Rail transport in Honduras

Passenger train in La Ceiba on January 11, 2005. Engineer tanks fuel manually from a barrel. Colorful passenger car (former box car without walls) is attached to the right.

Rail map as of 1925

Railroads in Honduras were built in late 19th and early 20th centuries by two competing U.S. corporations - United Fruit (Tela Railroad Company) and Standard Fruit (later nationalized). All were in the Caribbean coastal area and never reached the capital. In 1993, the combined network had 785 km. At present (2006), only three separate segments remain in operation under the management of FNH - Ferrocarril Nacional de Honduras:

San Pedro Sula - Puerto Cortes (50 km, freight trains carrying mainly lumber)
City rail in La Ceiba (3 km, passenger transport between downtown and a western suburb, Col. Sitramacsa)
Line between La Unión (a village near La Ceiba)^[1] and Parque Nacional Cuero y Salado (9 km, transport of coconuts to a processing plant and of tourists to national park)
In late 2010, a commuter/tourist train was established in San Pedro Sula.

History

The railroads in Honduras were originally built by banana companies and consisted of two separate systems with differing gauges. The larger system, with almost 600 kilometers (370 mi) of track, was built by Standard Fruit Company in the early 1900s. Half of this system was 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge; the other half consisted of 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge lines. The government nationalized the Standard Fruit line in 1983, renaming it the Honduras National Railroad (Ferrocarril Nacional de Honduras—FNH). The other system, owned by the Tela Railroad Company, a subsidiary of Chiquita Brands International, encompassed 190 kilometers (120 mi) of 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge lines. Both systems were located in the north central and northwestern coastal areas of Honduras and provided freight and passenger service.^[2]

FERISTSA

The FERISTSA Railway was proposed to connect Mexico with Panama and therefore pass through Honduras.^[3]

Transoceanic project

In 2013 it was announced that the Honduran Government and the China Harbour Engineering Company (CCEC) were interested in building a transoceanic railroad.^[4]

References

↑ Google. "La Unión" (Map). Google Maps. Google.
↑ from www.countrydata.com
↑ "Shaw Group in talks with US railroad cos for Feristsa project, Central America, Infrastructure, news". Retrieved 2010-10-16.
↑ Rebecca Conan (June 21, 2013). "Chinese firm to develop US20bn Panama Canal alternative in Honduras". BN americas. Retrieved January 17, 2015.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rail transport in Honduras.

Rail transport in Central America

Sovereign states	Belize Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Nicaragua Panama

Rail transport in North America

Sovereign states	Antigua and Barbuda Bahamas Barbados Belize Canada Costa Rica Cuba Dominica Dominican Republic El Salvador Grenada Guatemala Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Trinidad and Tobago United States

Dependencies and other territories	Anguilla Aruba Bermuda Bonaire British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Curaçao Greenland Guadeloupe Martinique Montserrat Puerto Rico Saint Barthélemy Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saba Sint Eustatius Sint Maarten Turks and Caicos Islands United States Virgin Islands

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