Llanquihue to Puerto Montt

For eighteen years no passenger train reached Puerto Montt. The railway that had come down the length of Chile to the city in 1911 lost its last southern services in 2007, and its stations stood empty. On 22 April 2025 EFE brought trains back to the last 27.4 kilometres of it, between the lake town of Llanquihue and the regional capital, and in its first year the line carried 436,000 passengers.

The Tren Llanquihue–Puerto Montt is a short commuter line with a long view. It leaves Llanquihue at the outlet of Lake Llanquihue, Chile's second-largest, calls at Puerto Varas on the same shore, and runs south through Alerce to La Paloma station, on the high ground above Puerto Montt. The trains are Spanish diesel railcars built in the 1980s and rebuilt in 2025 at ASMAR, the Chilean navy's shipyard. Ten trains run each way, Monday to Friday only; the ride takes 40 minutes and costs CLP 1,500, paid on board, with nothing to book.

Llanquihue station stands at 1000 Baquedano, in the town that grew up where the Maullín river leaves the lake. The line through it is the southern end of the Longitudinal Sur, the main line south from Santiago: the section from Osorno reached Puerto Montt in 1911, and in November 1913 the first train ran through from Iquique, at the other end of the country.

The trains

The service is worked by two TLD railcars, the Tren Ligero Diésel, a class of diesel units built in Spain for Renfe by CAF and Babcock & Wilcox between 1982 and 1984, with Fiat engines. Four came to Chile in 2005 for the Temuco–Puerto Montt trains, running without their centre cars. Two were later lost to accidents or stripped for parts; the other two, TLD 502 and TLD 503, ran on between Victoria and Temuco until new Chinese-built railcars replaced them there. In 2025 the Chilean navy's shipyard, ASMAR, rebuilt both with new interiors and systems for this line. A train carries 206 passengers, and a new workshop at La Paloma now looks after them.

Along the lake

The first stop, eleven minutes out, is Puerto Varas, whose station of 1913 stands near the lake, facing the Gran Hotel that the state railway built in 1938 to bring tourists south. Next comes Alerce, a suburb of Puerto Montt with a new platform built for the service; its old station, which began life in 1911 as Arrayán, burnt down in 2023.

Into Puerto Montt

The terminus is not the old station on Puerto Montt's waterfront. That closed to passengers in 1995, when a storm washed out the track at Pelluco, and its site is now a shopping centre. Trains end instead at La Paloma, on the high ground above the city, opened in 2005 and restored for this service. Feeder buses meet the trains there and at Alerce on weekdays to carry passengers on into the city.

EFE currently warns that journeys are taking longer than usual while it adjusts its operations, so allow a little extra time.

Trains run Monday to Friday only; the stations are closed at weekends. There are no reservations: you pay on board and take the next train. Ten trains run each way, about every hour and a half, and the whole run takes 40 minutes. The times below are from EFE's journey planner for the line, read in September 2026 for dates in October.

From Llanquihue

From Puerto Montt

Each train turns round five minutes after it arrives, so a late train in one direction usually means a late train back. Extra Saturday trains ran from January 2026 as a summer trial; they are not in the current timetable.

Timetables and service notices are published by the operator: EFE · Tren Llanquihue–Puerto Montt — Servicio y trazado (opens in a new tab).

There is nothing to book and no card to buy first. You pay for each ride as you board — in cash, by credit or debit card, or with a QR code from EFE's app — and the fare depends on how far you go: Llanquihue to Puerto Varas costs CLP 600, Puerto Varas to Puerto Montt CLP 1,200, and the whole line CLP 1,500.

Seniors and students registered for Chilean fare benefits pay less — CLP 750 and CLP 500 end to end — and primary-school children with a student card ride free. You may bring one bag up to 75 x 60 x 45 cm, a folding bike or scooter, and a pet in a carrier.

No rail pass covers this journey. Chile sits outside the Interrail and Eurail schemes, and EFE sells no pass or day ticket for this line. At CLP 1,500 at most for the whole run, paid as you board, there would be nothing for one to save.

The line links three towns between Lake Llanquihue and the sea, which with Alerce make up the metropolitan area of Puerto Montt. With a train in each direction every hour and a half on weekdays, any of them makes an easy stop on the way.

Puerto Montt, at the southern end of the line, is where the ferries for Chiloé and the south leave, and the natural base for travellers heading on. Puerto Varas, eleven minutes from Llanquihue, is the base for the lake and the volcanoes.