Transportation as it advances in San Fernando as an Urban Space
"Transportation is the center of the world! It is the glue of our daily lives. When it goes well, we don't see it. When it goes wrong, it negatively colors our day, makes us feel angry and impotent, curtails our possibilities."- Robin Chase
The Urban Landscape
Map
[ Calderon, C.
(2009, 02 16). What is the Uban Landscape? Retrieved from Land8:
When discussing urban
landscapes, transport is a key factor. The way people access the area and get
around to places plays an integral role in the functionality of urban
landscapes. Transportation has evolved
over the years from the popular trains, to then the bus/taxi/maxi-taxi services
to now evolve common services available which includes the water taxi. A lot of
people from Southern Trinidad work in the northern part of the country hence
transportation is a very important factor.
Initially, prior to the
vast improvement in the transportation sector with a number of means to travel
around, the most popular way to getting from place to place was by utilizing
the train service. On August 30th, 1965 was the last day that train
travelled the railway to King’s Wharf, San Fernando. An interview that was done
by Mr. Richard Charan of The Express Newspapers with Ms. Joan Hinds whom was
one of the few people to travel on the final trip of the San Fernando train she
recalled the final trip to San Fernando via train. She stated that everyone
preferred to travel via train because it was more comfortable that a taxi. She
also recalled how the train trip was on that particular day, she described it
to be normal however she did not realize it would be the last day the train
would run the railways. She stated that at the final stop people starting
singing and rejoicing ‘Last train to San Fernando’ as a way of marking the last
ride on a train for the area. (Charan, 2013) It was a historical moment in the
development and changes that were to come in the near future for the
transportation sector.
Part of the train the
travelled through San Fernando, now a part of the heritage and momentum.
The government has
introduced and boost the transport sector with Public Transport Service
Commission and launch a high amount of buses to allow for the functionality of
the transport system. It accommodates a high amount of people so avoids lots of
congestion.
Buses at San Fernando
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The water taxi was
introduce in 2008 as a means of new commute from South Trinidad to North as an
alternative means of transportation to get from one point to the other.
Water Taxi at King’s
Wharf
Majority of individuals
travelling via these means are off the working class because all others are
those who own their private vehicles are able to get from North to south or
vice versa at their own convenience. There are the benefits of travelling via
water taxi is there are less traffic so it is relatively faster to get to one’s
destination.
Bibliography
Calderon, C.
(2009, 02 16). What is the Uban Landscape? Retrieved from Land8:
http://land8.com/group/apula/forum/topics/what-is-the-urban-landscape
Charan, R. (2013,
08 20). Restoring the Railway Station. Retrieved from Trinidad Express
Newspapers:
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Restoring-the-railway-station-228565061.html
Wikipedia. (2014,
06 08). Trinidad Government Railway. Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinidad_Government_Railway
This post was very insightful. It was very interesting to learn about the historical evolution of transportation in San Fernando. The last train trip in San Fernado was made in the 1960s. This caused me to wonder if these developments had anything to do with post-indepence changes or different economic eras in Trinidad.
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