News Panama
12.07.2020
Ciudad de Panamá – Gamboa – Colón
On 23 June 2020 a ship collided with the Gamboa Bridge and brought all train traffic to a halt. The Railway took the reconstruction time of 2 weeks as an opportunity to undertake maintenance works on the entire line between Ciudad de Panamá and Colón.
(Source: Volta o Trem 24-5)
08.01.2018
Ciudad de Panamá – Santiago – Ciudad David
Since 2015, the government of Panamá is developing plans to build a railway line between the country's capital, Ciudad de Panamá and the city of David, located in the west of the country. This has now evolved into a project to build a 450 km long high-speed line to link the two cities via Santiago, with a cost to the tune of US$ 5bn. The line will be double-track and allow for speeds of up to 160 kph. Travel time between the two terminus will not exceed 3 hours. Nothing is known so far about the exact number of intermediate stations, but there will definitely be more than just the one at Santiago. The connection of this line with the existing Ciudad de Panamá – Colón line at a later stage is also considered as an option.
The project has been designed by chinese firms who are expected to get the go-ahead for building work to start during 2018. A second stage has also been proposed; this envisages an extension of the line to Costa Rica.
Although this new railway line appears to be a passenger railway in the first place, it will be the contribution of Panamá towards the planned Feristsa network for a transcontinental line from Mexico to Panamá. Thus, Panamá is creating a fait accompli which means that the future Mexico – Panamá railway may be based mostly on Chinese technology and carry passenger traffic as well.
(Source: Ensegundos; TVN-2; La Estrella)
06.01.2018
Ciudad de Panamá - Ciudad David
China will build a high-speed railway between Panama City and Ciudad David over a distance of 450 km.
(Source: Volta o Trem 22-1)
31.12.2015
Metro Ciudad de Panamá
The government has approved funding to the tune of US$ 157 million to acquire 70 additional vehicles from Alstom in order to increase capacity on line 1 of Ciudad de Panamá's metro system as passenger demand is heavy. The new fleet will be formed into 7 trains with 10 carriages each.
Construction of the 21 km long metro line 2 has started on 05 October 2015 at the San Miguelito station, where the new line will branch off from the existing line 1. It will reach the area of Nuevo Tocumen, and opening is expected in 2019.
(Source: Tramways and Urban Transit)
09.06.2014
Underground railway in Ciudad de Panamá
The first Central-American underground railway opened April 5, 2014 in Panama City. The 14 km long line runs from the suburb of San Miguelito to the centrally located bus terminal Albrook. The line serves 13 stations and the journey time is 23mins. Construction costs have been 1,8bn US$ and accor-ding to government sources fares may not exceed 1 US$.
(Source: Volta o Trem 18-5)
27.03.2014
Ciudad de Panamá
On 5th April 2014, Ciudad de Panamá's first underground line will be opened. Until then, frequent trial runs with invited guests (150 persons per journey) are taking place. Comments to the new means of transport are very positive or even enthusiastic.
(Source: Entorno Inteligente)
23.09.2013
Infrastructure
Interest in the Central American countries for the Feristsa project has grown after freight traffic resumed between Ixtepec and Tapachula. Guatemala announced that it would promote the project of a rail link between Mexico and Panamá along with the Spanish state railway Renfe. A number of private Spanish firms also expressed their interest in the matter.
(Source: dif. Mexican Newspapers; La Nación (Honduras))