Category:Railways of Jamaica

From Jamaica Wiki

The construction of The Railways Of Jamaica started in 1845. It was the first railway outside Britain and America that was opened to traffic. Currently the public railway service is closed and just a limited number of tracks are still used mainly for the needs of the bauxite and the sugar industry.

History

The name of the first railway was Western Jamaica Connecting Railway and it was built in 1845. The railway service was from Kingston to Angels. The project was started by William Smith – land owner in Jamaica.

The railway project included a double track between Kingston and Spanish Town with branch lines to Angels, Port Henderson and the Caymanas sugar estate. It was approved by the Assembly of Jamaica in 1843. In 1845 the first passenger carriage services started – there were ten carriages of passengers going between Kingston to Spanish Town. In 1846 the first train came. It was a result of the British reform admitting the needs of alternative transport for the sugar industry on the island that was otherwise had to passage.

The costs of the railway construction were much higher than the originally estimated costs - the first single track section cost was £222,250 instead of £150,000, as budgeted. For this reason he railway construction declined.

In 1879 another 26 miles were added to the Jamaican railway system, this was because of the deal that the new Governor Sir Anthony Musgrave made. The railway now was servicing the citrus and banana industries. After the expansion there were tracks westward from Old Harbour to Porus; northwards from Spanish Town to the interior district of Ewarton.

In 1890 the railway was transferred to an American company. Its head was Frederick Wesson. During the period of American ownership the railroad system was extended from Porus 62 miles to Montego Bay (1895) and through the banana, cacao, citrus and coconut districts of St Catherine, St Mary and Portland (1896).

The costs for these extensions were quite high for the American company and the Jamaican government had to take over t again in 1900. It appointed a Railway Advisory Board in 1902 which aim was to advise the best course of action for the future railway system development. The board remained until 1960 when the Jamaica Railway Corporation was created.

The new expansions of the railway system were insignificant – only 50 miles were added from 1900 to 1950. Their purpose was mainly to support opening of the interior to banana cultivation.

Bauxite lines

After bauxite deposits were discovered in the 40s some companies developed independent lines to extract, process and ship the minerals. The companies that invested into these extensions were:

• Alcan; they used the JRC lines from Bodies to ship its product to Port Esquiville and completed 3 miles of lines in 1951.
• Alcoa; the company built 19 miles to connect its Woodside mines with the port at Rocky Point Port.
• Kaiser Bauxite Company; the company built 12 miles from mines in upper Saint Ann Parish to Discovery Bay.
• Alpart; they built 11 miles in the 1970s to connect its refinery at Nain with Port Kaiser near Alligator Pond.
• Reynolds; they built lines to link mines, drying plants and ports.