Colón Province - Panama - page 399

RIDE THE PANAMA RAILROAD
One of the best ways to fully appreciate the extent of the canal is to travel from
Panama City to Colón along the historic Panama Railroad ( info 317-6070;
www.panarail.com ; one way adult/child US$25/US$15; departs from Panama City 7:15am, Colón
5:15pm daily) . The rails fell into disrepair during the Noriega regime, but in 1998 the
Panama government partnered with Kansas City Southern, an American-based
railway holding company, to create the Panama Canal Railway Company (PCRC).
The joint venture sought to re-establish the Atlantic-Pacific rail link and create a
profitable alternative to the Panama Canal trade route. In 2001 PCRC also intro-
duced a passenger service with a fully operational vintage train.
If you're looking to relive the golden age of railway travel, the vintage train fea-
tures exotic wood paneling and blinds, carpeted interiors, glass-domed cars and
open-air viewing decks. The hour-long ride parallels the canal, sometimes travers-
ing thick rainforest.
While you're sipping a hot cup of coffee and admiring Panama's scenic interior,
consider for a moment this cool train trivia:
» Peaking at US$295 a share, the Panama Railroad was the highest-priced stock on
the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in the mid-1800s.
» With a total construction bill of US$8 million, it was, at the time, the most expens-
ive railroad per kilometer ever built.
» Despite being only 76km long, the Panama Railroad required 304 bridges and
culverts.
» During the first 12 years of its operations, the Panama Railroad carried over
US$750 million in gold and silver, and collected 0.25% on each shipment.
» In 1913 the railroad hauled 2,916,657 passengers and transported 2,026,852 tons
of freight across the isthmus, which was the heaviest per-kilometer traffic of any
railroad in the world.
» An estimated 12,000 laborers died during its construction, mainly from malaria
and yellow fever.
» Disposing of the dead was such a problem that the Panama Railroad administra-
tion started pickling the bodies in barrels and selling them to medical schools, the
proceeds of which were used to build a hospital in the Panama Canal Zone.
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South of Colón