El Chepe

Sea level to 2,400 m through Copper Canyon: 37 bridges and 86 tunnels in country deeper than the Grand Canyon.

Dreamed up in the 1860s as a shortcut from the American Midwest to a Pacific port, the crossing of the Sierra Madre defeated its promoters for nearly a century until completion in 1961. The engineering set-piece comes at Témoris, where the track stacks itself three levels high to escape the Santa Bárbara canyon; at Divisadero the train pauses long enough to walk to the rim and look 1,800 m down. This is Rarámuri homeland, and vendors board at the mountain halts with baskets, violins and pine-needle weaving.

Along the way

• El Fuerte river country
• Témoris triple-level loop
• Divisadero canyon rim
• Creel highland town
• Chihuahua high desert

How this line was checked

• Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 5977762 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within 116 m of them
• Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 28 m from it
• The operator publishes this line's timetable: Ferromex — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
• Wikipedia has an article for this line
• See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it

Questions and answers

How long is the El Chepe?

The El Chepe runs 653 km from Los Mochis to Chihuahua.

How long does the El Chepe take?

The fastest scheduled journey is ≈ 16 h for the 653 km. That is an average of 41 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 70 km/h.

Who runs the El Chepe?

Ferromex, with Chepe Regional.

How old is the El Chepe?

The line has been in service since 1961. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.

How high does the El Chepe climb?

2,400 m above sea level at its highest point.

View on the world railway map →

Read more on Wikipedia ↗