I don't know if anyone else mentioned this in the comments, but there ARE plans to extend the Tren Urbano. There will be a community meeting this month to discuss the plans. It was originally planned to go to the convention center, but after feedback now the idea is to get it to Viejo San Juan. They are considering other alternatives (bus and light rail) but I think it should be an extension of the current system. I think a good idea would be to extend the heavy rail until Minillas (its a job center and dense) and then they could do a light rail line from the airport to viejo san juan through the existing highway that divides santurce and a transfer at Minillas. The study they are currently doing for Viejo San Juan, according to the ATI director they have plans to continue the study to the airport, Caguas, Carolina and even an island wide train. But that is a long term plan. For now they also are studying an extension to the bus rapid transit Metro Urbano (why is BRT called metro and the metro is called train I don't know..) and bus route to Ponce in the south.
It looks like a typical "there we did a transit" 90s-00s US transit project. Expansion could be difficult, that project itself was incredibly difficult to fund as PR, being a territory and not a state is not eligible for most federal funding programs. Fixing and improving PR's infrastructure is a major part of the statehood campaign, PR would have access to federal funding for infrastructure if it were a state. The trade off is Puerto Rico residents don't pay federal income tax, but they also can't vote in presidential elections and have no congressional representation. If they were a state they would have around 5 congressional districts and 7 electoral votes, more than several US states as PR has a population of around 3.5mil.
@@Thom-TRAStatehood is not going to happen any time soon since it is assumed PR will lean heavily Democratic so Republicans in Congress manage to block it whenever it comes up for a vote.
Incorrect, we are eligible for a lot of funds, indeed the extension that is being considered they would request funds from the federal government that is available for train expansion and improvements. This was mentioned by our local government in the first town hall for the “possible” train expansion to the convention center in San Juan.
@@Thom-TRAstatehood will never be given and 1/2 the people in Puerto Rico don’t want it. A small minority want independence, others want to keep the current relationship and then you have the statehood supporters. However, their party (my former party) is the most corrupt entity on this island and more and more people are abandoning it. I’m not sure what the future holds but Republicans will never let PR become a state.
This isn’t actually true. The train goes from the heart of Bayamon (one of the biggest towns in the island) to the heart of the financial district in Hato Rey. It takes you close to some important hospitals (and right to one), also goes to a few universities and has some stops in sporting/concert venues. The problem is that due to bad planning, Puerto Rico suffers from bad urban sprawl meaning a lot of people are spread out and the train doesn’t reach these areas. With some smart planning and the right extensions you could make this system far more useful.
I lived in San Juan from 1959 to 1968. There had been a full-blown railroad that had run around the edge of the island from San Juan west to Mayaguez and continuing around to Ponce on the south shore, but it had closed in the mid-50s and had been completely dismantled by the time we arrived; I do have a 1957 road map of the island that still showed the route. By 1959 the only remnant was in a few street names that had served the now razed stations, like Calle Del Tren. During my time I occasionally rode the local buses (called "guaguas") and found them reasonably reliable, but a Tren Urbano would have been welcome. My late uncle lived a block away from the Domenech station, but the last time I visited was in 2003, and the line was still under construction. I hope to ride the line on a future visit but agree that it needs extensions to be really useful.
Other interesting Latin American systems: Santo Domingo has an underground and elevated rapid transit metro system, starting with Line 1 opening in 2009 and Line 2 in 2013. Aerial cable car lines complement the Metro. Cuba's Hershey Electric Railway opened in the 1910s and runs from Casablanca in Havana to the city of Matanzas, approximately 92 km to the east. It was originally meant to transport sugar from Hershey/Camila Cienfuegos to the port of Havana. Cuba's FFCC or its national railway company connects Havana with all the provinces of Cuba (with the busiest route being between Havana and Santiago de Cuba), and the Havana Suburban Railway serves the city. The main railway stations are Central Rail Station, La Coubre Rail Station, Casablanca Station, and Estación de Tulipán. Cuba was the first in the Spanish-speaking world to get trains, as Cuba first got a steam rail line in 1837 while Spain did in 1848. The first section of Buenos Aires's Subte opened in 1913, making it the 13th earliest subway network in the world and the first underground railway in Latin America, the Southern Hemisphere, and the Spanish-speaking world, with the Madrid Metro opening five years later, in 1919. In La Paz, Bolivia, their cable car network is the backbone of their transit network, tackling the challenging terrain and better serving La Paz and El Alto by alleviating the traffic of winding streets. In Colombia, Medellín and Bogotá have cable car networks as well. Bogotá's TransMiCable connects the steep Ciudad Bolívar locality with the TransMilenio BRT system, while Medellín's Metrocable complements the Medellín Metro. Caracas in Venezuela also has cable cars serving as feeders for its BusCaracas and Caracas Metro networks. Los Teques just outside Caracas has a Metro as well.
fun fact Caracas Metro and Los Teques Metro share one station where passengers can transfer directly from one system to the other. Also the two systems share rolling stock and are operated jointly.
Loved Old San Juan when I was there in June 2009 for a week and stayed at the Marriott! The incredible forts, the colorful houses, the wonderful walkability, and hearing the beautiful sound of frogs at night, everything in Old San Juan was great (we also traveled out of SJ for El Yunque)! But for transit, it could be a lot better, but I still have hope for a transit transformation for them despite their challenges. They can learn a lot from Santo Domingo! The jungle Bear saw by Cupey station is the San Juan Botanical Garden, which features different collections including the Taíno Garden (species found locally that were useful in the daily life of the Taíno), an herbarium with 36K specimens, an orchid garden, and an adaptation of Monet's Giverney aquatic garden. Bear didn't get to hear the endemic frogs as this was during the daytime, but PR's endemic plants and creatures are wonderful! The Common Coquí frog is viewed as a symbol for the island! They're named such for the calls that males make to attract females! The little frog greeted the Taíno when they came to Boriken. Taíno petroglyphs depict the frogs, and many of their stories revolve around the amphibian! They are small frog about the size of a quarter, or up to two inches in length. Unlike most frogs, coquis lay their eggs on the leaves of terrestrial trees and plants rather than in water. The young hatch as developed frogs (froglets) and do not experience the free-swimming tadpole stage. Although endemic to Puerto Rico, the species was accidentally introduced to Hawaii in the 1980s as a stowaway on potted plants. In the El Yunque Rainforest, Coquí frogs can be seen jumping from the trees as at certain times of the year when the humidity is high, coquís climb up the tall trees of the forest, and to escape tarantulas that could be waiting for them, they jump from the trees instead of climbing back down, because they are so light that they just float to the ground. It's like raining frogs!
Another reason to love frogs. I had no idea there was a species that skipped the tadpole stage. Any chance you know why Puerto Rico was given its name?
@@Thom-TRA I’m pretty sure it’s a case of name reversal, Thom. Most of the Caribbean islands colonized by the Spaniards gave them names of saints related to the Catholic Church. The Dominican Republic and Haiti share an Island named Santo Domingo. Puerto Rico was the original name of the Port (Rich Port) San Juan was the name of the entire island (Saint John) Boriken is its original Taino name.
The over-large stations are mirrored in the enormous airport, which seems far too large for the country, the very wide highways, etc. It seems that the USA is prepared to pay for enormous infrastructure projects in PR but not do much else to help after they are built. Why this line does not serve obvious destinations like the airport or Old San Juan is quite surprising.
Vanity projects that imply the colony is loved by its homeland. Similar things like St Helena 🇸🇭 Airport, Mount Pleasant Airport 🇫🇰 and giving Stanley 🇫🇰 City status spring to mind. Throw some money at a colony to show you care and do a bit of flag waving for the parent country.
As a Puertorican i can say that the airport is almost always at close to full capacity especially in the summer months and the highways are perfect for our needs. The US has also given us money to help with infrastructure but it many or shall I say most times gets mist used.
The newest metro in the US if you stretch the definition of the US, til Honolulu opened its Skyline train. They lowered the fare to 75 cents cents to attract riders. San Juan's bus system is a separate agency, for many years its fare was 25 cents. Most public or commercial transit in Puerto Rico is done by vans or station wagons called publicos. Santo Domingo and Panama also have metros but much different design from the Tren Urbano.
As always, excellent video and explanation of the history of the Tren Urbano and the history of the old sugarcane train in Puerto Rico left behind. The area where Bear says looks like the rainforest is the Botanical Garden of Rio Piedras. Also the Tower seen at the end of the trip, far away, is an elevator to go on top of the hill in a science Park in the town of Bayamon. The three reasons given in the video of the non fully use of the train by locals or tourists, are totally true, even if the train runs or pass by very important points like hospitals, universities and financial district as La Milla de Oro. Thank you very much for sharing, and hope to see you more in PR. Thanks to Bear too.
They need to Build more Residential Towers near to Metro Stations, Businesses, and Build the Extention to Santurce, Miramar and later to the Airport. Also Build some Hotels near to the some Metro Stations.
That's because they ARE the same machines. Metrocard was used in several places and this system I believe will be the last place you'll be able to use a Metrocard once NY fully transfers over to OMNY and Path transfers over to TAPP.
@@Shinycelebi The Puerto Rican "MetroCard" is also planned to be phased out soon, because they started installing new machines, specifically the same OMNY vending machines from the New York City Subway.
@Meliodas1999 I just went to see what's the update and it seems like it's already being phased out since last month. The new faregates don't seem to be using Cubic tech and they made the system free until the change over per the articles I read.
I for one applaud you for having such a BRAVE opinion (jk, it’s honestly kinda wild that PR and DC still aren’t states). I was also happy to see the escaped Popeye’s convict at 1:58, hopefully they’re hiding away somewhere safe and far away from any fryers now.
It's a beautiful system. If it was also properly located, it would be useful as well! There's a lesson there, and one that a lot of North American transit can teach.
Danza and Salsa is also Puerto Ricans native music, aside from the ones you've mentioned in this video. Puerto Rico also has several smaller islands and a total of 199 inlets and attols that can total 7,000 or more in square miles. It is a US paradise in the Caribbean.
In 2011, Tren Urbano was averaging 40,000/ day but by 2023 the system was averaging just over 10,000/day or about 92 people per train averaged throughout operating hours. Between 2010 and 2018, ridership dropped by half. As you mentioned, fares are the key reason. In 2004 the fare was $1.50. By 2009, it was reduced to 75 cents. In 2014, it was raised to $1.50. The correlation is too strong to be ignored. It's really sad that Puerto Rico doesn't have a good rapid transit system as the island's population is rather poor and would benefit from fast cross town transit, providing better access to jobs, education, healthcare, and goods and services. I worked in San Juan for a few months back in 2007 and never used Tren Urbano because it just didn't go where I wanted to go. I was staying in Old San Juan and worked in Bayamón, Carolina, and in Caguas. I love Puerto Rico!
What kind of work did you do there? We here in DC (and by we I mean the feds) should give the island a grant to further subsidize fares. It seems like the least we could do given history and such.
@@Thom-TRA I did marketing there and my company needed someone fluent in Spanish to work there. The whole "territory" arrangement is broken and it has long stifled development on the island. Much of the island is still reeling from the hurricanes of 2017 and 2019. The cost of goods is ridiculously high because ALL foreign goods must first go through a mainland US port before being re-shipped only on US built ships with US crews to Puerto Rico. Crazy stupid! I also find it absolutely shocking that most Americans don't know that all Puerto Ricans are American citizens. We don't treat them like citizens, but they are.
@@bryanCJC2105this isn’t true. I work in logistics, all foreign goods come directly from their origin with foreign carriers. All domestic goods do have to come with domestic carriers due to the Jones Act. Also the reason for the ridership issues isn’t due to the $1.50. Taking your car and paying tolls cost way more since the tolls have increased greatly. The reason the ridership tanked was due to hurricane Maria and then the pandemic. Also the card machines have been in bad condition for years. They are finally being replaced and all train stations should have the new systems in place by June. In addition the stations are going to be repaired as all of them suffered damages from hurricane Maria and the federal funds to fix them are finally being used. I think the number is around $200 million.
@@Xystus85 I'll leave the shipping debate to you if you are a logistics expert. As for ridership, your assumptions are not supported by data. Ridership on Tren Urbano dropped precipitously in 2015 by 25% from 40,000 to 30,000/day, just after the fare increase, and continued dropping from that point on. By June 2017, ridership had declined to 24,000/ day - before Hurricane Maria. A year after Maria, by Summer 2018, ridership had rebounded to 83% of pre-hurricane levels at 20,000/day, but in line with the already existing decline trend, before Covid struck. The pandemic drop in transit was similar to other agencies, but the rebound on Tren Urbano is only 50% of pre-Covid's already dropping levels. So, the price increase is clearly the main driver of ridership decline while the hurricane's ridership impact was only temporary. Covid had a much greater impact, however Tren Urbano has seriously lagged bus patronage. Bus ridership has rebounded much faster at 70% of pre-Covid levels than Tren Urbano has at 50% of pre-Covid levels.
@@bryanCJC2105 I would need to see your data, because everything I have seen has shown a mayor drop after Maria and then COVID. As for the actual fare, anyone driving pays that much in tolls (which have increased significantly) in addition to the massive traffic jams and in some cases having to pay for parking at your destination. Example from where I use to live it now cost $1.40 in tolls each way, plus gas which is getting higher, wasted time in traffic jams. Perhaps a decade ago the increase hurt the train but I don’t think that holds water anymore, people are paying way more to use their cars.
Nice video. I visited Puerto Rico twice many years ago. I did stay in San Juan and also went to Old San Juan. I used taxis and busses. I didn’t know this train existed.
I love San Juan, and Puerto Rico generally. But yeah, not having a train to the airport is nuts. I've stayed in several places around San Juan, but I've never been anywhere near the train, so sadly, I've never had cause to use it. And it's definitely a city that could stand to have some more non-car transit/infrastructure.
@@hvactechpr7872that tunnel entrance was actually supposed to be for the line to Canovanas and Fajardo. The line to SJU was originally planned to go from Old San Juan across Condado and Isla Verde ( Sagrado connecting to old San Juan and then from there the line to SJU). But we all know why that never happened…..
Great video! I’ve wanted to ride this for a while now, but haven’t gotten the chance! I’m hoping they actually extend it as a heavy rail line closer to the center of San Juan and build it out to the airport. I saw at one point they were considering buses or light rail for an extension, but then it would create an unnecessary transfer. I’d love to see this system get higher ridership!
another good vid. I've been to PR several times, but never had a chance to ride this line. It looks like it has great potential (nice layout etc) but, as you pointed out, doesn't really go where people want to go around SJ. But great narrative and nice photography.
A really big problem in Puerto Rico is everything is politicized, and there is a failure of long term planning... usually they are doing projects and when a new governor comes in the new governor scraps all of the old projects. The long term planning is very bad, so things like this are done halfway. There was supposed to be a change in zoning so that the areas surrounding the stations would be for transit oriented development and they even did all of the planning but I don't think they ever implemented the changes. There was going to be a TOD master planned community next to one of the stations but they ran out of funding and then a developer of suburb developments bought it and now its just single family homes, right next to the station, and they demolished the pedestrian walkways to the station. You can see the the fast food and CVS with parking lots right next to the station, I think another fast food might be built around there. It's just really sad, the system and service is very good, lots of potential but of course it will not work when you do not have anything walking distance from most of the stations.
Sadly a lot of places have that same issue. I know Mexican train projects are rushed because of political time pressure. Maryland and New Jersey are good examples too where governors just undo what their predecessors did regarding transit.
Yeah I know a couple of people that wrote this when they went down to Puerto rico. They said it was nice. They said it was clean. But it just didn't have the ridership. It was a blind person that I knew and he wrote it you know because he would ride something like that. But you know I'm glad they built it but it needs to be expanded.
I've heard of the _Tren_ _Urbano_ (though I haven't been to Puerto Rico), and I found this an informative video! Now, I know what it is like to ride it, and what improvements need to be made. Also, I found your very close brush with politics at the beginning quite amusing. Moreover, at 4:11, the _Tren_ _Urbano_ sounded (curiously enough) like some kind of trolley. Did Siemens insert that kind of bell in LRVs? Thanks for hte video!
OOO I WOULD LOVE TO SEE A VIDEO OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC SUBWAY. I believe its the second oldest subway in the Caribbean and has 2 lines and the 3rd line is already in construction. The rolling stock is also from Alstom and their service is somewhat punctual, clean and very crowded as a lot of ppl use it.
2:44 Oh WOW!!!! Bear found a MetroCard machine in Puerto Rico. Maybe I could use my MetroCard in this on this train!! Maybe they're getting the OMNY card machine, too!!😅😅😅
Tengo 58 años y hace ya tiempo, cuando todavía vivía en Puerto Rico, tenías tantas buenas expectativas de que este tren reorganizara, racionalizara y reactivara a San Juan. Estoy bastante desilucionado con este sistema. Ha sido un fracaso. Nunca se re-densificaron los nodos alrededor de las estaciones. El sistema nunca se ha extendido, ni siquiera a los destimos mas obvios como el aeropuerto, Carolina, Puerta de Tierra o Levittown. Es un juguete. Es urbanamente irrelevante, no tiene ususarios. Todo el dinero se gasta en carreteras. No hemos aprendido nada.
Would you consider making a video on the streetcar Omaha is currently building? It’s going to be a pretty short line when it opens initially in early 2027, but has several extensions being considered, including one over the Missouri to Council Bluffs.
@@Thom-TRA Nice! I would also recommend checking out ORBT, the BRT line that runs parallel to the streetcar that opened in November 2020. It’s actually pretty decent for what you would expect for a city not known for transit. Hopefully by the time the streetcar opens, ORBT will have gotten extensions, though nothing is beyond the studying phase yet.
I live in PR and if you ask most people hear TU is useless except when there is a show at the local "choliseo" as we call it. There have been several plans to expand it as of late but with the election this year we dont know how the next govenor will do but lets hope it gets it well deserved and over do expansion.
Love PR. Sadly the tren urbano suffers from typical US transit issues. The cheapest, suburban part was built first. The commonwealth went bankrupt before the actually useful phase into the core of San Juan was built. It’s not rocket science. You need a car to get to any of the stations, but none of the destinations are easier to reach by train. Rush hour traffic isn’t great, but the worst is in the narrow streets in the city center, not so much the expansive freeways in the suburbs. Why pay $3 rt for a commute you can just as easily take by car the whole way? And, yes, the buses are exactly the sort of unreliable sh!tshow you’d expect from a US city.
When you said "Siemens-built trains" I expected to see similarities to our Siemens-built Blue Line trains which went into service about the same time on the Ⓣ (MBTA) in Boston. However the Puerto Rican trains are completely different in the way they look and sound - would guess the design is somewhat older than ours. I didn't see any common component. The San Juan system reminds me of Miami's though, in how it was routed away from useful commuter locations and instead was built through places nobody wanted to go.
In Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, the neighboring country hehehe, we have two subway lines, mostly underground and even at less busy hours there are many people, it would be interesting for you to visit
@@Thom-TRA It opened in 2019 and today it has around 88.7k passengers annually. Next year they will begin the construction of line 3 that will reach the airport and also the construction of a tram.
@@alexisantoniolopez1002 I mean, this year, if everything goes right, is when Line 3 would start construction. Next year when the Tram Line 1 and the Train to San Cristobal would start construction 👀👀 Also, Santiago (the second biggest city) it´s also getting its own metro (yeah, I know it´s a Monorail, but it serves the same purpose) and will be ready by next year.
Ironically, San Juan has a huge problem with traffic during rush hour. Most of government and a lot of the private sector operates from the area around San Juan, but most people don't want to live there (it is expensive) and they commute from the East, West, and South. I used to spend about two hours a day on that commute when I worked at San Juan. and paid quite a bit in gas and tolls. The original idea called for the lane to be extended down South, as well as West, and East (where the airport is). That would have made the train relevant. However, the poor management and budgeting characteristic of the public sector means they burned all the money on the fist stage. The expansions were put on hold because the train never achieved its target numbers.
This reminds me to much of the Miami metro rail, only part of the line goes where people want it to and the rest goes somewhere random with ok frequency and ok hours but in need of expansion
Puerto Rico may have a vote IF they vote for statehood. Currently during their elections they keep voting to maintain territorial status. Key thing is: Terries are part of the country, but can’t vote, however can vote for independence from the US if they want. Statehood is eternal though, meaning if they vote to be a state, they could never have the option for independence.
Was that Easter Sunday? I was there twice and even though ridership was low-ish there were lots of buses and cars everywhere. If that was a weekday at any hour with school in session, then wow PR is in ruins. Why bother powering the trains? Some vids on my channel with much greater detail.
Very interesting system. Your observations on the reasons for low ridership seem like predictors of California’s bullet train. Going from Bakersfield to Merced, as the leg under construction, will suffer the same outcome. All that at an incredible price and decades to complete. Sadly our “leaders” don’t seem to learn from the failures of others.
This was an amazing video but just a suggestion, when you go to California, can you make a video based of the Capitol Corridor and San Joaquins because you mentioned them but not actually made one based of it.
Really reminds me of Baltimore! Massive stations, one line, park and rides, limited utility for residents. Same fare gates too! The cleanliness really does stand out!
Yes. There was one running on the South on the old Sugar Cane plantation rails for a while as a tourist attraction. It was a pretty cool ride but it closed a couple decades ago. There are quite a number of intact rails, specially on the south of the island, but they remain unused.
Interesting you point out some of the flaws with Tren Urbano and point out the political make up of Puerto Rico. Basically a USA colony. Does this not perhaps hinder further developments as certain groups of Federal Government wouldn't want to be seen investing in areas that some voters in the lower 48 would deem appropriate? It would be interesting to see car ownership costs for Puerto Ricans given the many retail parks with Car Parks you see in Bear's video or what price and service levels colectivos/autobuses are. From my experience in Buenos Aires a lot of ordinary workers took the buses rather than the Subte as was much cheaper and went closer to home and work. It clearly hasn't been the success as planned given the two car or 4 car trains and the size of the platforms but at least it has scope for expansion of ridership.
I don't know if anyone else mentioned this in the comments, but there ARE plans to extend the Tren Urbano. There will be a community meeting this month to discuss the plans. It was originally planned to go to the convention center, but after feedback now the idea is to get it to Viejo San Juan. They are considering other alternatives (bus and light rail) but I think it should be an extension of the current system. I think a good idea would be to extend the heavy rail until Minillas (its a job center and dense) and then they could do a light rail line from the airport to viejo san juan through the existing highway that divides santurce and a transfer at Minillas. The study they are currently doing for Viejo San Juan, according to the ATI director they have plans to continue the study to the airport, Caguas, Carolina and even an island wide train. But that is a long term plan. For now they also are studying an extension to the bus rapid transit Metro Urbano (why is BRT called metro and the metro is called train I don't know..) and bus route to Ponce in the south.
Studies and plans are not quite the same thing yet, but I’m glad they’re beginning to get serious about it.
It looks like a typical "there we did a transit" 90s-00s US transit project. Expansion could be difficult, that project itself was incredibly difficult to fund as PR, being a territory and not a state is not eligible for most federal funding programs. Fixing and improving PR's infrastructure is a major part of the statehood campaign, PR would have access to federal funding for infrastructure if it were a state. The trade off is Puerto Rico residents don't pay federal income tax, but they also can't vote in presidential elections and have no congressional representation. If they were a state they would have around 5 congressional districts and 7 electoral votes, more than several US states as PR has a population of around 3.5mil.
People in PR who work in federal jobs still pay income tax, I’m sure they would be big proponents of statehood.
@@Thom-TRAStatehood is not going to happen any time soon since it is assumed PR will lean heavily Democratic so Republicans in Congress manage to block it whenever it comes up for a vote.
@@Thom-TRAAnd herein is why the territory does not have access to these funds: they don’t pay the income tax.
Incorrect, we are eligible for a lot of funds, indeed the extension that is being considered they would request funds from the federal government that is available for train expansion and improvements. This was mentioned by our local government in the first town hall for the “possible” train expansion to the convention center in San Juan.
@@Thom-TRAstatehood will never be given and 1/2 the people in Puerto Rico don’t want it. A small minority want independence, others want to keep the current relationship and then you have the statehood supporters. However, their party (my former party) is the most corrupt entity on this island and more and more people are abandoning it. I’m not sure what the future holds but Republicans will never let PR become a state.
So, it goes from “The Middle of Nowhere” to “The Middle of Nowhere” and back traveling via “The Middle of Nowhere.”
@@claudiodelgado9073 It’s awesome to hear from someone who rides the system.
This isn’t actually true. The train goes from the heart of Bayamon (one of the biggest towns in the island) to the heart of the financial district in Hato Rey. It takes you close to some important hospitals (and right to one), also goes to a few universities and has some stops in sporting/concert venues. The problem is that due to bad planning, Puerto Rico suffers from bad urban sprawl meaning a lot of people are spread out and the train doesn’t reach these areas. With some smart planning and the right extensions you could make this system far more useful.
I lived in San Juan from 1959 to 1968. There had been a full-blown railroad that had run around the edge of the island from San Juan west to Mayaguez and continuing around to Ponce on the south shore, but it had closed in the mid-50s and had been completely dismantled by the time we arrived; I do have a 1957 road map of the island that still showed the route. By 1959 the only remnant was in a few street names that had served the now razed stations, like Calle Del Tren. During my time I occasionally rode the local buses (called "guaguas") and found them reasonably reliable, but a Tren Urbano would have been welcome. My late uncle lived a block away from the Domenech station, but the last time I visited was in 2003, and the line was still under construction. I hope to ride the line on a future visit but agree that it needs extensions to be really useful.
Just like in other places, I really wish the old railroads had not been ripped up.
Other interesting Latin American systems: Santo Domingo has an underground and elevated rapid transit metro system, starting with Line 1 opening in 2009 and Line 2 in 2013. Aerial cable car lines complement the Metro. Cuba's Hershey Electric Railway opened in the 1910s and runs from Casablanca in Havana to the city of Matanzas, approximately 92 km to the east. It was originally meant to transport sugar from Hershey/Camila Cienfuegos to the port of Havana. Cuba's FFCC or its national railway company connects Havana with all the provinces of Cuba (with the busiest route being between Havana and Santiago de Cuba), and the Havana Suburban Railway serves the city. The main railway stations are Central Rail Station, La Coubre Rail Station, Casablanca Station, and Estación de Tulipán. Cuba was the first in the Spanish-speaking world to get trains, as Cuba first got a steam rail line in 1837 while Spain did in 1848.
The first section of Buenos Aires's Subte opened in 1913, making it the 13th earliest subway network in the world and the first underground railway in Latin America, the Southern Hemisphere, and the Spanish-speaking world, with the Madrid Metro opening five years later, in 1919. In La Paz, Bolivia, their cable car network is the backbone of their transit network, tackling the challenging terrain and better serving La Paz and El Alto by alleviating the traffic of winding streets. In Colombia, Medellín and Bogotá have cable car networks as well. Bogotá's TransMiCable connects the steep Ciudad Bolívar locality with the TransMilenio BRT system, while Medellín's Metrocable complements the Medellín Metro. Caracas in Venezuela also has cable cars serving as feeders for its BusCaracas and Caracas Metro networks. Los Teques just outside Caracas has a Metro as well.
Crazy to think Argentina had a subway before Spain. I’d love to go down there someday, a pilgrimage to the birthplace of the Dutch queen.
I've rode the Buenos Airess subway. It felt old but safe
fun fact Caracas Metro and Los Teques Metro share one station where passengers can transfer directly from one system to the other. Also the two systems share rolling stock and are operated jointly.
@@RA-fm8wrUn clásico ese 🚇 metros en Latinoamérica
Loved Old San Juan when I was there in June 2009 for a week and stayed at the Marriott! The incredible forts, the colorful houses, the wonderful walkability, and hearing the beautiful sound of frogs at night, everything in Old San Juan was great (we also traveled out of SJ for El Yunque)! But for transit, it could be a lot better, but I still have hope for a transit transformation for them despite their challenges. They can learn a lot from Santo Domingo! The jungle Bear saw by Cupey station is the San Juan Botanical Garden, which features different collections including the Taíno Garden (species found locally that were useful in the daily life of the Taíno), an herbarium with 36K specimens, an orchid garden, and an adaptation of Monet's Giverney aquatic garden. Bear didn't get to hear the endemic frogs as this was during the daytime, but PR's endemic plants and creatures are wonderful! The Common Coquí frog is viewed as a symbol for the island! They're named such for the calls that males make to attract females!
The little frog greeted the Taíno when they came to Boriken. Taíno petroglyphs depict the frogs, and many of their stories revolve around the amphibian! They are small frog about the size of a quarter, or up to two inches in length. Unlike most frogs, coquis lay their eggs on the leaves of terrestrial trees and plants rather than in water. The young hatch as developed frogs (froglets) and do not experience the free-swimming tadpole stage. Although endemic to Puerto Rico, the species was accidentally introduced to Hawaii in the 1980s as a stowaway on potted plants. In the El Yunque Rainforest, Coquí frogs can be seen jumping from the trees as at certain times of the year when the humidity is high, coquís climb up the tall trees of the forest, and to escape tarantulas that could be waiting for them, they jump from the trees instead of climbing back down, because they are so light that they just float to the ground. It's like raining frogs!
Another reason to love frogs. I had no idea there was a species that skipped the tadpole stage.
Any chance you know why Puerto Rico was given its name?
@@Thom-TRA I’m pretty sure it’s a case of name reversal, Thom. Most of the Caribbean islands colonized by the Spaniards gave them names of saints related to the Catholic Church. The Dominican Republic and Haiti share an Island named Santo Domingo. Puerto Rico was the original name of the Port (Rich Port) San Juan was the name of the entire island (Saint John) Boriken is its original Taino name.
The over-large stations are mirrored in the enormous airport, which seems far too large for the country, the very wide highways, etc. It seems that the USA is prepared to pay for enormous infrastructure projects in PR but not do much else to help after they are built. Why this line does not serve obvious destinations like the airport or Old San Juan is quite surprising.
That sounds like the US model for a lot of things
Vanity projects that imply the colony is loved by its homeland. Similar things like St Helena 🇸🇭 Airport, Mount Pleasant Airport 🇫🇰 and giving Stanley 🇫🇰 City status spring to mind.
Throw some money at a colony to show you care and do a bit of flag waving for the parent country.
As a Puertorican i can say that the airport is almost always at close to full capacity especially in the summer months and the highways are perfect for our needs. The US has also given us money to help with infrastructure but it many or shall I say most times gets mist used.
The newest metro in the US if you stretch the definition of the US, til Honolulu opened its Skyline train.
They lowered the fare to 75 cents cents to attract riders.
San Juan's bus system is a separate agency, for many years its fare was 25 cents.
Most public or commercial transit in Puerto Rico is done by vans or station wagons called publicos.
Santo Domingo and Panama also have metros but much different design from the Tren Urbano.
It’s a bit like Honolulu‘s new train. The intent was good, but the final product not so much. It turned out to be a metro to nowhere
As always, excellent video and explanation of the history of the Tren Urbano and the history of the old sugarcane train in Puerto Rico left behind. The area where Bear says looks like the rainforest is the Botanical Garden of Rio Piedras. Also the Tower seen at the end of the trip, far away, is an elevator to go on top of the hill in a science Park in the town of Bayamon. The three reasons given in the video of the non fully use of the train by locals or tourists, are totally true, even if the train runs or pass by very important points like hospitals, universities and financial district as La Milla de Oro. Thank you very much for sharing, and hope to see you more in PR. Thanks to Bear too.
So glad to receive such high praise from a local! thanks again for your kind messages yesterday
Fascinating! You and Bear did a great job on the video. I had no idea that Puerto Rico has a metro. It's a shame that it has so little ridership.
Thanks! Hopefully they can make the right improvements
They need to Build more Residential Towers near to Metro Stations, Businesses, and Build the Extention to Santurce, Miramar and later to the Airport. Also Build some Hotels near to the some Metro Stations.
That looks exactly like New York City's Metrocard machines, but also in Spanish!
Yeah they’re so similar!
Fr
That's because they ARE the same machines. Metrocard was used in several places and this system I believe will be the last place you'll be able to use a Metrocard once NY fully transfers over to OMNY and Path transfers over to TAPP.
@@Shinycelebi The Puerto Rican "MetroCard" is also planned to be phased out soon, because they started installing new machines, specifically the same OMNY vending machines from the New York City Subway.
@Meliodas1999 I just went to see what's the update and it seems like it's already being phased out since last month. The new faregates don't seem to be using Cubic tech and they made the system free until the change over per the articles I read.
I for one applaud you for having such a BRAVE opinion (jk, it’s honestly kinda wild that PR and DC still aren’t states). I was also happy to see the escaped Popeye’s convict at 1:58, hopefully they’re hiding away somewhere safe and far away from any fryers now.
He got the cluck out of there
Looks like a nice system, awesome to see. Hopefully someday PR will get statehood and federal funds can be used to expand the rest of the system.
I've always been pro-statehood for territories but living in DC has made that a lot stronger
We do get some even if we're not a state and personally I don't want to pay taxes so please no statehood
That’s awesome that Brother Bear can provide nice footage and commentary of an interesting metro system. Awesome!!!
Brother bear is great!
I loved this tour, informative, detailed, very calm and chill and no music :)
There is music
Yes but it's not through the whole video which can be annoying at times, the way it was done here is tasteful @@Thom-TRA
It's a beautiful system. If it was also properly located, it would be useful as well! There's a lesson there, and one that a lot of North American transit can teach.
Good points
Danza and Salsa is also Puerto Ricans native music, aside from the ones you've mentioned in this video. Puerto Rico also has several smaller islands and a total of 199 inlets and attols that can total 7,000 or more in square miles. It is a US paradise in the Caribbean.
As always, very informative and enjoyable video. Glad that we got another adventure with Bear!
The people always want more Bear
Bear is a great brother for filming you videos.
He is awesome!
That's nice thom @@Thom-TRA
I was just here and rode it on Friday! Great video, nice little train ride in San juan, it was also free this week.
What a cool coincidence!
In 2011, Tren Urbano was averaging 40,000/ day but by 2023 the system was averaging just over 10,000/day or about 92 people per train averaged throughout operating hours. Between 2010 and 2018, ridership dropped by half. As you mentioned, fares are the key reason. In 2004 the fare was $1.50. By 2009, it was reduced to 75 cents. In 2014, it was raised to $1.50. The correlation is too strong to be ignored.
It's really sad that Puerto Rico doesn't have a good rapid transit system as the island's population is rather poor and would benefit from fast cross town transit, providing better access to jobs, education, healthcare, and goods and services. I worked in San Juan for a few months back in 2007 and never used Tren Urbano because it just didn't go where I wanted to go. I was staying in Old San Juan and worked in Bayamón, Carolina, and in Caguas. I love Puerto Rico!
What kind of work did you do there? We here in DC (and by we I mean the feds) should give the island a grant to further subsidize fares. It seems like the least we could do given history and such.
@@Thom-TRA I did marketing there and my company needed someone fluent in Spanish to work there. The whole "territory" arrangement is broken and it has long stifled development on the island. Much of the island is still reeling from the hurricanes of 2017 and 2019.
The cost of goods is ridiculously high because ALL foreign goods must first go through a mainland US port before being re-shipped only on US built ships with US crews to Puerto Rico. Crazy stupid!
I also find it absolutely shocking that most Americans don't know that all Puerto Ricans are American citizens. We don't treat them like citizens, but they are.
@@bryanCJC2105this isn’t true. I work in logistics, all foreign goods come directly from their origin with foreign carriers. All domestic goods do have to come with domestic carriers due to the Jones Act.
Also the reason for the ridership issues isn’t due to the $1.50. Taking your car and paying tolls cost way more since the tolls have increased greatly. The reason the ridership tanked was due to hurricane Maria and then the pandemic. Also the card machines have been in bad condition for years. They are finally being replaced and all train stations should have the new systems in place by June. In addition the stations are going to be repaired as all of them suffered damages from hurricane Maria and the federal funds to fix them are finally being used. I think the number is around $200 million.
@@Xystus85 I'll leave the shipping debate to you if you are a logistics expert.
As for ridership, your assumptions are not supported by data. Ridership on Tren Urbano dropped precipitously in 2015 by 25% from 40,000 to 30,000/day, just after the fare increase, and continued dropping from that point on.
By June 2017, ridership had declined to 24,000/ day - before Hurricane Maria.
A year after Maria, by Summer 2018, ridership had rebounded to 83% of pre-hurricane levels at 20,000/day, but in line with the already existing decline trend, before Covid struck.
The pandemic drop in transit was similar to other agencies, but the rebound on Tren Urbano is only 50% of pre-Covid's already dropping levels.
So, the price increase is clearly the main driver of ridership decline while the hurricane's ridership impact was only temporary. Covid had a much greater impact, however Tren Urbano has seriously lagged bus patronage. Bus ridership has rebounded much faster at 70% of pre-Covid levels than Tren Urbano has at 50% of pre-Covid levels.
@@bryanCJC2105 I would need to see your data, because everything I have seen has shown a mayor drop after Maria and then COVID. As for the actual fare, anyone driving pays that much in tolls (which have increased significantly) in addition to the massive traffic jams and in some cases having to pay for parking at your destination.
Example from where I use to live it now cost $1.40 in tolls each way, plus gas which is getting higher, wasted time in traffic jams. Perhaps a decade ago the increase hurt the train but I don’t think that holds water anymore, people are paying way more to use their cars.
A small island can have a light metro line that’s very cool in Puerto Rico
Nice video. I visited Puerto Rico twice many years ago. I did stay in San Juan and also went to Old San Juan. I used taxis and busses. I didn’t know this train existed.
It might have not existed back then, depending on how long you’re talking about.
I love San Juan, and Puerto Rico generally. But yeah, not having a train to the airport is nuts. I've stayed in several places around San Juan, but I've never been anywhere near the train, so sadly, I've never had cause to use it. And it's definitely a city that could stand to have some more non-car transit/infrastructure.
Especially for islands, the airport should be the first place they build a train to
There was a tunnel that was started thar direction
At the Rio Piedras station if you look at left.side of the track look at the floor and you'll see a Y
That track goes to Carolina (Airport area)
@@hvactechpr7872that tunnel entrance was actually supposed to be for the line to Canovanas and Fajardo. The line to SJU was originally planned to go from Old San Juan across Condado and Isla Verde ( Sagrado connecting to old San Juan and then from there the line to SJU). But we all know why that never happened…..
Great video! I’ve wanted to ride this for a while now, but haven’t gotten the chance! I’m hoping they actually extend it as a heavy rail line closer to the center of San Juan and build it out to the airport. I saw at one point they were considering buses or light rail for an extension, but then it would create an unnecessary transfer. I’d love to see this system get higher ridership!
It should be an extension of the existing system
Kinda reminds me of the Manila MRT except the ridership is the exact opposite
another good vid. I've been to PR several times, but never had a chance to ride this line. It looks like it has great potential (nice layout etc) but, as you pointed out, doesn't really go where people want to go around SJ. But great narrative and nice photography.
You really are watching them all the last few days!
@@Thom-TRA yep, and they are all enjoyable. I'm an old train/trolley buff myself
what fun. I love PR. especially condado. never taken the train
Definitely try it out next time!
A really big problem in Puerto Rico is everything is politicized, and there is a failure of long term planning... usually they are doing projects and when a new governor comes in the new governor scraps all of the old projects. The long term planning is very bad, so things like this are done halfway. There was supposed to be a change in zoning so that the areas surrounding the stations would be for transit oriented development and they even did all of the planning but I don't think they ever implemented the changes. There was going to be a TOD master planned community next to one of the stations but they ran out of funding and then a developer of suburb developments bought it and now its just single family homes, right next to the station, and they demolished the pedestrian walkways to the station. You can see the the fast food and CVS with parking lots right next to the station, I think another fast food might be built around there. It's just really sad, the system and service is very good, lots of potential but of course it will not work when you do not have anything walking distance from most of the stations.
Sadly a lot of places have that same issue. I know Mexican train projects are rushed because of political time pressure. Maryland and New Jersey are good examples too where governors just undo what their predecessors did regarding transit.
Another interesting video of a system I wasn’t aware of at all. Great job by Bear as always…love the collabs!
Always fun to learn new things
Puerto Rico es una Isla 🏝️ muy hermosa, como todo el Caribe saludos desde Venezuela 🇻🇪👍❤❤
I didn't know that Puerto rico had a metro thank you very much i like your content keep it up
Yeah I know a couple of people that wrote this when they went down to Puerto rico. They said it was nice. They said it was clean. But it just didn't have the ridership. It was a blind person that I knew and he wrote it you know because he would ride something like that. But you know I'm glad they built it but it needs to be expanded.
Near the underground University station, you can see a spur which was meant for a second line. Sadly, it was never built.
I've heard of the _Tren_ _Urbano_ (though I haven't been to Puerto Rico), and I found this an informative video! Now, I know what it is like to ride it, and what improvements need to be made.
Also, I found your very close brush with politics at the beginning quite amusing. Moreover, at 4:11, the _Tren_ _Urbano_ sounded (curiously enough) like some kind of trolley. Did Siemens insert that kind of bell in LRVs?
Thanks for hte video!
I noticed the trolley bell too! Found it quite charming
Don't wanna be mean, but that is still one more Metro Line than Tampa Florida.
Or many other big US cities
@@Thom-TRAabsolutely so many us cities don't even have a metro
OOO I WOULD LOVE TO SEE A VIDEO OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC SUBWAY. I believe its the second oldest subway in the Caribbean and has 2 lines and the 3rd line is already in construction. The rolling stock is also from Alstom and their service is somewhat punctual, clean and very crowded as a lot of ppl use it.
One day
@@Thom-TRA I can’t wait to see it. Until then I will watch all the beautifully made videos you create abt trains and other transit things
Not the NYC metrocard machines 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
2:44 Oh WOW!!!! Bear found a MetroCard machine in Puerto Rico. Maybe I could use my MetroCard in this on this train!! Maybe they're getting the OMNY card machine, too!!😅😅😅
I do believe they are switching fare systems right now
that’s pretty much a clone of the New York City subway system right down to the ticket machines which are exactly like the MetroCard machines
Except of course newer stations and slightly different trains
Tengo 58 años y hace ya tiempo, cuando todavía vivía en Puerto Rico, tenías tantas buenas expectativas de que este tren reorganizara, racionalizara y reactivara a San Juan. Estoy bastante desilucionado con este sistema. Ha sido un fracaso. Nunca se re-densificaron los nodos alrededor de las estaciones. El sistema nunca se ha extendido, ni siquiera a los destimos mas obvios como el aeropuerto, Carolina, Puerta de Tierra o Levittown. Es un juguete. Es urbanamente irrelevante, no tiene ususarios. Todo el dinero se gasta en carreteras. No hemos aprendido nada.
I’m sorry to hear it was so disappointing. Hopefully it can still be better.
Love seeing Bear in these videos also! You two got a great mix going with these videos!
Thanks!
Would you consider making a video on the streetcar Omaha is currently building? It’s going to be a pretty short line when it opens initially in early 2027, but has several extensions being considered, including one over the Missouri to Council Bluffs.
Yeah I'd visit it when it opens
@@Thom-TRA Nice! I would also recommend checking out ORBT, the BRT line that runs parallel to the streetcar that opened in November 2020. It’s actually pretty decent for what you would expect for a city not known for transit. Hopefully by the time the streetcar opens, ORBT will have gotten extensions, though nothing is beyond the studying phase yet.
Nice video. Unfortunate bad route planning.
As a New Yorker it’s so weird to see the same exact machines thousands of miles away with basically the same metro cards!
I live in PR and if you ask most people hear TU is useless except when there is a show at the local "choliseo" as we call it. There have been several plans to expand it as of late but with the election this year we dont know how the next govenor will do but lets hope it gets it well deserved and over do expansion.
You two did great!
Bedankt!
Love PR. Sadly the tren urbano suffers from typical US transit issues. The cheapest, suburban part was built first. The commonwealth went bankrupt before the actually useful phase into the core of San Juan was built. It’s not rocket science. You need a car to get to any of the stations, but none of the destinations are easier to reach by train. Rush hour traffic isn’t great, but the worst is in the narrow streets in the city center, not so much the expansive freeways in the suburbs. Why pay $3 rt for a commute you can just as easily take by car the whole way? And, yes, the buses are exactly the sort of unreliable sh!tshow you’d expect from a US city.
In Bayamón and Santurce you get there by buses and trolleys.
Holly cow how much did that project cost to only take 30 minutes from beginning to end???
Now think about how much time it took before it was built
When you said "Siemens-built trains" I expected to see similarities to our Siemens-built Blue Line trains which went into service about the same time on the Ⓣ (MBTA) in Boston. However the Puerto Rican trains are completely different in the way they look and sound - would guess the design is somewhat older than ours. I didn't see any common component. The San Juan system reminds me of Miami's though, in how it was routed away from useful commuter locations and instead was built through places nobody wanted to go.
I was surprised to find out they were Siemens as well.
In Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, the neighboring country hehehe, we have two subway lines, mostly underground and even at less busy hours there are many people, it would be interesting for you to visit
When did it open?
@@Thom-TRA Line 1 opened in 2009, while Line 2 opened in 2013! They also have cable car lines and are set to expand both the Metro and the cable car!
@@Thom-TRA It opened in 2019 and today it has around 88.7k passengers annually. Next year they will begin the construction of line 3 that will reach the airport and also the construction of a tram.
@@alexisantoniolopez1002 I mean, this year, if everything goes right, is when Line 3 would start construction. Next year when the Tram Line 1 and the Train to San Cristobal would start construction 👀👀
Also, Santiago (the second biggest city) it´s also getting its own metro (yeah, I know it´s a Monorail, but it serves the same purpose) and will be ready by next year.
Looks like Trèn Maya found its way here too!
Ironically, San Juan has a huge problem with traffic during rush hour. Most of government and a lot of the private sector operates from the area around San Juan, but most people don't want to live there (it is expensive) and they commute from the East, West, and South. I used to spend about two hours a day on that commute when I worked at San Juan. and paid quite a bit in gas and tolls. The original idea called for the lane to be extended down South, as well as West, and East (where the airport is). That would have made the train relevant.
However, the poor management and budgeting characteristic of the public sector means they burned all the money on the fist stage. The expansions were put on hold because the train never achieved its target numbers.
Thanks for the info bro
You’re welcome
This reminds me to much of the Miami metro rail, only part of the line goes where people want it to and the rest goes somewhere random with ok frequency and ok hours but in need of expansion
There ticket machine software and cards are style after the NYC MTA
The weird structure on the hill in Bayamon is an elevator to an observation deck! It's part of the local science museum.
Puerto Rico may have a vote IF they vote for statehood. Currently during their elections they keep voting to maintain territorial status. Key thing is: Terries are part of the country, but can’t vote, however can vote for independence from the US if they want. Statehood is eternal though, meaning if they vote to be a state, they could never have the option for independence.
My old home town
Cool!
what with the Tren Maya 😭
91 degrees and humid? Sounds like South Jersey to me
So crazy it’s like another country but it’s part of the US.
Yay colonialism lol
It is basically another country. We use the word País (country in Spanish) to refer to Puerto Rico.
Was that Easter Sunday? I was there twice and even though ridership was low-ish there were lots of buses and cars everywhere. If that was a weekday at any hour with school in session, then wow PR is in ruins. Why bother powering the trains? Some vids on my channel with much greater detail.
This isn’t a self-promotion platform
Also all your questions about timing are literally answered in the video. So there’s plenty of detail, you may have just overlooked it.
Very interesting system. Your observations on the reasons for low ridership seem like predictors of California’s bullet train. Going from Bakersfield to Merced, as the leg under construction, will suffer the same outcome. All that at an incredible price and decades to complete. Sadly our “leaders” don’t seem to learn from the failures of others.
But the CAHSR is planned to expand, whereas the Tren Urbano isn’t.
Yes I see I might have just missed it
When will you do more midwest content thom
Does Chicago count? Because I just did one.
Surely Sunday is the least busy day?
Of course
This was an amazing video but just a suggestion, when you go to California, can you make a video based of the Capitol Corridor and San Joaquins because you mentioned them but not actually made one based of it.
Well I have to ride a train in order to make a video about it, don’t I?
@@Thom-TRAYes
Really reminds me of Baltimore! Massive stations, one line, park and rides, limited utility for residents. Same fare gates too! The cleanliness really does stand out!
And here I am, still having not ridden the Baltimore MetroSubwayLinkTrainExpressLineServiceMover.
@@Thom-TRA someday soon!!!!😁😁😁
This was a cool video
Thanks!
@@Thom-TRA your welcome 🤗
🇵🇷😍😍😍😍
Not *all* the federal taxes apply. Residents of Puerto Rico are not required to pay federal income tax on PR source income.
Which is why I said *some* of the taxes. Which, I’m sure you heard me say loud and clear. Right?
@@Thom-TRA I heard wrong
@@Col_Crunch that’s why double checking is always a good idea
*It's a carbon copy clone of the la metro, the uncanny resemblance suprises me 💀*
How much did it cost to build this entire system??? 🤔
2,250 Million dollars.
Reminds me of the Delmar Loop Trolley in St. Louis… great start to a new system that just needs to be extended to realize it’s full potential ❤
Your brother really does sound like you lol...btw sent you emails re smartcards!
I am trying to find a vending machine that still sells the cherry blossom ones!
Awesome, thank you.
This line has never been finished. It is not completed.
Could it be you were film during siesta time? Not much goes on during nap time
is this the only train in puerto rico?
At least the only rapid transit
Yes. There was one running on the South on the old Sugar Cane plantation rails for a while as a tourist attraction. It was a pretty cool ride but it closed a couple decades ago.
There are quite a number of intact rails, specially on the south of the island, but they remain unused.
I forgot to say that there is also a steam (1902 Model) Baldwin locomotive as an open air museum at the town of Peñuelas.
I enjoy the video👍👍
Thank you!
Let’s goooo
Will be hot down there as it's under the Tropic of Cancer.
BEAR!!! WOO-HOO!!! 🙂
Thom and Lindsey: *Rail Pass trip*
Mientras, en Puerto Rico:
Interesting you point out some of the flaws with Tren Urbano and point out the political make up of Puerto Rico. Basically a USA colony. Does this not perhaps hinder further developments as certain groups of Federal Government wouldn't want to be seen investing in areas that some voters in the lower 48 would deem appropriate?
It would be interesting to see car ownership costs for Puerto Ricans given the many retail parks with Car Parks you see in Bear's video or what price and service levels colectivos/autobuses are.
From my experience in Buenos Aires a lot of ordinary workers took the buses rather than the Subte as was much cheaper and went closer to home and work.
It clearly hasn't been the success as planned given the two car or 4 car trains and the size of the platforms but at least it has scope for expansion of ridership.
You forgot.
Salsa music
Salsa originated in Cuba and New York, my guy.
🐻
Puerto Rico must be freed from the colonial claws of the US
Or enjoy the full benefits of statehood
🚈🏝️👍
First
Yep