISA can only be carried out by an accredited entity. They are essential to guarantee for a third party –the operator or rail authority– that a new line or modification of an existing line is safe and can begin or continue to be used.

Since last August, more than 20,000 residents of this new construction zone have been able to reach the centre of Madrid in 25 minutes thanks to the new halt, without having to go to the centre of Torrejón de Ardoz. Located in this Madrid municipality of 127,000 inhabitants in the north-east of Madrid, the new station belongs to the C7 commuter line and serves the districts of Soto del Henares, Mancha Amarilla and Zarzuela, a zone near the Hospital of Torrejón and the new Casablanca industrial estate. Ineco has carried out the architectural, structural and installation design, as well as construction management for Adif. It is a modular structure of porticos that eliminates the need for interior pillars (open plan) and can be easily adapted to any type of station. The main building, direction Alcalá de Henares, has a rectangular floor, a foyer with waiting areas, automatic ticket vending machines and six faregates, with the possibility of increasing this number to nine. It also has a space for offices, toilets and utility rooms.

Ineco has carried out the architectural, structural and installation design, as well as construction management for Adif

A modular and extendible design

The halt has two buildings, one for each direction. In the interior, all uses are distributed by independent building volumes (‘building within a building’). The station was designed with a capacity to receive 6,000 passengers a day, although the modular structure facilitates its future expansion.

Golden ratio

The geometry of the buildings is based on the golden ratio of a two-metre square, which forms rectangles of 2.8282 x 2m. When doubled they create a module of 5.6564 x 2m, and from the division of this module come all of the internal distances between porticos and different spaces are created.

A light box

The main building is laid out as a rectangular prism with two façades, which provides a maintenance area between them. While the “skin” tinges the interior-exterior light (‘light box’ effect), the outer layer generates permeability and allows the design to be changed.

Platforms

The platform edges are 1.75 metres from the track centres, with a width of 5 metres and a length of 210 metres, with 6 metre slopes at each end. Thanks to the 80 metres of canopy extending from the buildings, passengers are always sheltered when they access the platforms.

Other stations designed by Ineco

Ineco has extensive experience in drawing up architectural designs, as well as in construction management and technical assistance and the preparation of feasibility studies in different types of stations, both overground and underground.

• In Cercanías (commuter rail) we should highlight, amongst others, projects such as the Miribilla station in Bilbao, built at a depth of 50 metres; the two in the Málaga airport access and a few others in the Valencian town of Alboraya, all of which are also underground, or the modern Cercanías halt of the Manuel-Énova bypass of the high-speed line to Levante.
• With regard to modular stations, in 2009 it developed an innovation project taking a small halt in the north of Madrid, Las Zorreras, as a reference. A similar solution was also planned, the predecessor of that of Soto del Henares, for the Las Margaritas-Universidad station, in Getafe, in the southern zone of Madrid. Abroad, in 2011, eight modern modular stations were designed for the Bogotá Western Corridor in Colombia.
• With regard to the renovation of historical stations, we can highlight the design and construction management of the historic façade of Atocha (2012), that of the full renovation of Aranjuez station (2008) currently underway, or the modernisation works in around twenty Catalan stations (2009).
• As well as architecture projects, we can also highlight other services, such as technical assistance for the work of the new La Sagrera-Meridiana commuter station in Barcelona (2010) or the prior feasibility studies for the Belgrade light rail in Serbia, with 25 stations, 10 of them underground; or for the São Paulo commuter network in Brazil, which included the construction of nine stations and the renovation of 65 others.
• With regard to highspeed stations, Ineco has carried out around twenty projects, both in construction management and in drawing up architectural designs: this is the case for the stations of Puente Genil, Camp and Antequera-Santa Ana (2007), that of Vigo-Guixar or the projects in nine other stations of the Galician Atlantic corridor in 2010 (see article). Ineco has also worked in the construction management to adapt stations in the whole network for high speed: Santa Justa in Seville, Sants in Barcelona, Atocha in Madrid, Toledo, Zaragoza, A Coruña, Santiago and Ourense in Galicia, etc., as well as in that of enlargement of the Atocha railway complex and its new AVE terminal, begun in 2010.