Redevelopment of the country’s railways faced the familiar stumbling block of the constraints imposed by being under state control, which had allowed unregulated road transport to gain a decisive upper hand in winning new traffic. The concession also included port facilities and rights to develop alternative uses for the right of way, for example pipelines and fibre optics. “The country’s rail network is 1,067mm gauge line consisting of 784km length.” To reconstruct and operate the railway, a new company, Ferrovías Guatemala (FVG), was created by RDC and included Guatemalan investors. In October 1997 a 50-year concession was awarded to the Compania Desarrolladora Ferroviaria SA consortium, an affiliate of the Railroad Development Corporation (RDC) of Pittsburgh, US. By 2000, containers, steel, cement and paper were also carried. More importantly, it provided links between the country’s interior and the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which, in reality, are its economic lifelines, providing the main routes by which its principal exports of coffee, bananas and sugar could be transported to their main markets. Northern neighbour Mexico uses 1,435mm gauge. It linked with the same gauge of El Salvador railways, where efforts continue to restore some of the services following total suspension during 2002. The government had taken over the previously private network in 1968, renaming the system Ferrocarriles de Guatemala (FEGUA).Īt its height, FEGUA enjoyed a status as the most important rail network in Central America, despite operating on a non-standard 3ft (914mm) gauge. Closed completely in 1996, progress was being made with the return to use of the derelict 784km (497 mile) rail network of Guatemala.
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