A train operating on the Simón Bolívar Central-Western Railway System, Barquisimeto-Yaritagua section. Photo: Ministry of Communication and Information.
Guacamaya, June 30, 2025. The government has announced that it will launch a cargo train to connect Araure, Portuguesa and Barquisimeto, Lara with the docks at Puerto Cabello, Carabobo.
This would mean that it is recovering one of two existing train lines in Venezuela. There is only one other functional, passenger service, which connects Caracas with Valles del Tuy, to its south.
The relaunched connection will link the small dry ports of the Araure-Acarigua area and Barquisimeto with Puerto Cabello by the Caribbean Sea. The coastal city hosts the largest port complex in the country.
The adjacent states of Portuguesa and Lara, especially the former, are considered to be the breadbasket of Venezuela. At the foothills of the Andes, they can count on the most fertile lands in the country, alongside the south of Lake Maracaibo, in Zulia.
In a short announcement on social media, the Ministry of Transport said that “it will enable the transport of cargo in a comfortable, cheap and timely way, contributing to the productive dynamization of the country.” However, it did not inform when the service will be activated.
There are various unfinished infrastructure projects in the last two decades, including passenger train lines. The most infamous is the half-built tracks that would connect the central-region cities: Valencia, Maracay, and Caracas, together with their vicinities. Their combined metropolitan areas house 11.8 million inhabitants.
