Rail transport in Jamaica

The Railways of Jamaica, constructed from 1845, were the first railway lines opened to traffic outside Europe and North America, and the second British Colony after Canada's Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad of 1836 to receive a railway system. Construction started only twenty years after George Stephenson's commenced operations in the United Kingdom.

The public passenger railway service in Jamaica, which was closed in October 1992, had a brief revival in 2011 only to be closed once again in August 2012. The Parliament of Jamaica debate leading towards a revival under a public joint venture corporation proposed with an offshore partner. Private freight transport continues on limited tracks leading to the various docks around the Caribbean island, transporting bauxite and sugar cane for export.

The first railway called the Western Jamaica Connecting Railway was built in 1845 from Kingston 23.3 kilometres (14.5 mi) to Angels. The railway was proposed and started by William Smith, originally from Manchester who owned land in Jamaica, and his sugar planter brother David.

The system approved by the Assembly of Jamaica in 1843 was for a double track between Kingston and Spanish Town, with branch lines to Angels, Port Henderson and the Caymanas sugar estate. On 21 November 1845 the Governor of Jamaica James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and ten carriages of passengers, pulled by the companies two locomotives Projector and Patriot built by Sharp Brothers of Manchester, travelled 19 kilometres (12 mi) from Kingston to Spanish Town. The first train came after the British Government had enacted the Sugar Duties Act 1846 and just after the emancipation of slaves, meaning the sugar industry needed the efficiency that the railway would bring to the difficult to passage island.

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