Rail transport
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Rail transport in Puerto Rico currently consists of a 10 mile passenger metro system in the island’s metropolitan area of San Juan, a small cargo system in the southern city of Ponce, and other smaller systems limited to circular tracks for tourism purposes only. // Asia History of rail transport in India Europe Denmark France Germany Great Britain Ireland Spain Sweden North America Canada United States Oceania Australia See also History of rail transport Categories: History of rail transport ... A railway yard in Portland, Oregon. ... A rapid transit, underground, subway, tube, elevated, or metro(politan) system is a railway — usually in an urban area — with a high capacity and frequency of service, and grade separation from other traffic. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Flag Seal Nickname: Ciudad de los Leones , La Perla del Sur Gentilic: Ponceños Location Location of Ponce, Puerto Rico within Puerto Rico Government Founded 1692 Mayor Francisco Zayas Seijo Political party PPD Senatorial district 5 - Ponce Representative district 24,25 Geographical characteristics Area Total 501. ...

History

Early Mayagüez passenger system

Early passenger rail system in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, circa 1872.

A passenger car in Suau Park in Mayagüez in 1898.

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 Mayagüez did have a small passenger rail system for transporting its residents, mainly along the current Mendez Vigo Avenue.^[1] It was originally proposed by Jose A. Gonzalez y Echevarría in 1870 under the company El Ferrocarril Urbano de la Villa de Mayagüez (the Urban Train of Mayagüez),^[2] with the line being built between 1872 and 1875. The simple system consisted of small wagons standing on rails and propelled by horses, and it connected the center part of the town with the Playa sector (now Port sector). It faced numerous difficulties, including inclined routes and poor street conditions, which were troublesome for the animals. The system stopped in 1887 after the company was unable to obtain certain permits, but was revived in 1893 after a proposal by the company Sociedad Anónima Tranvia de Mayagüez (the Mayagüez Trans-Way Anonymous Society) and renewed operations in 1895.^[2] Image File history File links TranviaMayaguez. ... Image File history File links TranviaMayaguez. ... Image File history File links TranviaMayaguez2. ... Image File history File links TranviaMayaguez2. ... Flag Seal Nickname: La Sultana del Oeste, La Ciudad de las Aguas Puras, El Pueblo del Mangó Gentilic: Mayagüezanos Location Location of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico within Puerto Rico Coordinates Government Founded July 19 1760 Mayor José Guillermo Rodríguez Rodríguez Political party PPD Senatorial district Mayagüez...

The new system operated more efficiently, offering more comfortable cars and more stops, including one in the town Market Place (Plaza del Mercado) and another in the Guanajibo neighborhood. The routes were altered to pass through McKinley Street, which was less inclined and with better road conditions than previous routes benefiting both the ride and the horses. It lasted until 1912, when the Anonymous Society ceased operations and was replaced by the Mayagüez Tramway Company in 1913.^[2] The third operator of the system introduced new larger electric-powered cars, although the service was now limited from the Playa sector directly to the Balboa neighborhood. It remained active for 13 years, but after a major earthquake hit Mayagüez in 1918 coupled with the recent arrival of the automobile, it was shutdown permanently in 1926.^[2]

National railroad system

Early 20th century train hauling wagons filled with sugar cane, in the Lafayette Refinery in Arroyo, Puerto Rico

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 sugar cane industry in the island. Its origins can be traced back to 1888, when a Spanish engineer proposed building a railroad line along the western coast of Puerto Rico, a project which would later take almost 20 years to complete. The main system began operations in 1891, when the northern line was built between San Juan (in the Martín Peña sector) and the town of Manatí, followed by extensions to the towns of Carolina (to the east) and Arecibo/Camuy (to the west) the following year. When the United States invaded Puerto Rico in 1898, the system already had approximately 168 miles (270 km) of railroad tracks. Image File history File links Central_Lafayette. ... Image File history File links Central_Lafayette. ... Species Ref: ITIS 42058 as of 2004-05-05 Sugarcane is one of six species of a tall tropical southeast Asian grass (Family Poaceae) having stout fibrous jointed stalks whose sap at one time was the primary source of sugar. ... Manatí may refer to: Manatí, Puerto Rico Manatí, Colombia Manatí is also the Spanish word for manatee. ... Statue of Roberto Clemente located at entrance of Ciudad Deportiva Roberto Clemente Nickname: Ciudad de Gigantes Official website: None Location Location within the island of Puerto Rico Government Country Puerto Rico Mayor José E. Aponte de la Torre (PPD) Geographical characteristics Area Total 117. ... Arecibo is a municipality in Puerto Rico named after the Taino Cacique Arasibo. ... Camuy, Puerto Rico was founded in 1807. ... Puerto Rico The history of Puerto Rico began with the settlement of the archipelago of Puerto Rico by the Ortoiroid culture, sometime between 3000–2000 BC. Other tribes, such as the Igneri and Arawak Indians, populated the island between 120 and 1000 AD. At the time of Christopher Columbuss...

Passenger travel began to flourish in 1902 when the American Railroad Company from New York acquired the system.^[3] In 1904, a southern line was constructed between Hormigueros and Yauco, and the northern line was expanded towards the west to include the town of Aguadilla after a tunnel was constructed in Guajataca beach. In 1907, the line between San Juan and Ponce was completed, finally connecting the northern and southern portions of the island. By then, independent systems were also constructed along the southern and eastern coasts used exclusively for sugar cane transport. Before its demise, the Puerto Rico railroad system operated in all major towns, with stations along most of the western coastal towns and with direct commercial lines to all major sugar refineries in the island. Hormigueros is a municipality of Puerto Rico. ... Yauco is a municipality of Puerto Rico. ... Aguadilla is a small beach town in Northwest Puerto Rico. ... Flag Seal Nickname: Ciudad de los Leones , La Perla del Sur Gentilic: Ponceños Location Location of Ponce, Puerto Rico within Puerto Rico Government Founded 1692 Mayor Francisco Zayas Seijo Political party PPD Senatorial district 5 - Ponce Representative district 24,25 Geographical characteristics Area Total 501. ...

Transport by rail greatly improved the every day life of Puerto Ricans, since passengers could now travel between the largest cities, San Juan and Ponce, in record time. 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.^[3] 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. Plena is a traditional form of Puerto Rican music. ...

Tragedy on election day in 1944

On the early morning hours of November 7, 1944, the American Railroad Company of Puerto Rico suffered its most violent accident in its history.^[4] Train No. 3 was traveling from San Juan to Ponce carrying passengers to their different hometowns for the island general elections to be held that same day. It stopped at the Jimenez Station in Aguadilla for a routine engineer and boilerman exchange with Train No. 4 which was heading towards San Juan. The engineer assigned to Train No. 3’s ride from Jimenez Station to Ponce was Jose Antonio Roman, an experienced freight train engineer, but who had never worked in passenger travel.^[4] When the train left the station at 2:00am, it was hauling 6 passenger cars with hundreds of commuters and two freight cars. November 7 is the 311th day of the year (312th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 54 days remaining. ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... A railroad engineer or train driver is a person who operates a railroad locomotive. ... In steam railroading, a fireman or a boilerman was the designation for someone whose job it was to tend the fire for running the steam engine of a locomotive. ...

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 where it exploded 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.^[4] 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.^[4] In the end, 16 passengers lost their lives, including the engineer and the boilerman, and 50 were injured in the crash. Notable historic train accidents: 1830s September 15, 1830 – William Huskisson becomes first ever passenger train death. ... El Mundo can refer to: El Mundo (Spain), Spanish newspaper El Mundo (Puerto Rico), Puerto Rican newspaper El Mundo (Argentine), Argentine newspaper El Mundo (game), four player tables game described in the Alfonso X manuscript This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might...

Downfall

The abandoned San Juan Railroad Terminal.

When Puerto Rico changed its mostly agricultural economy to a manufacturing one, and the U.S. and Puerto Rican governments started investing heavily in interstate highways and freeways, the railroad business in the island soon collapsed. The system was almost lost when the American Railroad Company filed for bankruptcy in 1947.^[3] In an effort to save the system, former employees reorganized the company and formed the Puerto Rico Railroad and Transport Company serving as stockholders,^[3] but by then the system could no longer compete with the increasing number of automobiles, trucks, and buses on the island. Passenger travel ceased in 1953 while the commercial service (mostly for the sugar cane industry) continued operating until 1957. Image File history File links San_Juan_Terminal. ... Image File history File links San_Juan_Terminal. ... Category: ... A freeway is a type of highway that is designed for safer high-speed operation of motor vehicles through the elimination of at-grade intersections. ... A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or company (including a corporation), that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a joint stock company. ...

The only part of the system still in constant use is a small portion located in the town of Arroyo, just east of Guayama, which is used exclusively for tourism purposes. 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, such as: Image:Arroyo seal. ... Image:Guayamas eal. ...

• Tracks, in the streets of the Playa de Ponce neighborhood of Ponce;
• Tracks, along the old port section of Mayagüez;
• Abandoned diesel locomotives and sugar cane wagons, in the Serralles Distillery (home of the Don Q liquor), next to Mercedita Airport, in Ponce;
• Tracks and bridges, along PR-1 state road in the southern region of the island;
• Tracks, bridges and abandoned sugar cane wagons, in the Aguirre neighborhood between the Salinas and Guayama towns;
• Steam locomotive, on display in a public plaza in Peñuelas;
• Tunnel, between the Guajataca and Pastillo beaches, near the Guajataca Forest Reserve in Quebradillas;
• Tunnel, in Guaniquilla section of Cabo Rojo;
• Diesel locomotives and passenger cars, in the El Parque del Tren in Bayamón and Luis Muñoz Marín Park in San Juan (both were used for tourism until the late 1990s); and
• Bridge, in the Santurce neighborhood of San Juan, close to San Juan Central Park.
• Rail bridge, over the Añasco river, in Añasco.

Rail tracks. ... Diesel locomotives became the dominant type of locomotive in rail transport in the mid 20th century in much of the world. ... Juan Serralles (born c. ... Ron Don Q, alternatively known as Don Q, is a Puerto Rican rum brand. ... Mercedita Airport in Ponce, Puerto Rico, is a medium sized airport which is able to accept jets of any size on its runways. ... Salinas is a small Puerto Rican town near Ponce. ... Peñuelas (PAIN-wai-lahs) is a town in Puerto Rico located in the southern coast of the island, south of Adjuntas; east of Guayanilla; and west of Ponce and north of the Caribbean Sea. ... Flag Seal Nickname: La Guarida del Pirata, La Ciudad Pirata, La Ciudad del Cooperativismo, El Rincón de Guajataca Gentilic: Quebradillanos Location Location of Quebradillas, Puerto Rico within Puerto Rico Government Founded May 22, 1772 Mayor Hon. ... Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico is a small town which is Puerto Ricos southwestern-most point. ... El Parque del Tren (The Trains Park) is a touristic attraction in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. ... Bayamón (not to be confused with Bayamo, Cuba) is a city in northern Puerto Rico. ... José Luis Alberto Muñoz Marín (February 18, 1898 – April 30, 1980) was a poet, journalist and politician. ... San Juan is the capital city of Puerto Rico. ... Image:Añasco seal. ...

Tren Urbano

Main article: Tren Urbano

Tren Urbano at Bayamón Station.

The Tren Urbano is a commuter metro system serving the cities of Bayamón, Guaynabo and San Juan. It is the only active rail system serving the general public in Puerto Rico. It has 16 stations along a 10.7 mile (17.2 km) heavy-rail track, carrying an average of 40,000 passengers daily. The train’s purpose is to relieve traffic congestion in the San Juan metropolitan area with stops at the most important areas of the capital, including the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras campus, the Sagrado Corazon University campus, the Golden Mile District, and the Jose Miguel Agrelot Coliseum. San Juans Tren Urbano – Phase I Service Route and Stations. ... Tren Urbano at Bayamón Station File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Tren Urbano at Bayamón Station File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Guaynabo is a municipality in the northern part of Puerto Rico. ... The University of Puerto Rico (UPR) is the university system of Puerto Rico. ... Río Piedras was a town in Puerto Rico which was absorbed by the city of San Juan and is now one of its districts. ... Popular, Inc. ... Jose Miguel Agrelot Coliseum. ...

Other current systems

Few other railroad systems are currently operating in Puerto Rico, besides the Tren Urbano. These are:

• Port of Ponce Railroad – This is a small cargo system which services the current Port of Ponce. It has two diesel locomotives with dozens of liquid container cars, and is mainly used to transport oil and other liquid chemicals from incoming ships to storage areas. It is very rarely seen in operations, although this may change in the future with the expansion of the current port into a proposed international shipping hub.

• Arroyo Train – As stated above, this is a limited rail system dedicated exclusively for tourism. Two locomotives and several passenger wagons transport visitors 5n a tour of previously harvested sugar cane fields.

• El Parque del Tren – This was another limited rail system dedicated exclusively for tourism. It consisted of a locomotive with various passenger cars which would carry visitors around a large recreational park in Bayamón. Although closed due to the construction of the Tren Urbano, plans call for a restoration of the park.

Port logo. ... A locomotive (from Latin loco motivus) is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train, and has no payload capacity of its own; its sole purpose is to move the train along the tracks. ...

References

1. ^ Puerto Rico: Society and Culture Before the US Invasion of 1898: Transportation Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture (IPRAC) (Spanish)
2. ^ ^{a b c d} The Mayagüez Trans-Way, First Urban Rail System of Puerto Rico (El Tranvía de Mayagüez, Primer Ferrocarril Urbano de Puerto Rico), New Mayagüez Foundation, Inc. (Fundación Nuevo Mayagüez, Inc.) (Spanish)
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Violeta Landron, The Train: Memories and Nostalgia on Rails (El Tren: Recuerdos y Nostalgia sobre Rieles), Fiestas Patronales 2000, Vega Baja, PR, Pg. 44 (Spanish)
4. ^ ^{a b c d} La Tragedia del 7 de noviembre de 1944 (The Tragedy of November 7, 1944) by Haydee E. Reichard de Cancio, El Nuevo Dia, Por Dentro Section, Pg. 116, December 7, 1996, retrieved on July 31, 2006 (Spanish)

Vega Baja is a municipality of Puerto Rico. ... El Nuevo Día is a newspaper published daily in San Juan. ...

Further reading

• Jack Delano (June 1990), De San Juan a Ponce En El Tren (From San Juan to Ponce in Train), University of Puerto Rico, ISBN 0-8477-2117-5

The University of Puerto Rico (UPR) is the university system of Puerto Rico. ...

See also

• Rail transport in the United States
• List of Puerto Rico railroads
• List of United States railroads
• Transportation in Puerto Rico

To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Current common carriers Tren Urbano Defunct railroads American Railroad of Puerto Rico See also List of United States railroads Category: Lists of railroads by US state ... There arergwertwertert[1] Kyle Railroad (KYLE) [2] Missouri and Northern Arkansas Railroad (MNA) [3] Montana Rail Link (MRL) [4] Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA) [5] Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado RailNet (NKCR) New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (NYSW) [6] Northern Plains Railroad Paducah and Louisville Railway (PAL) [7] Palouse... Transportation in Puerto Rico Railways: total: 96 km narrow gauge: 96 km 1. ...

External links

• The Train: Memories and Nostalgia…, a site dedicated to the history of trains in Puerto Rico. (Spanish)
• Tren Urbano Home Page (Spanish)
• Puerto Rico Public Art Project – Tren Urbano – Photos and information related to the artwork located on each of the train route's stations. (Spanish)
• Tren Urbano Pictures – Flickr Group for posting photos of the tren urbano. (Spanish)