No urgency for reintroduction of railway – Jagdeo

Last Updated on Wednesday, 31 July 2024, 22:25 by Writer

The Guyana government is not anxious to reintroduce a railway system on the coastland, but would likely first have a tramcar service in Georgetown when the country begins generating cheaper electricity, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said Wednesday.

“Once you have cheap electricity, then you can go with the tram system to move people around. That’s not on the card right away but we still have those plans maybe for future development,” he said.

Mr Jagdeo said government had previously thought about building a light passenger rail from Haslington, East Coast Demerara, to Diamond where a “significant” number of persons estimated at 350,000 live. “That is a possibility because a huge number of people live in this area,” he said.

According to Mr Jagdeo government was leaning more in the direction of road developments rather than introducing a rail from Moleson Creek, Corentyne, along the coast. Asked about reintroducing a passenger rail, as well, due to rising vehicular congestion even with an expanded road network, the Vice President said, “You also have to look at people’s proclivity. Everyone is owning a vehicle and in a few years time, most of our people will own their own homes, their own vehicles et cetera,” he said.

He said government needed to study the feasibility of bringing back a rail transportation system. “Demand is crucial thing. You have to look at who will use it, the convenience of using it, all of these issues,” he said.

He said government would revive examining the possibility of having a cargo railway system, along with a fibre optic cable system and electricity transmission from Guyana to Brazil. “That is still going to be studied in the context of the port development connecting northern Brazil that we had a discussion with Lula (Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva) on,” he said.

The British-made railway system was scrapped in 1972.