By
Bloomberg
Published
January 2, 2026
A luxury hotel subsidiary of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE is blaming a train company majority owned by global private equity firm Carlyle Group Inc for a deadly accident along a railway line that connects to the iconic ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru.
The collision on Peru's most important railway, important for the country's tourism industry, left one dead and dozens injured in the early afternoon of December 30.
In a letter to the prime minister's office, LVMH's Belmond Ltd said Carlyle's Inca Rail had traveled on an unauthorized part of the tracks, causing a head-on collision between two trains going in opposite directions.
“The Inca Rail train did not stop at the assigned place, advancing along an unauthorized section,” says the letter signed by Belmond executive Laurent Carrasset, to which Bloomberg had access. “Approximately 400 meters (437.4 yards) later,” the letter adds, “it crashed.”
In the letter, Carrasset said the railway has single tracks and is managed with forced stops and occasional detours so that trains going in opposite directions can alternate. At the time of the incident, the Inca Rail train had to stop and wait for PeruRail to take one of those detours, he added. But instead it continued beyond the limit of its authorized track area.
Inca Rail said in a statement that jumping to conclusions before authorities intervene “can generate biased interpretations of facts that are still being verified.” The company added that it is cooperating with the authorities and that it sympathizes with the injured and with the only person who died, the driver of the Inca Rail train.
The railway between Cusco and Machu Picchu carries about 3 million passengers a year and Belmond is the dominant player through two joint ventures in which the luxury company remains the operator. Through PeruRail it operates luxury trains while through Ferrocarril Transandino, Belmond also operates the railway concession on which both its trains and those of Inca Rail travel.
In 2024, PeruRail had a 74% market share on the Machu Picchu route, according to government statistics, while Inca Rail had the rest. The accident also stranded about 2,000 passengers, who had to wait about 12 hours to be evacuated, according to Carrasset's letter.
Machu Picchu is not accessible by road. Tourists usually take the train or walk, which can take days. Famous for its masonry and stunning views of the Andes Mountains, Machu Picchu is Peru's most popular tourist destination among foreign tourists, many of whom travel there on luxury trains.
