[5] However, once the Military expressed the importance of this railway as a means of defence against a possible conflict, the Chilean government authorized its construction.

Its functions were to ensure practical training of military personnel and to provide strategic protection of the mountain passes.

[4] Transporting copper concentrate, gypsum and limestone, livestock and agricultural products by train became safer and more economical.

Railway passenger traffic from Cajon del Maipo and Santiago also started, thanks to those services, with the main intent being going on vacation in the Andean villages in the mountains.

[9] Since 1950 the use of the railway decreased as rail transport began to be replaced by higher tonnage road trucks, whose travel time and freight costs were lower.

[6] Many factors led to the suspension of the railway and the use of roads as the main form of transport: the closure of Llano del Maipo Railway in the late 1940s, the earthquake in Las Melosas in 1958 (which caused damage to infrastructure), severe storms in the mid-1960s and the end of mining activity in the Volcano in 1976.