Trains and transit in Costa Rica

[Willbridge]

In '69-'71 I gave up explaining to most Germans where Portland, Oregon was. I learned that "near San Francisco" or "near Vancouver, BC" worked best. I also found it useful to explain that Oregon was the size of West Germany and that the population of Oregon then was about the same as that of Berlin.

It hit me in my first trip to Paris from Berlin. People asked me how I liked Belgium en route and I didn't know because the whole country was dark.

 

[AmtrakMaineiac]

Concerning the size of the US I remember when my cousin and his wife came to visit us when we lived near Philadelphia and they thought they would take a day trip to go visit a friend who lived near Albany and I had to explain that Philly to Albany was an all day trip by train and they began to realize just how big the US was

 

[Matthew H Fish]

Concerning the size of the US I remember when my cousin and his wife came to visit us when we lived near Philadelphia and they thought they would take a day trip to go visit a friend who lived near Albany and I had to explain that Philly to Albany was an all day trip by train and they began to realize just how big the US was

In '69-'71 I gave up explaining to most Germans where Portland, Oregon was. I learned that "near San Francisco" or "near Vancouver, BC" worked best. I also found it useful to explain that Oregon was the size of West Germany and that the population of Oregon then was about the same as that of Berlin.

It hit me in my first trip to Paris from Berlin. People asked me how I liked Belgium en route and I didn't know because the whole country was dark.

This actually might deserve a thread of its own "What countries are the closest transit peers to the United States?"

 

[Matthew H Fish]

Since this was the entire point of my trip to Limon, I better post this video---it is pretty long, though!
This video talks about, and shows, a lot of things. Limon has a complicated history, and much of it is rail related. While some of this video just shows the natural beauty of the city, with lots of blue sky and waves, I also talk about the history of Limon. Limon was developed as an export port, where agricultural commodities (mostly bananas) were shipped to the US. This necessitated a rail line. Building the rail line involved bringing in contract workers --- Jamaican, Chinese, and Italian --- to an area with difficult living conditions. After the rail was completed, some of workers stayed. The workers of African descent were legally segregated and couldn't leave the province until the laws were changed in 1949.
So Limon still has that double nature: some of the infrastructure actually looks newer and better than in the rest of Costa Rica, but because the area was discriminated against and had a less-developed commodity based economy, it is also poorer in some ways.
And that is just the basics of it---hopefully the video shows some more! Including, also, some working trains!

 

[Willbridge]

Something that helps follow this is the Open Railway Map. It shows the two lines diverging from the Limon terminal. The line following the coast is fairly straight, then it turns abruptly into Rio Estrella country, where one curve links with the next. On that outer end, there are little branches to loading points. And, a bonus, a blow-up shows the Tram Line west of there, linking the Veragua Eco center with the Rio Victoria.

https://www.openrailwaymap.org/

 

[Matthew H Fish]

I have actually taken a few trips that involve taking the trains here---but no reason to share those videos, since they are mostly things I covered already.
This video doesn't involve a train---but it does involve rail history, and transit.
This is a trip to Atenas (Athens), a small town (probably around 10,000 people), about 20 miles west of San Jose. There is also a rail museum there---that I didn't get to visit. Atenas is located on the rail line westward, and before the landslide, was one of the first stops on the route from San Jose to Puntarenas.
As I show in this video, the terrain makes it hard to reach---including a spot where both lanes of traffic have to share a one lane bridge. Which sounds romantic, but as the video shows, Atenas is not a quaint little mountain town---it is a pretty big and busy place, and I don't know how long it can continue with this type of infrastructure.
This trip also begins and ends at the Terminal Coca-Cola in San Jose---strangely enough, the first time I visited this terminal. (Which is actually a district full of many terminals run by separate companies). While it is not terrible (and rumors made it sound worse than it was), it is also, in the way of many bus terminal areas, not the type of place I would advise to linger around in.

 

[Matthew H Fish]

Here is another one where I actually ride a train!
So, important news about this thread: in two weeks, I will be back in the United States. Actually, less than two weeks! There is some trepidation about that, of course, travelling is always stressful.
So this might be the last video where I ride a train here.
This trip was one of my favorite trips I've taken here, even though it was just a day trip.
I traveled by bus to Cartago, and then by another bus to the mountain town of Tierra Blanca. One of the intriguing things about this is that this town is about 12 miles from the center of San Jose, and 4 miles from the Cartago train station. So imagine driving 12 miles from the center of Washington, DC, and being surrounded by onion farms! Although the terrain here is quite different: the bus from the middle of Cartago to Tierra Blanca, goes from about 1500 to 2100 meters, or about 2000 feet of elevation gain.
Anyway, so here is the one, single, big, important takeaway from this, that is really important to how we think about transit.
In the United States, one of the definitions of "rural" is that people don't live in communities. There are exceptions to this, but in general, "rural" is equated by living alone, without direct, regular contact with neighbors, and that interaction with a community has to be done by private vehicle. And that is taken for granted in the US, but here (and in a lot of places), rural living means living in communities...just smaller communities. So this video shows a town of a few thousand people, with a small central square where locals do their shopping and talk and meet, surrounded by fields---but it also has bus service every 15 minutes, and people can reach a major city where they can ride a train to the capital.
One of the great things about trips like this is it allows me to see what communities look like in different places, and that a lot of the denotation that we use for types of communities isn't true in different places.

 

[Willbridge]

Here is another one where I actually ride a train!
So, important news about this thread: in two weeks, I will be back in the United States. Actually, less than two weeks! There is some trepidation about that, of course, travelling is always stressful.
So this might be the last video where I ride a train here.
This trip was one of my favorite trips I've taken here, even though it was just a day trip.
I traveled by bus to Cartago, and then by another bus to the mountain town of Tierra Blanca. One of the intriguing things about this is that this town is about 12 miles from the center of San Jose, and 4 miles from the Cartago train station. So imagine driving 12 miles from the center of Washington, DC, and being surrounded by onion farms! Although the terrain here is quite different: the bus from the middle of Cartago to Tierra Blanca, goes from about 1500 to 2100 meters, or about 2000 feet of elevation gain.
Anyway, so here is the one, single, big, important takeaway from this, that is really important to how we think about transit.
In the United States, one of the definitions of "rural" is that people don't live in communities. There are exceptions to this, but in general, "rural" is equated by living alone, without direct, regular contact with neighbors, and that interaction with a community has to be done by private vehicle. And that is taken for granted in the US, but here (and in a lot of places), rural living means living in communities...just smaller communities. So this video shows a town of a few thousand people, with a small central square where locals do their shopping and talk and meet, surrounded by fields---but it also has bus service every 15 minutes, and people can reach a major city where they can ride a train to the capital.
One of the great things about trips like this is it allows me to see what communities look like in different places, and that a lot of the denotation that we use for types of communities isn't true in different places.

It looked to me as though Tierra Blanca is a turnback point, in order to provide more frequent service on the inner part of the route. There are three ways of setting one up.

• Install informative signage (which some will read).
• Install a common bus stop for inbound departures (more important with GPS/GIS scheduling).
• Let people learn by trial and error.

Unfortunately, the last method is common. A subset of that, common in public ownership systems, is to use the third method and then say "but people don't like it" and then schedule every trip to the outer end of the route, using additional operators and vehicles.

 

[Matthew H Fish]

It looked to me as though Tierra Blanca is a turnback point, in order to provide more frequent service on the inner part of the route. There are three ways of setting one up.

• Install informative signage (which some will read).
• Install a common bus stop for inbound departures (more important with GPS/GIS scheduling).
• Let people learn by trial and error.

Unfortunately, the last method is common. A subset of that, common in public ownership systems, is to use the third method and then say "but people don't like it" and then schedule every trip to the outer end of the route, using additional operators and vehicles.

Well, I did find out a few things after that! One of the key things being that only three buses a day go to the end of the route. I didn't want to get on at the other stop because I thought those buses would be going up the mountain. I later found out that would not be the case.
Another thing is that the a lot of the distinction between a "city bus" and an "intercity bus" doesn't exist here. The "city buses" often have luggage racks and padded seats, and stop at terminals, while the "intercity buses" will stop dozens of times to pick people up and let people off. In the case of this town, the "stop" was actually a terminal or transit center, with the bus "pulling in" both for letting passengers off and picking passengers up.
And third, and perhaps most importantly---people here just assume that these things are known. There is a lot less handholding, and passengers just know where they are. Even on the train platforms, there is usually no sign for the name of the station. It makes sense after a while, but it can be very confusing for a newcomer.