Maritime Perspective of Panama Interoceanic Railway

Abstract

In 1977, when the American historian David McCullough wrote a book called ”The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914”, about the social and geographical environment during the Panama Canal construction, he described the transisthmic railway as a complement of the engineering department that French’s company did not know how to take advantage of, because with the Californian gold fever decadence and with the Canal works it would not have had any commercial purpose other than the ridiculous price of passenger tickets. He never imagined that 100 years later this complement will be a key fact in the supply chain of the Latin-American and worldwide trade. In this paper, we will focus in the logistical map of America, where Panama is the centre. Being the way to connect Asia and America, also both coasts of the American Continent, and the begin/end place of four of the five Feeders highways of Latin America, it turns in the link with the others and with the rest of the world. But they are separated by 76 kilometres that a logistical system converts this distance into a one-hour travel to the next connection. The challenges of this system are raising everyday as result of di_erent regional trade facts. The Panamanian complex is playing an important role with the trade balances, the growing economies and transoceanic services with stop in Panama, generating disequilibrium (empty containers problem). The empty containers must follow the empty container cycle since the container is emptied and the customer returns it to the owner, it’s taken to the depot for maintenance, step that is mandatory in order to return to the cycle of export.