Rail transport in Puerto Rico
History
Early Mayagüez passenger system
Although Puerto Rico did not have a national railroad system until the last decade of the 19th, between the 1870s and 1890s, the city of
The new system operated more efficiently,[
San Juan Tramway
In 1878, engineer-entrepreneur Don Pablo Ubarri was granted a permit to build and operate a 7-mile (11.3 km) passenger
The event of
National railroad system
The main Puerto Rico rail system was created during the late 19th century and was significantly expanded during the early 20th century due to a growing
Passenger travel began to flourish in 1902 when the
Before its demise, the Puerto Rico railroad system had some 500 kilometers (310 miles) of track and served almost all coastal towns, carrying freight into the Island and transporting agricultural products to the ports for shipping overseas.
Transport by rail greatly improved the everyday life of Puerto Ricans, since passengers could now travel between the largest cities, San Juan and Ponce, in record time.[citation needed] Previous trips used to take several days by horse and wagons, but the regular train greatly reduced traveling time to around 10 hours. There were four main trains operating all day and night during the system’s peak years, with Train No. 1 departing at 7:00am from San Juan and arriving in Ponce at 5:00pm. Tickets for this one-way trip cost $1.50 for first class and $0.95 for second class in 1950.[12] The system was such an important part of island society, that famed composer Manuel “Canario” Jimenez composed a Plena song titled La Máquina (The Machine) about the daily trip between San Juan and Ponce.[citation needed]
Tragedy on election day in 1944
On the early morning hours of November 7, 1944, the
At 2:20am the train started to descend a hill section known as Cuesta Vieja (Old Hill) in Aguadilla at what some witnesses described as an exaggerated speed. When the train reached the leveling-off point at the bottom of the hill it derailed. The steam locomotive crashed into a ditch and one of the freight cars crashed into one of the passenger cars, killing many inside. Witnesses described the scene as horrendous, with some accounts stating that parents were throwing their children out the windows to save them from the wreckage.[17] Chief of Police Guillermo Arroyo stated that the locomotive (No. 72), the express car, and three second class passenger cars were completely destroyed. Oscar Valle, an Aguadilla correspondent to the local El Mundo newspaper, summarized the scene in a more dramatic way: "The locomotive suffered a terrible explosion as it derailed, and the impact was so strong that 3 passenger cars were converted into a fantastic mound of wreckage."[17] In the end, 16 passengers lost their lives, including the engineer and the fireman, and 50 were injured in the crash.[18]
Downfall
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The former San Juan railroad terminal
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Abandoned Central Mercedita Plymouth DE 50-ton locomotive in the Mercedita Serralles Refinery near Ponce
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Old train bridge in the San Juan district of Santurce, near San Juan Central Park
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Exposed rails at theexclusive busstreet)
When Puerto Rico
The last remaining part of the system used in operations was a small rail line located in the town of Arroyo, which was used exclusively for tourism purposes until 2005.[19][20] The rest of the system was either torn down to make room for new development, recycled (rails were melted and recycled and certain rail bridges were converted into road bridges), or simply abandoned. Remnants of the main system and lines can still be seen in some parts of Puerto Rico.
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Remnants of the Mercedita Refinery and Central Mercedita rails near Ponce
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Old train tracks at Central Igualdad in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
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Entrance to the Guajataca Tunnel in Quebradillas, Puerto Rico
Tren Urbano
The Tren Urbano is a heavy-rail commuter metro system serving the cities of Bayamón,
Upon its inaugural opening, there were initial plans to extend the Tren Urbano rail system to outlying suburbs of the San Juan metro area, including a light interurban rail system from San Juan to Caguas originally scheduled to be completed in 2010.[22] However, these designs have not been finalized and no construction work has commenced yet. The proposed Caguas rail project remains postponed as of September 2019.
Other systems
Chemex Railroad
The Chemex Railroad (a.k.a. Port of Ponce Railroad) was a short, 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
The entire rail system consisted of an eight-track
Train of the South
The Train of the South was an
El Parque del Tren
El Parque del Tren was a little train within a park dedicated exclusively for park attendees. It was also the last remaining rail line open to the general public until the inauguration of the Tren Urbano. It consisted of a locomotive with various passenger cars which would carry visitors around a large recreational park in Bayamón. As part of early 2000s reconstruction efforts, the park was demolished to make way for the Tren Urbano.[28] Some of the park's areas have been remodeled and it now features some of the things the park had in the past, such as a blue-water lake. The area is now known as "Parque del Niño" or "Children's Park".
See also
- Defunct systems
- List of Puerto Rico tramways
- List of Puerto Rico railroads
- List of United States railroads
- Rail transport in the United States
- Transportation in Puerto Rico
- Metre-gauge railway
- List of gauges used on Puerto Rico tracks
References
- ^ Puerto Rico: Society and Culture Before the US Invasion of 1898: Transportation Archived 2006-08-09 at the Wayback Machine Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture (IPRAC) (in Spanish)
- ^ a b c d The Mayagüez Trans-Way, First Urban Rail System of Puerto Rico Archived 2006-01-27 at the Wayback Machine (El Tranvía de Mayagüez, Primer Ferrocarril Urbano de Puerto Rico), New Mayagüez Foundation, Inc. (Fundación Nuevo Mayagüez, Inc.) (in Spanish)
- ^ a b (in Spanish) San Juan: Historia Illustrada de su desarrollo urbano, 1508-1898 - Aníbal Sepúlveda Rivera. San Juan 1989, pp. 209-211. Centro de Investigaciones CARIMAR.
- ^ Document CF408, Tranvía de la Capital a Río Piedras (Nov 16, 1898), Archivo General de Puerto Rico
- ^ "Canadian Transit Interests Outside Canada". home.cc.umanitoba.ca.
- ^ a b An Island Grows, 70 Years of Economic Development in Puerto Rico, 1877 - 1947 (1947) Biblioteca UPR.
- ^ Historia de la energía eléctrica en Puerto Rico - Eugenio Látimer Torres
- ^ Pumarada O'Neill, L. (1980). Trasfondo histórico del ferrocarril en Puerto Rico. Mayagüez: Centro de Investigaciones de Ingeniería, Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez, págs. 5-7. (in Spanish)
- ^ Pumarada O'Neill, L. (1980). Trasfondo histórico del ferrocarril en Puerto Rico. Mayagüez: Centro de Investigaciones de Ingeniería, Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez, págs. 8-9, 25. (in Spanish)
- ^ "The arrival of the railroad to Puerto Rico - Economy | EnciclopediaPR".
- ^ "THE TRAMWAYS OF PUERTO RICO". www.tramz.com.
- ^ a b c d Violeta Landron, The Train: Memories and Nostalgia on Rails Archived 2007-03-24 at the Wayback Machine (El Tren: Recuerdos y Nostalgia sobre Rieles), Fiestas Patronales 2000, Vega Baja, PR, Pg. 44 (in Spanish)
- ^ a b c "Puerto Rico Public Law 340 of 2000". State Legislature of Puerto Rico. September 2, 2000. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
- ^ a b c Bermejo, Nelson (March 3, 2014). "De vuelta por el puente ferroviario del caño San Antonio". blog. Metro.pr. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
- ^ "Nomination Document. NRHP". National Park Service. 1984. Retrieved 26 February 2010.
- ^ "Nomination Document. NRHP" (PDF). National Park Service. 2009. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
- ^ El Nuevo Dia, Por Dentro Section, Pg. 116, December 7, 1996, retrieved on July 31, 2006 (in Spanish)
- ^ "Puerto Rico y aquel tren que nunca llegó a destino" (in Spanish).
- ^ a b TravelandSports.com, Tren del Sur de Arroyo
- ^ a b PRFROGUI.com El Tren del Sur (Arroyo)
- ^ a b Tren Urbano PR another way low transit ridership forecast Archived 2008-10-21 at the Wayback Machine, TOLLROADSNews, November 20, 2005, accessed April 13, 2007.
- ^ "Caguas To San Juan In 15 Minutes". Retrieved 2007-05-08.
- ^ a b Railroads of Puerto Rico: Ferrocarril Chemex Brief information and photographs of the Chemex Railroad operation in Ponce.
- ^ a b American Shipper Article: Where the Rail Meets the Water
- ^ Google Maps – Ponce, PR Observations from a Google Maps satellite image with a view of the Port of Ponce (Chemex) railroad yard.
- ISBN 0-9647221-3-5.
- ^ Government of Puerto Rico State Historic Conservation Plan 2006-2010 (Spanish)
- ^ Baymon Tourism, RadioSabor.es
Further reading
- Jack Delano (June 1990), De San Juan a Ponce En El Tren (From San Juan to Ponce in Train), ISBN 0-8477-2117-5
Ponce, Puerto Rico train lines:
- Roger Aponte Pargas. El desarrollo histórico del tranvía eléctrico de Ponce: 1898-1927. Ponce: University of Puerto Rico, 1987.
- United States Army Corps of Engineers. Port Facilities at Ponce, Porto Rico [sic]. Washington 1927.
- Eduardo Neumann. Verdadera y Auténtica Historia de la Ciudad de Ponce. Ponce, 1913 [reprinted 1987]. "Carros Eléctricos" section. pp. 114–115.
- Poor's Manual of Railroads. New York, 1868-1924. Section on "Ponce Electric Co." p. 2500. 1912 edition.
- Stone & Webster Public Service Journal. Boston, 1907-1915 (continued as Stone & Webster Journal 1916-1932). Issues of 1907, 1908 and February 1928.
- United States. 57th Congress, 1st Session, Senate. Document No. 76: Electric Street Railway, Ponce, P.R. Washington, 1901.
- José Jimeno Agius. Población y Comercio de la Isla de Puerto Rico. Memoria de 1885. Madrid, 1885 [reprinted in 1918 in Boletín Histórico de Puerto Rico, vol. V]. Survey of citizens and commerce. p. 294
- Adolfo de Hostos. Tesauro de Datos Históricos. 5 volumes, Río Piedras, 1990-1995. Thesaurus of Puerto Rican history. "Ponce – Tranvía" section, Vol. IV, p. 391.
- Archivo General de Puerto Rico. Fondo de Obras Públicas. Inventario Sub Fondo Ferrocarriles y Tranvías. San Juan, 2005. List of railroad and tramway proposals. Ponce tramway section, pp. 139–141 (tramway proposals in 1864-1865).
External links
- Railroads of Puerto Rico – A site dedicated to the history of railroading in Puerto Rico.
- Tren Urbano Home Page (in Spanish)
- The Tramways of San Juan (English)