Train from Panama to Colombia

The Colombian government, in addition to addressing the immigration issue with the new Panamanian president José Raúl Mulino, has an issue that could be brought up for discussion and that would be in the interest of a railway connection between both countries.

In terms of transportation infrastructure, Panama would be an ideal partner for the project that seeks to connect the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific.  Manuel Guillermo Sarmiento García, professor emeritus at the Externado University of Colombia, who heads the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Law, maintained that a railway connection with Panama would imply the construction of a new railway corridor, which requires very large investments, especially due to the topographical and environmental difficulties of crossing the Darién Gap.

The history of railroads in Colombia dates back to 1835, when Congress issued the first law for concessions for this means of transportation with the idea of ​​creating a route that connected the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.  That ambition became a reality in 1850, the date of which construction of the ‘Portobelo-Panama’ section in Greater Colombia began (today, Colón to Balboa in Panama).