The Railway in Trinidad - Part I
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Although the year 1846 marks the start of the Trinidad railway story, passenger rail travel did not come into effect until many years after. It was at that time that the first effort was made to establish a railway in Trinidad.
The island, being generally
flat was particularly suited to rail transport. Also, there were many estates
which desperately needed transport for their produce but at that time there
were no usable roads. In addition, the railway company that eagerly undertook
surveys in order to start laying down its lines could not meet the enormous
cost of the project.
In 1859, in an area near to San Fernando in the southwest, William
Eccles, owner of a large sugar estate laid down the first rails in Trinidad in
order to bring produce from his estates to the San Fernando wharf and on to the
waiting ships and sloops. This railway, which ran alongside the Cipero River,
was called the Cipero Tramway following
a route between the San Fernando wharf and Princes Town. The mouth of the river
was sometimes used as a wharf or embarcadere to load sugar cane onto lighters.
The Cipero Tramway was enormously successful — but only for William
Eccles. It did not solve the problem of national transportation. What William
Eccles succeeded in doing was showing the way. What was really needed in a
Trinidad rich in estates but poor in transportation was something quite
different.
In seaside villages such as Mayaro, the Naparimas, and Toco, the round-the-island
steamers were able to collect the produce from the estates. For estates like El
Dorado and Laurel Hill in Tunapuna, El Reposo in Cunapo, La Pastora and El
Cantaro in Santa Cruz, and Milton and Spring Vale in Savonetta what was seriously
needed and what was in fact possible in 1876 were not beasts of burden, which were
slow, but the iron horse - in other
words, the railway, with its freight vans and its carriages - to facilitate those
who wished to visit the market and perhaps to see the other towns and villages In
short, what was critical was a vehicle, on road or rail, to render a service to
the people.
This was precisely the reason why the Trinidad railway authorities
were anxious to handle freight as well as passengers. They knew that such a
railway would make money because the planters needed transportation for their
produce and hundreds of persons would for the first time in their lives be
going places. The Trinidad Government Railway could not but introduce exciting
days!
In 1873, the message that had come to the government some time before
was finally acted upon. The necessary surveys were carried out and three years
later, in 1876, the lines of the Trinidad Government Railway were laid down. Taking
everything into consideration the government decided that it was not going to
cater simply for freight, or passengers,
but for everything.
After much debate it was decided to run the line to Arima. It was
felt that such a decision would please both the sugar and cocoa planters, who were
watching closely to see what was going on. It was expected that this initiative
would have pleased them because Arima was a heavy cocoa-producing area and the
route from Port-of-Spain to Arima was strewn with very fine and productive sugar
estates. However, the cocoa planters saw the line as a “sugar line,” and the
sugar planters called it a “cocoa line.” The man-in-the-street, though, could
not wait to see him as the “man-in-the-train.” All along the route of that
Port-of-Spain-to-Arima line crowds welcomed the workers laying down the rails.
The first length of railway line of the Trinidad Government Railway
was laid from the western side of South Quay, in Port-of-Spain, just east of
the lighthouse, and took a course of 16 miles due east to Arima. That was an
ideal route, for even then it was a “corridor,” well populated, and replete
with many sugar and cocoa estates. Therefore, all sectors stood to gain.
Thousands of persons who could not have afforded to ride on horse-back will now
are able to travel to “attend to their affairs,” and planters who oftentimes
had watched their crops rot on the ground will be able to get their produce
from field to factory or market.
The first trial of the line, with carriages and all that went with
it, was to San Juan, and then to Saint Joseph. The reporter who covered the
journey for the Port-of-Spain Gazette certainly did not rise to the occasion on
that historic day, for he has not told us much.
The inauguration of the Trinidad Government Railway took place on Santa
Rosa Day, the 31st August, 1876, a day on which Arima was
celebrating the Santa Rosa Festival. Hundreds crowded into the carriages in
Port-of-Spain and there was much gaiety and emotion. For it was almost certain
that in the whole history of Trinidad there was none among the crowd who had
ever travelled so fast and so far. A reporter wrote: “The trains were run up
and then down, and the greatest regularity was observed. The three last trains
were late but that was only to be expected. Altogether the Government and the
railway officials are to be congratulated on the success of the opening.”
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