Rail transport in Central America
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Rail transport in Central America consists of several isolated railroad lines with freight or passenger service. The most famous one is the Panama Canal Railway, the oldest transcontinental railroad in the world, connecting Panama City with Colón since 1855. Other railroads in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama were built by private and public investors mainly to facilitate the transport of local agricultural produce (bananas, coconuts, coffee) to export markets and harbors. Their market share and profitability went into decline in the second half of the twentieth century and most lines have been decommissioned by the end of the 1990s. As of 2018, railroads operate locally in Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama only; all rail transport has been suspended in Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The railways still operating do not cross national borders.
Belize
There are no operational railroads in
Costa Rica
Railroads in Costa Rica are managed by state owned Instituto Costarricense de Ferrocarriles, Incofer, and are of 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) narrow gauge, the same as Honduras and Nicaragua.
Incofer runs the Interurbano Line around San José and freight trains in the Caribbean for ArcelorMittal operations.
The first railroad in Costa Rica was opened in 1873, running between San José and
The railroad network was damaged during an earthquake in 1991 and operations suspended in 1995. In 2005 Incofer started the Interurbano Line by reconditioning the abandoned lines in the Greater Metropolitan Area.
El Salvador
All rail transport in El Salvador was suspended between October 2002 and 2007, with the exception of a short-lived shuttle passenger train between San Salvador and Soyapango during emergency repairs on a road bridge in 2004 - 2005.
In 2007 a suburban passenger service operated by FENADESAL between San Salvador,
Railroads have been built in El Salvador since 1882 by The Salvador Rail Company Limited (later named FES - Ferrocarril de El Salvador) and United Fruit (IRCA). In 1975, the two companies merged into FENADESAL - Ferrocarriles Nacionales de El Salvador. At present, this agency oversees 554.8 km of disused tracks, connecting major cities and formerly linked to Guatemala railroads at Anguiatú. The railroads in El Salvador were of narrow gauge, 914 mm (3 ft), the same as Guatemala. The line from Texis Junction to Santa Ana and Ahuachapán has been dismantled and the soil of it given away to people who lost their houses during an earthquake, today it is probably the longest and narrowest slum.
Official homepage: https://web.archive.org/web/20100306182740/http://www.fenadesal.gob.sv/
Guatemala
Railroads have been built in Guatemala since 1884. In 1912, the network was acquired by
Apart from this main network, there were two other local railroads - Ferrocarril de Los Altos from
Honduras
Railroads in
- Puerto Cortes(50 km, freight trains carrying mainly lumber) and occasional passenger trains around San Pedro Sula, for example during carneval and other holidays.
- City rail in La Ceiba (3 km, passenger transport between downtown and a western suburb, Col. Sitramacsa)
- Line between (9 km, transport of coconuts to a processing plant and of tourists to national park)
Nicaragua
There are no operating railroads in Nicaragua. The majority of lines were closed in 1993, the last one in 2001.
Narrow gauge railroads in Nicaragua have been built since 1878 on the Pacific coast. First was a Western division (from
Panama
The only operating railroad in
At the end of the nineteenth century, the government of Colombia studied the feasibility of additional railroads. Panama Railway was commissioned to estimate the cost of a railroad from Panama City to
Two separate and distinct
The
The railway system was impressive, covered from Sixaola to Almirante, including all Changuinola banana farms. In 2010, contracts were awarded for line 1 of a metro system for Panama City.
International
An intercontinental railway was proposed in 1912 to connect North and South America.[6]
The FERISTSA railway was proposed by The Shaw Group in 2010 to connect Mexico with Panama via ports along the way, the group in charge doesn't exist anymore and the plan was discarded.[7]
References
- ^ Railways and Trains in Belize. A Guide to the Past
- ^ Railroad Development Corporation
- ^ "Railway between Guatemala and Mexico, connectivity across Puerto Chiapas".
- ^ Google. "La Unión" (Map). Google Maps. Google.
- ^ Morrison, Allen (1 February 2008). "The Tramways of Colombia / Panama". Retrieved 2010-11-07.
- ^ Forbes, Charles (1912). Panama: The Isthmus and the Canal. Library of Congress: The John C. Winston Co. pp. 15.
- ^ "Shaw Group in talks with US railroad cos for Feristsa project, Central America, Infrastructure, news". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2010-10-16.