MENDOZA, Argentina (AFX) - The presidents of Chile and Argentina on Tuesday agreed to reopen by the end of 2009 a cross-Andes cargo and passenger train route that has been idle for decades.
Chile's Michelle Bachelet and Nestor Kirchner of Argentina met at a winery outside the western Argentine city of Mendoza and said they want the train to be put back in service to further the two neighboring countries' economic integration.
They said they would seek international bidders for the concession, part of an estimated $300 million investment project designed to better manage growing cross-border trade normally handled mainly by trucks.
The announcement of moves to reactivate the train came during a one-day meeting at which the two leaders also discussed the price of natural gas that Argentina sells to Chile -- and ways to boost commerce between the two nations.
The resumption of the idled train route 'is a dream of many years that we are now fulfilling,' Bachelet said after talks at the Trivento winery, where the two spoke on a dais against a backdrop of stacked oak wine barrels.
Kirchner spoke about the first trans-Andean train inaugurated in 1910 and how train traffic with Chile over the route between Mendoza continued for passengers until 1979 and five years later for cargo -- but that the tracks later fell into disrepair.
'Integration isn't easy,' he said.
But he added that once the cross-border train is completed, it will mark 'a key advance' for the integration of Mendoza and other parts of western Argentina with the central region of Chile where the capital of Santiago is located.
As envisioned, a train link would require rehabilitating some 225 kilometers (145 miles) of crumbling track linking Lujan de Cuyo in western Argentina with Chilean rail connections just over the snowcapped Andes in Chile.
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