Puerto Rico by Train? Ummm No.
Monday June 22, 2009
I love train travel: Eurorail, Japanese Bullet Trains, luxury trains in the far east; I've done them all, and each presents a different but exciting journey, a communal adventure with hundreds of like-minded strangers heading for a new horizon. So when Susan Breslow Sardone, About.com's Guide to Honeymoons/Romantic Travel, decided to throw together a blog carnival on train travel, I had to share it with you.
That doesn't mean Puerto Rico is now, or is about to be, a great train travel destination: the island is too small for that. There is a train in San Juan, the tren urbano, but that's mostly for business travelers trying to get to the Hato Rey business district. No, if it's long-distance transportation in the company of strangers that you crave, the best I can offer you is the público, where you might just find yourself in a small van heading to a remote town along with a traveling band of local musicians. It might not be the Orient Express, but it's definitely a different way to see the countryside of Puerto Rico.
Comments
Puerto Rico used to have a HUGE train system. It’s a shame the TU won’t grow up to be the big metro it was once planned to be. The extensions are cancelled due to low ridership.
Puerto Rico has currently a few proposals for trains through public-private partnerships.
“the island is too small for that.”
Yea, so we had trains before we can have trains now.
David, you make a great point. Puerto Rico did have an extensive train system before, but the network of clean, well-maintained roads and the explosion of cars has shrunk travel throughout the island. Personally, I would love to see a return to rail travel, and I think it would help tourism to have a well-managed system, but it would be a costly project to implement.
Thanks for reminding us of the good old days!
Zain