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Honduras Transportation
Unavailable
Figure 7. Transportation System, 1993
Although sporadic attempts have been made to improve
Honduras's
transportation system, most recently in the late 1980s,
the
country's transportation system fails to meet the needs of
its
population. Much of the system is old and in disrepair,
and many of
its elements, in particular the railroad system, were
built for a
specialized purpose--such as transporting bananas to
ports--instead
of transporting goods and passengers nationwide. In 1993
Tegucigalpa remained the only Spanish-speaking capital in
the
Americas with no rail service
(see
fig. 7).
In 1993 Honduras had almost 9,000 kilometers of roads,
of which
only 1,700 kilometers were paved. Most paved roads connect
the
ports and industrial areas of north central and
northwestern
Honduras. Only one paved highway joins the Caribbean and
Pacific
coasts, a branch of the Pan American Highway that extends
south
from Puerto Cortés through San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa
to the
main east-west section at Nacaome. Another paved road in
poor
condition stretches southwest from San Pedro Sula to the
Guatemalan
and Salvadoran borders, and a newly paved road links the
capital
with Dulce Nombre de Culmí in northeastern Honduras. Other
areas
are served only by gravel or earthen roads, often
impassable in
rainy weather.
Honduras's 785 kilometers of railroad were originally
built by
the banana companies and consist of two separate systems
with
differing gauges. The larger system, with almost 600
kilometers of
track, was built by Standard Fruit Company in the early
1900s. Half
of this system is 1.067-meter narrow gauge; the other half
consists
of 0.914-meter, narrow-gauge lines. The government
nationalized the
Standard Fruit line in 1983, renaming it the Honduras
National
Railroad (Ferrocarril Nacional de Honduras--FNH). The
other system,
still owned by the Tela Railroad Company, a subsidiary of
Chiquita
Brands International, encompasses 190 kilometers of
1.067-meter
narrow-gauge lines. Both systems are located in the north
central
and northwestern coastal areas of Honduras and provide
freight and
passenger service. In 1992 Honduras announced that it and
El
Salvador would build a new transisthmian route to compete
with the
Panama Canal, with completion scheduled for 1997. No
construction
had begun, however, by the end of 1993.
Three ports handle almost all of Honduras's seaborne
trade.
Puerto Cortés at the mouth of the Río Sula is by far the
country's
largest port. Most of the country's agricultural
exports--and
imports of petroleum and finished products--pass through
its
wharves. A new deep-water port in Puerto Castilla in
north-central
Honduras was expanded in the mid-1980s, mostly with United
States
financing and technical help, to allow for the influx of
military
personnel and matériel. With the end of the Contra war in
Nicaragua
and the reduction of United States military involvement in
northern
Honduras, however, efforts have been made to transform
Puerto
Castilla into an agricultural exporting center. Lack of
land
access, however, has impeded these attempts. San Lorenzo
is a small
port on the Golfo de Fonseca handling mostly sugar and
shrimp
exports.
Honduras's mountainous terrain and lack of alternative
transportation modes make air travel one of the most
important
means of transportation. The country has two major
international
airports--Toncontín at Tegucigalpa and La Mesa near San
Pedro Sula.
Both cities have regularly scheduled nonstop service to
Miami and
major cities in Mexico and Central America. Regularly
scheduled
domestic service also links La Ceiba with the country's
two largest
cities and carries tourists to Roatán on the largest
island, Isla
de Roatán, in the scenic Islas de la Bahía. Unscheduled
service to
small unpaved fields provides access from rural areas to
the larger
towns.
Data as of December 1993
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