Rail transport in Puerto Rico

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This article is part of the history of rail transport by country series.

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.

[edit] History

[edit] 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]

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]

[edit] 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.

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.

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.

[edit] 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 fireman 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.

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.^[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 fireman, and 50 were injured in the crash.

[edit] 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.

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:

• 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 and Levitown;
• 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 on 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.

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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

[edit] See also

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

[edit] 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)