The Railways of Jamaica, constructed from 1845, were the first railway lines opened to traffic outside Europe and North America, and the second British Colony after Canada's Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad of 1836 to receive a railway system.[1][2] Construction started only twenty years after George Stephenson's Stockton and Darlington Railway commenced operations in the United Kingdom.[3]
The public passenger railway service in Jamaica which was closed in October 1992,[4] re-opened in 2011 (see below). The Parliament of Jamaica debate leading towards a revival under a public joint venture corporation proposed with an offshore partner.[5] Private freight transport continues on limited tracks leading to the various docks around the Caribbean island, transporting bauxite and sugar cane for export.
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The first railway called the Western Jamaica Connecting Railway was built in 1845 from Kingston 14.5 miles (23.3 km) to Angels.[3] The railway was proposed and started by William Smith, originally from Manchester who owned land in Jamaica, and his sugar planter brother David.[6]
The system approved by the Assembly of Jamaica in 1843 was for a double track between Kingston and Spanish Town, with branch lines to Angels, Port Henderson and the Caymanas sugar estate.[6] On 21 November 1845[7] the Governor of Jamaica James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and ten carriages of passengers, pulled by the companies two locomotives Projector and Patriot built by Sharp Brothers of Manchester,[8] travelled 12 miles (19 km) from Kingston to Spanish Town.[3] The first train came after the UK Government had enacted the Sugar Duties Act 1846 and just after the emancipation of slaves, meaning the sugar industry needed the efficiency that the railway would bring to the difficult too passage island.
The construction of the first single-track section was budgeted to cost £150,000, but cost £222,250, or £15,377 per mile. As a result of the cost of building and a downturn in the sugar industry, only another 11 miles (18 km) were added until 1869 in the form of an extension from Spanish Town to Old Harbour[8] at a cost of £60,000.[7]
After a period of decline, new Governor Sir Anthony Musgrave agreed a deal in 1879 to buy the existing 26 miles (42 km) of the system for £93,932.[8][9] After an investment and improvement program, the expansion of the citrus and banana industries led to two extensions, extending the total system to 65 miles (105 km): westward from Old Harbour to Porus (24½ miles);[7] northwards from Angel to the interior district of Ewarton[8][9] (14¼ miles).[7] Both were completed in 1885 at a total cost of approximately £280,000.[7] Main article: Railways of Jamaica: Spanish Town to Ewarton.
After debates about extensions, on 1 January 1890 the railway was transferred to an American consortia headed by New York merchant Frederick Wesson, and extensions from Porus 62 miles (100 km) to Montego Bay in 1895,[9] and an extension through the banana, cacao, citrus and coconut districts of St Catherine, St Mary and Portland was developed over 54 miles (87 km) from Bog Walk to Port Antonio in 1896.[9] Main article Railways of Jamaica: Bog Walk to Port Antonio.
The Jamaican system now had a total of 185 miles (298 km) of railway lines stretching from the south-eastern to the north-western and north-eastern ends of the island.[10]
However, the loans taken out to secure railway ownership by the company, together with its purchase of 76,000 acres (308 km2) of prime Crown land in various parts of Jamaica, proved too strenuous. After defaulting in 1897 and 1898, by order of the Jamaican Supreme Court the company fell into receivership. In 1900 the government assumed responsibility for the railway again, and made it a department of government. It appointed a Railway Advisory Board in 1902 to advise, which remained in place until 1960 when the statutory 100% government owned J$6million company the Jamaica Railway Corporation was created.[10]
Between 1900 and 1950, less than 50 miles (80 km) of track was added, mainly to support opening of the interior to banana cultivation[11]:
In the 1940s deposits of Bauxite were discovered in the interior, and companies developed both interconnected as well as independent lines to extract, process and ship the minerals:[11]
The agricultural driven growth of the railways were created by a harsh interior geography, and developing consumer need meant that post WW2 only two days after cutting, bananas had to be on a ship. Having shipped 330,000 stems in 1880 to 24 million stems in 1930, a quickening decline in the industry meant that by 1969 the transport of bananas by rail ceased. In 1895 Jamaica had exported 97 million fruits; by 1940 the figure had plunged to 40 million, and hit by the loss of the monopoly of the British market and the 1951 hurricane, in 1975 it was just 5 million. Passenger figures had also started to fall, as pre WW2 the government had started a bridge building program. By 1971 Jamaica had 7,200 miles (11,590 km) of roads, 1,350 of which were paved; alongside motorbuses which were accessing further inland, private cars had increased from 15,000 in 1950 to 142,300 by 1975.[14]
After a post WW2 report by C. E. Rooke recommended closure of the Port Antonio to Spanish Town line, the government only closed the Linstead to Ewarton branch in 1947.[15] The 1951 hurricane brought about a recommendation by the United Nations envoy to invest in the railway to keep the bauxite traffic, and hence the passenger rates economically viable.
The government agreed change of the railway after the 1 September 1957 crash, the worst transport accident in Jamaica's history, in which a 12-car wooden body train carrying 1,600 passengers derailed at Kendal, killing 175 passengers and injuring over 800.[16]
The first diesel power had entered Jamaica in 1939 with two D Wickham & Co diesel coaches. After the creation of the Jamaica Railway Corporation in 1960, management increased this transformation significantly from 1963 onwards:
In 1967, two ALCO RS-3 1,050 h.p. diesel-electric locomotives were purchased. With the phasing out of the steam power, by 1970 Jamaica's railways had fourteen diesel-electric locomotives and only one steam locomotive was still in operation.[16] Between 1972 and 1976, an additional 18 ALCO RS-8's, manufactured by MLW in Canada, were purchased in three batches of six locomotives.[17]
By 1975 there were:[11][18][19]
By 1973 JRC's operational deficit had risen to J$3.4 million, and in 1975 it was nearing J$4 million and carrying a J$11 million loan. The government was paying over J$1.4 million in subsidy to keep the island's trains running. However, the financial crisis had led to a backlog of deferred maintenance, with stock and buildings also neglected. In 1974 the May Pen-Frankfield line closed, with the Bog Walk-Port Antonio line closing in 1975.[20]
Public pressure forced the government to reopen the Port Antonio line at a cost of J$1.4 million in 1977. The condition of the track resulted in reclosure of the line in 1978. Hurricane Allen in 1980 damaged much of the JRC railway system, and totally destroyed a section of the Port Antonio line running along the coast between Buff Bay and Orange Bay.
In October 1992 public rail transport services finally ceased operating on Jamaica,[4] although four of the private industrial lines continue to operate today, in part using JRC lines.[21] Of the total of 272 kilometres (169 mi) standard gauge at the time on the island, 207 kilometres (129 mi) of common carrier service belonging to JRC are no longer operational, leaving 65 kilometres (40 mi) in private hands.[22]
The Jamaican Railway Corporation still exists today -see below under "Revival". It is responsible for management of the JRC interests and property, and maintaining its locomotives but not the rolling stock.[23]
In November 1990 JRC signed a 30-year Track User Agreement with Alcan Jamaica, which was renegotiated with the successor Windalco in December 2001.[24]
The company makes J$40 million per year through track user fees for the hauling of alumina and bauxite, and the residual from the rental of real estate and its three operable locomotives. The company has a staff of 76, who fulfill contractual obligations to users of the company's facilities.[25]
The Jamaican Government is discussing resumption of national rail services, initially with Canadian National Railway[26] and then Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES);[25] and now with the China Railways after a deal was signed by the Prime Minister P J Patterson with Chinese vice-president Zeng Qinghong in Jamaica in February 2005.[27] During the 1990s, a plan was considered which would see commuter services between Kingston and Spanish Town, later extended to Linstead. It was proposed to cost US$8 million and be up and running by January 2001, with the government holding 40% of a public-private venture.[28]
Passenger service returned to Jamaica for the first time since February 1992 on 16 April 2011, when an inaugural train operated from May Pen to Linstead.[29] Regular service was planned to begin in July, with three round-trips a day between Spanish Town and Linstead, with extensions to Williamsfield and Gregory Park opening in September and December, respectively.[29] Service to Kingston is expected to begin in 2012, after a bridge is constructed.[29] Passenger service is provided by two diesel locomotives and five coaches, each with an 80-passenger capacity.[29]
There has also been talk of establishing a tourist route on Jamalco's line between Rocky Point and Breadnut.[30]
Exactly when mail began to be carried by the railway is not known, but it is known that in 1873 the postmaster terminated a mail contract with the railway because he found the service to be more unreliable than the road service.[31]
In 1878, a limited mail collection system was established with the placement of a post office receiving box at each of the Kingston, Spanish Town, and Old Harbour stations.[31] Whether this service continued between 1890 and 1900 when the West India Improvement Co. owned and operated the railway is not known.[31] However, with the resumption of government ownership in 1900 a concerted effort was made to give the railway a more active role in the collection of mail.[31] A few stations were stops at major plantations and although the volume of mail from these locations was very small, timely pick-up of this correspondence, much of it commercial, was deemed vital to the well being of the economy.[31]
The railway station clerk was responsible for cancelling the stamps on correspondence with a date-stamp.[31] Each station already had its own date-stamp (used to validate passenger railway tickets); this same date-stamp was used to cancel stamps on mail.[31] Forty one stations are known to have cancelled mail though some of them handled very little mail.[31] Inland mail to and from the Jamaica Government Railway could be sent postage free if it related to official business.[32]
From 1913-09-01 sorting carriages were added to trains on the main routes: Kingston to Port Antonio and Kingston to Montego Bay.[33] These carriages were fitted with posting boxes.[33]
Following World War I, the Jamaican economy experienced a decline and the government decided to eliminate the expense of maintaining a railway station postal system; by then, these offices duplicated the services of most nearby post offices.[31] Effective 1924-12-31, the government withdrew the facilities for posting mail at railway station windows and receiving boxes, thereby eliminating the system of clearing the railway station postboxes ten minutes before a train was due.[31][33] However, a few of the stations continued to accept stamped parcels for four more years. Stamp-less official mail continued as late as 1948.[31]
The travelling post office service resumed on 1927-03-28.[34] Its last run was on 1966-05-14.[35] An official note c1954 stated that "passenger trains between Kingston and Montego Bay (TPO 1) and Kingston and Port Antonio (TPO 2) are each equipped with a Post Office with a postman in charge. There is a letter-box at each station which the train postman clears en route."[34]
The railway architecture, developed and seen through the stations which were built between 1845 and 1896, is a reflection of classical Jamaican Georgian architecture.[1] Although under the care and maintenance of the JRC, those that are not used for commercial purposes and rented out to traders are presently in a state of disrepair.[25]
The Jamaica Railways have a good record on accidents, but two incidents stand out:
| 1845–1865 | David Smith[36] |
| 1900-???? | James Richmond[36] |
| c1945 | H R Fox[36] |
| c2005 | Owen Crooks[37] |
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