Macchu Picchu Train suspended !

[Twintraveller]

Seems as if the Macchu Picchu Train is suspended for a while. People who have been there might understand why. Read news from 14. Dec. below. Bike and 4x4 Travellers can use the alternative route described here:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb...ML/000663.html

Peru to halt Machu Picchu train over attack threat
14 Dec 2005 18:34:20 GMT
Source: Reuters
LIMA, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Peru will suspend the train service that takes
thousands of tourists to the famed Inca citadel of Machu Picchu
indefinitely from Thursday after residents who want a local company to
run trains along the route threatened to attack the railway.


Hundreds of residents in Peru's southern Andes have threatened to take
over trains, stations and block the only route to Machu Picchu because
they say townhall officials received bribes to stop efforts by local
investors to run a new train service along the route.

The train service, which carries some 2,500 people a day to South
America's most-visited archeological site, has been operated by Peru
Rail, owned by luxury tourism company Orient Express Hotels Ltd
<OEH.N>, since 1999. Local residents want the route opened up to other
companies via concessions.

"This suspension is a safety measure. ... We are coordinating with
travel agencies and tour operators so people can change their travel
dates or get their money back," Peru Rail said in a half-page
announcement in Peruvian newspapers on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman said Peru Rail was open to sharing the route with
competitors and did not have contractual exclusivity on the Machu
Picchu railway, but that no investors had obtained a permit to run a
train service.

Neither the central government nor local authorities in Machu Picchu
Pueblo were immediately available for comment.

Machu Picchu was probably the sanctuary of Inca Emperor Pachacutec and
lay at the heart of the Inca empire, which dominated South America from
Colombia to Chile until being toppled by Spanish conquerors in the
1530s.

U.S. explorer Hiram Bingham found Machu Picchu in the southern Andes
under thick forest in 1911. The pre-Columbian ruins of an entire city
were essentially forgotten, perched on a mountain saddle 8,400 feet
(2,560 metres) above sea level near the city of Cuzco.

[cbxtc6]

Apparently re-opened 12/16, according to EIN.