History of rail transport in Haiti

In 1876, a franchise for the construction of a street railway in Port-au-Prince was awarded to a group of New York City financiers.

Six open cars were ordered from J. G. Brill and Company of Philadelphia in 1877 and a tramway service connecting Croix des Bossales with Champ de Mars began in 1878.

[1] In 1896, the Comite des Negociants d'Haiti (Haitian Trader's Committee) began to restore the closed horse tramway system and to build two new rural lines.

There were two routes: Following the US occupation of Haiti in 1915, the CCFPCS was taken over by the Haitian American Sugar Company (Hasco) and renamed Chemin de Fer Central.

In 1905, a new company, Compagnie Nationale, built a 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge steam railway from Port-au-Prince to Saint-Marc (100 km).

[citation needed] By the mid-1950s, two public-service railways totalling 187 mi (301 km) remained operating.