Where the data comes from
Every figure on this site has a source and a date. Here they are, with the correction log.
What comes from where
| Data | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Which stretches run today | Bulletins from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport | 27 August 2026 |
| Devil's Nose: days and departures | Ministry bulletin of 6 June 2026 (reopening after the landslide) | 27 August 2026 |
| Devil's Nose: fares | Dated Ecuadorian press; the operator does not publish them online | 27 August 2026 |
| Tren Tayta Imbabura (Ibarra–Andrade Marín) | Ministry: 13 km, run by INNOVA EP, in service since April 2025 | 27 August 2026 |
| Ibarra–Salinas | Ministry: 30.1 km surveyed in January 2026 | 27 August 2026 |
| Routes, stations and Tren Crucero classes | The railway's historical record — not operational information | 27 August 2026 |
| Station coordinates | Real locations, also embedded as GPS in the images | 27 August 2026 |
Why there is no "real time" here
Because there is none. Ferrocarriles del Ecuador has been in liquidation since 2020: no API, no GTFS, no operator board to query. What does exist is what each administration publishes when it reopens or suspends a stretch, and that is what we carry. Our status panel describes the state of each route, not the incidents of the day, and says so in its own heading.
We tried the other end too: the ticket portal (Ticket Éxito) blocks automated access, so we cannot read prices or availability from it. Wherever a price appears, the date we checked it appears beside it.
Correction log
27 August 2026 — February's landslide and June's reopening
The site was built on 4 June 2026 and did not record that a landslide on 18 February 2026 damaged some 5 km of track at Alausí and left the Devil's Nose suspended from 19 February, nor that the ministry rebuilt the trackbed and trains ran again from 6 June 2026. Added to the route page, the standing notice and the front page, in both languages.
27 August 2026 — the Imbabura stretch has a name and an operator
We called it "a municipal Ibarra–Andrade Marín stretch". It is the Tren Tayta Imbabura, 13 km, run by the public company INNOVA EP since April 2025. We also added that Ibarra–Salinas (30.1 km) was surveyed in January 2026 with a view to future reactivation.
27 August 2026 — the status panel spoke as if it were live
It used "Normal service", "Partial delays" and "Service suspended" — the vocabulary of an incident board. And it showed "partial delays" for the Freedom Train, a route that does not run. Rewritten as route status: running, only one stretch, suspended since 2020.
27 August 2026 — the old ticketing domain is gone from the site
The fares page named the portal Tren Ecuador used to sell tickets. That domain no longer belongs to the operator and now hosts something else, so the mention was removed in both languages.
Report an error
Write to [email protected] with the page address and what does not match. Corrections go in above, with a date. More about how we work on the About page.
Sources
- Ecuador's Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport — official bulletins on the reopened stretches: Ibarra–Antonio Ante (April 2025), the Ibarra–Salinas survey (January 2026) and the Devil's Nose returning to service (6 June 2026).
- The Alausí municipal government, which administers, runs and maintains the Alausí–Sibambe stretch.
- Ticket Éxito, the only online channel selling Devil's Nose tickets.
- Dated Ecuadorian press (Primicias, El Universo, El Comercio) for times and fares the operator does not publish itself.
- The railway's own archive for everything historical: routes, stations and the Tren Crucero classes.