In Peru the trains climb up the Andes Mountains to a height of 4,816 metres. This is the railway line that starts at Callao on the Pacific coast and goes to La Oroya: it is the highest railway line in the world.
The railway line from Rio Mulato to Potosi reaches a height of just over 4,787 metres, almost as high as Mont Blanc, Europe’s tallest mountain. The highest railway line in Europe is at the Jungfrau in Switzerland and reaches a height of just over 3,454 metres.
On these South American lines the trains set out at sea level and reach great heights so rapidly that nurses travel on them to help the passengers with oxygen masks if they feel ill as a result of the rapid change in air pressure and the thinness of the air. The railways across the Andes provide vital links between the lowland regions, but the cost of construction and maintenance is very great.
Picture Credit : Google
