Demerara-Berbice Railway

The Demerara-Berbice Railway, built in then-British Guiana (now Guyana), was the first railway system on the South American continent. It was first operated by the Demerara Railway Company, a private concern, but sold to the Colonial Transport Department of the Government, which assumed control from 1 January 1922.

The Demerara-Berbice Railway ran along the coastline from the capital and main port, Georgetown in Demerara to Rosignol in Berbice - a distance of 60.5 miles. It was connected by ferry steamer across the Berbice River with New Amsterdam.

The bill proposing the construction of the railway was passed in July 1846. The Demerara-Berbice Railway was laid down in sections. The first section, from Georgetown to Plaisance, was opened on 3 November 1848.It was designed, surveyed and built by the British-American architect and artist Frederick Catherwood. The opening day's festivities featured the death of one of the railway's directors by being run over by the locomotive. Basic financing was done by the Demerera Sugar company to transport their product to the dock of GeorgetownThe extension to Belfield was completed in 1854, to Mahaica in 1864 and, during 1897 to 1900, the extension to Rosignol was built.

The Demerara-Essequibo Railway stretched along the West Coast Demerara from Vreed-en-Hoop on the left bank of the Demerara River to Parika on the Essequibo River.

The first section of the Demerara-Essequibo Railway was laid down up to Greenwich Park, then was extended to Parika in 1914.

This public railway system was dismantled in stages in the early 1970s, at that time leaving only the industrial railway systems at bauxite mining sites and another linking Port Kaituma and Matthew's Ridge in the Northwest District.

The Lamaha Street terminus of the Demerara-Berbice Railway was converted into a bus terminal subsequent to the closing of the railway.