Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in ...

is a small Caribbean island which is an overseas department/region and

single territorial collectivity A single territorial collectivity (french: collectivité territoriale unique) is a chartered subdivision of France that exercises the powers of both a region and a department. This subdivision was introduced in Mayotte in 2011, in French Guia ...

of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in the

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles ( es, link=no, Antillas Menores; french: link=no, Petites Antilles; pap, Antias Menor; nl, Kleine Antillen) are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc bet ...

of the West Indies in the eastern

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 ...

. It has a land area of and a population of 376,480 inhabitants as of January 2016. One of the

Windward Islands french: Îles du Vent , image_name = , image_caption = ''Political'' Windward Islands. Clockwise: Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada. , image_alt = , locator_map = , location = Caribbean Sea No ...

, it is directly north of Saint Lucia, northwest of

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...

and south of Dominica. Martinique is also an Outermost Region (OMR) of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

and a special territory of the European Union; the currency in use is the

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

. Virtually the entire population speaks both French (the sole official language) and

Martinican Creole Antillean Creole (Antillean French Creole, Kreyol, Kwéyòl, Patois) is a French-based creole that is primarily spoken in the Lesser Antilles. Its grammar and vocabulary include elements of Carib, English, and African languages. Antillean Creol ...

. Given its geography, the balance of its

transport network A transport network, or transportation network, is a network or graph in geographic space, describing an infrastructure that permits and constrains movement or flow. Examples include but are not limited to road networks, railways, air routes ...

is unusual: there are three airports, only 2.5 km of heritage railway, and 2,105 km of paved highways (in 2000). Sea transport is also important, and there are two harbours at Fort-de-France and La Trinité.

Road transport

As of 2000,

had 2,105 km of paved highways. There is a part of the N5 road that has been upgraded as a motorway, running from the capital Fort-de-France through Lamentin, Ducos and Rivière Salée until Les Coteaux.

Rail transport

Martininique has now⁽²⁰¹⁸⁾ only one railway line in operation: The little-known 2.5 km long Le Train des Plantations is a heritage railway that runs from the Rhum Museum in Sainte-Marie through some sugarcane and banana plantations over two Bailey bridges to the Banana Museum. In former times several narrow gauge sugarcane railways existed. Saint-Pierre had horse-drawn trams, which had an unusually narrow gauge. At least two steam locomotives are preserved in an optically refurbished condition, but not operational.

Air transport

It has three airports, the main one being

Martinique Aimé Césaire International Airport Martinique Aimé Césaire International Airport (french: link=no, Aéroport international de Martinique-Aimé-Césaire, ) is the international airport of Martinique in the French West Indies. Located in Le Lamentin, a suburb of the capital Fort ...

. See

List of Airports in Martinique This is a list of airports in Martinique, sorted by location. Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean. It is an overseas department (french: département d'outre-mer, ''DOM'') of France. ICAO location identifiers are linked to each ai ...

References

Transport in Martinique Rail transport in Martinique {{Martinique-stub