Train access to Peru’s sacred Inca citadel Machu Picchu is expected to be restored on March 29, three days ahead of schedule, the general manager of Peruvian rail firm Ferrocarril Transandino, or Fetransa, said Thursday.
Fetransa General Manager Rómulo Guidin told state-run news agency Andina that travelers would be able to reach the 15th century mountain ruins from the train stop at Piscacucho, where the Km 82 entrance to the Inca Trail is also located.
Getting to Machu Picchu via that route would entail traveling from Cusco by road through the Sacred Valley to Ollantaytambo and then continuing on to Piscacucho, where passengers would then take a 10-minute walk to board the train. From there, it is an 80- to 90-minute ride to Aguas Calientes.
Guidino cautioned that achieving the rail repairs on the accelerated schedule is still subject to the weather. Extreme rain has caused the worst flooding seen during the November-March rainy season that people in Cusco have experienced in decades. Thousands of homes were destroyed and several rural communities suffered wholesale damage.
“There shouldn’t be problems if the rains are normal and do not constitute an event like they did in January, which had not happened in 90 years,” Guidino said.
Travel to Machu Picchu has been suspended since late January when torrential rainfalls, floods and mudslides washed away parts of the rail line into the UNESCO World Heritage Site and stranded some 2,000 tourists.
Heavy rains resumed this week in the southern Andean region. Fifteen people were killed and at least 50 displaced due to flooding in Pisac, a town located in Cusco’s Sacred Valley.
