Guatemala has a network of

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

railroads, passenger and freight trains currently run.

History

Construction of the first railway in Guatemala commenced in 1877 and the first section began operation in 1880, connecting

Puerto San José Puerto San José is a town on Guatemala's Pacific Ocean coast, in the department of Escuintla. It has a population of 23,887 (2018 census),

and

Escuintla Escuintla () is an industrial city in Guatemala, its land extension is 4384 km², and it is nationally known for its sugar agribusiness. Its capital is a minicipality with the same name. Citizens celebrate from December 6 to 9 with a small fair ...

, being extended to

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, ne ...

in 1884. San Jose-Guatemala City-Zacapa is nowadays abandoned and removed. The line to

Puerto Barrios Puerto Barrios () is a city in Guatemala, located within the Gulf of Honduras. The city is located on Bahia de Amatique. Puerto Barrios is the departmental seat of Izabal department and is the administrative seat of Puerto Barrios municipality. ...

, known originally as

Northern Railroad of Guatemala The Northern Railroad of Guatemala was a railway system that ran from Guatemala City to Puerto Barrios, the main port of Guatemala, between 1896 and 1968. The American United Fruit Company had the monopoly of the railway system through its affilia ...

and now(2020)also removed, was completed in 1908. The network was soon acquired by

United Fruit The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was formed in 1899 fro ...

, and in 1912 renamed the International Railways of Central America which was also known as IRCA. The railroad prospered until 1957. In 1954, United Fruit had to divest following an antitrust suit and in 1959, a parallel

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-acces ...

caused a serious competitive pressure. In 1968, the company defaulted, was taken over by the government and renamed ''Ferrocarriles de Guatemala'' which was also known as FEGUA. The condition of tracks continued to deteriorate and all traffic was shut down in 1996. Only nostalgic tourist trains (by Trains Unlimited) ran on parts of the network in 1997 and 1998.

Revival

In October 1997, a 50-year concession was given to

Railroad Development Corporation The Railroad Development Corporation is an American railroad holding company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It operates several short line railroads outside the United States and acts as an investor, with management and institutional inves ...

(RDC) which started to rehabilitate the network. They were delayed by the need to evict squatters who built their cottages on the right-of-way during the previous years and to repair damage caused by thieves and nature. A serious blow was

Hurricane Mitch Hurricane Mitch is the second-deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, causing over 11,000 fatalities in Central America in 1998, including approximately 7,000 in Honduras and 3,800 in Nicaragua due to cataclysmic flooding from the slow motion ...

in 1998, which destroyed parts of the line. The first train under RDC management went from Guatemala City to El Chile cement plant on April 15, 1999, and the rest of the line to Puerto Barrios was put into operation in December of that year. Other lines previously existing in Guatemala (such as to Ciudad Tecún Umán on the border with

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, to Anguiatú in El Salvador and to

Puerto San José Puerto San José is a town on Guatemala's Pacific Ocean coast, in the department of Escuintla. It has a population of 23,887 (2018 census),

) have not been repaired since 1996. Including those, the railroad network would have counted . From 1999 until September 2007, Ferrovías Guatemala (FVG), as a subsidiary of RDC, operated 15 engines and 200 railcars on freight trains between Guatemala City and Puerto Barrios. It transported

containers A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...

, steel,

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

, paper and bananas between the Caribbean coast and the capital over a network of , but quit in September 2007.Central America going nowhere
'' Railway Gazette International'' August 2007. It connected

with short branches in Guatemala City container terminal and Puerto Santo Tomás. The cross-border line from Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas in Mexico to Ciudad Tecún Umán was rebuilt with in 2019.

Suspension of operations in 2007

In August 2006, the government of Guatemala declared a 2003 contract for the

usufruct Usufruct () is a limited real right (or ''in rem'' right) found in civil-law and mixed jurisdictions that unites the two property interests of ''usus'' and ''fructus'': * ''Usus'' (''use'') is the right to use or enjoy a thing possessed, direct ...

of rolling stock and other equipment as contrary to public interest ('' :es:Declaración de lesividad''), invalidating it. FVG believed that this was a response to its earlier request for arbitration regarding the usage of 2 million USD from National Railroad Trust, designated for the development of railroads in Guatemala but used to support an overstaffed governmental oversight agency. The result of the governmental action was a decline of shipments and operational difficulties, such as inability to obtain credit or take additional revenues from the leasing of station buildings or

right of way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

. In March 2007, RDC declared its intent to seek protection of investment through arbitration against the government of Guatemala according to Chapter 10 of CAFTA. The case was registered with ICSID on August 20, 2007 with number ARB/07/23. Due to the continuing uncertainty leading to losses, FVG decided to suspend all operations as of October 1, 2007 while continuing with legal actions against the Guatemalan government. The arbitration case was finally decided in favor of RDC and US$14.6m paid as compensation. , most of the bridges have been dismantled and sold for scrap by thieves, making a potential revival of railways in Guatemala difficult, as it would cost millions of dollars to rebuild. In August 2012, there were proposals to start some new passenger services, including a link from La Aurora airport to

Ferrocarril de Los Altos

Outside of the IRCA network, an electric railroad ''Ferrocarril de Los Altos'' used to connect

Quetzaltenango Quetzaltenango (, also known by its Maya name Xelajú or Xela ) is both the seat of the namesake Department and municipality, in Guatemala. The city is located in a mountain valley at an elevation of above sea level at its lowest part. It m ...

and

Retalhuleu The city of Retalhuleu () is situated in south-western Guatemala. It is the departmental seat of Retalhuleu Department as well as the municipal seat of Retalhuleu Municipality. Retalhuleu stands at about 240 metres above sea level. The city has a ...

between 1930 and 1933. It was destroyed by a hurricane in 1933 and never rebuilt. The remains are on display in a dedicated museum in Quetzaltenango ().

Ferrocarril Verapaz

Another isolated railroad, ''Ferrocarril Verapaz'' (also known as ''Ferropazco''), used to connect

Panzós Panzós () is a town, with a population of 22,068 (2018 census), and a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz. On 29 May 1978, the village of Panzós was the site of a massacre in which between 30 and 106 local inhabitants (fi ...

and

Tucurú Tucurú is a small town and municipality in the Guatemalan department of Alta Verapaz. History Verapaz Railroad The Verapaz Railroad began on 15 January 1894 with a contract for 99 years between Guatemala, then ruled by president José Ma ...

Alta Verapaz Alta Verapaz () is a department in the north central part of Guatemala. The capital and chief city of the department is Cobán. Verapaz is bordered to the north by El Petén, to the east by Izabal, to the south by Zacapa, El Progreso, and ...

Department. Its construction was authorized in 1884 and completed in 1895. Its main purpose was to transport coffee from farms (fincas) controlled mainly by Germans to the port of Panzós on

Polochic River The Polochic River () is a river in eastern Guatemala. It flows eastwards through a deep valley and flows into Lake Izabal at . The river is navigable for to Panzós. It was used many years ago to transport coffee and timber Lumber is w ...

, which merged to Lago de Izabal and the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

. The company was nationalized in 1943. In 1956, the government created a national company ''Ferrocarril Verapaz y Servicios Anexos''. Operations along ''Ferrocarril Verapaz y Servicios Anexos'' stopped in 1963.

Tourist trains

Charter passenger trains with steam engines, mainly for European and U.S. tourists, were organized usually once a year by UK based Ffestiniog Travel or other operators. Traffic control used a modified

Track warrant A track warrant is a set of instructions issued to a train crew authorizing specific train movements. The system is widely used in North America. The warrant is issued by the train dispatcher and delivered to the train crew via radio. The train cr ...

Control method. The main station in Guatemala city also serves as railroad museum.

Railway museum

The '' Museo del Ferrocarril FEGUA'' is located in the railway station at

and displays steam engines, a diesel engine, passenger and freight cars, and other memorabilia of the Ferrocarriles de Guatemala.

Proposed light rail

A light rail system called Metro Riel is planned for Guatemala City.

Railway links with adjacent countries

– at Ciudad Tecún Umán

break of gauge With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally cannot ...

/. (rebuilt as standard gauge in 2019 * There is no connection to

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

or Honduras, but still proposed. * The former link to El Salvador – at Angulatú/San Jerónimo – is not active.

In Books

Adventure traveler

Richard Halliburton Richard Halliburton (January 9, 1900 – presumed dead after March 24, 1939) was an American travel writer and adventurer who swam the length of the Panama Canal and paid the lowest toll in its history—36 cents in 1928. He disappeared at ...

described Guatemala's former main railroad line in ''New Worlds to Conquer'' (1929). Travel writer Paul Theroux described his journey by train through Guatemala in his book ''

The Old Patagonian Express ''The Old Patagonian Express'' (1979) is a written account of a journey taken by novelist Paul Theroux. Starting out from his home town in Massachusetts, via Boston and Chicago, Theroux travels by train across the North American plains to Lared ...

'', as he traveled from

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...

References

External links

*
Ferrovías Guatemala
– current operator of Guatemalan railroads (more links imbedded inside)

– history, 17 photographs, 2 maps

with map, gradient profile and photographs

with contact addresses, photographs and links
Germans in Verapaz
article in Prensa Libre with a picture of Ferrocarril Verapaz {{Central America topic, Rail transport in 3 ft gauge railways in Guatemala