Railroad to begin limited passenger service in April

by Eric Jackson

The Panama Canal Railway Company, the local subsidiary of a consortium headed by Kansas City Southern Railways, will be carrying passengers sooner than had been thought. Some time back the company had estimated that passenger service would begin a year and one-half after the railroad's principal business, hauling containers between ports, got underway. Now the railroad's executive director, Robert Emerick, says that limited passenger service will come first, with freight operations beginning in June or July. The railroad will be fully operational by August, he added.

There won't be much competition for the Panama-Colon buses, but Aeroperlas may feel the squeeze. Such passenger service as will be offered will include a $25 per round trip service for people commuting to and from the Colon Free Zone, and even more costly but somewhat slower rides in a glass "dome car" for cruise ship tourists only.

Kansas City Southern is investing some $80 million to rebuild the world's original Atlantic-Pacific rail link, and will pay the Panamanian government a flat 10 percent of its gross revenues over the course of its 50-year concession. Emerick said that this will create "Latin America's Intermodal Hub," which he expects will complement rather than compete with the canal for business. It's all a rather new business model, but the expectation is that intermodal operations will make trade between Asia and the east coast of South America more efficient, by allowing ships going from the Far East to Europe to drop off containers bound for Latin America and the Caribbean to be taken to their destinations by other ships.

That was in Kansas City Southern's plans all along. The passenger service is just gravy.

"We had never anticipated providing passenger service," Emerick said, adding that "unfortunately, we will not be able to offer public transportation, and certainly not for $1.50." But a group of Free Zone merchants who live in the capital and detest the choice of driving flying on small commuter planes went to the company and made an offer that was to profitable to refuse. Later, representatives of some of the cruise lines did the same. Emerick noted that the railroad will have eight passenger cars, which means that in the height of tourist season "we're going to have more demand than we can satisfy."

The intermodal system that's under construction will change landmarks on both sides of the isthmus and, because the government has planned belatedly and ineptly, snarl traffic. The spur that goes from Mount Hope through Rainbow City to Manzanillo International Terminal and Coco Solo Norte will go right through the present Four Corners intersection, and the government spent the money for an overpass on something else. Emerick foresees driver complaints about the tie-ups when trains close the intersection. Meanwhile in Balboa and Albrook, the Port of Balboa is embarking on a huge expansion that will have containers parked where once the Little League played ball, and the street changes that needed to have been done for that development are as retarded as those at Four Corners.

Unlike a light passenger rail service, elevating the tracks over traffic isn't a viable option for the sorts of operations that are central to the Panama Canal Railway's plans. These trains will be double-stacked with containers, with locomotives in front and back, and will only be able to tolerate the most gradual of grades. For that reason as well, Emerick sees little possibility of Howard playing much of a role in intermodal operations - there's no practical way for heavy double-decker container trains crossing the canal.

While the Four Corners intersection will be a mess, the railroad has installed most of the warning lights and barriers on its 18 traffic crossings, and is about to embark on a publicity campaign for safety's sake. People who used to race trains across intersections in the old days, never very smart even then, will be dealing with significantly faster trains than in the times of the Panama Railroad. The trains will go up to 70 miles per hour on the causeway over Gatun Lake and about 40 miles per hour on average.

And they'll be here sooner than you thought.

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