Urban Mobility/Last Train to San Fernando

URBAN MOBILITY

“Mobility, the ability to move around cities is a fundamental and increasingly complex dimension of everyday life.” (Hall and Barrett 2012) This mobility Shapes cities.

Mobility In San Fernando

Movements in the cities of the global north at least, is increasingly dominated by the car. And this can also be seen in areas such as San Fernando. The picture above shows San Fernando on a not so busy day, yet you can see illegal parking to the sides of the street, even going straight till the police station.(3rd Photo). The 1st and 2nd photos shows traffic leading up to the CBD, around "Library Corner." Most of which are cars- the preferred vehicle.

There is a co-relation when it comes to Mobility, Transport and Urban form. (Hall and Barrett 2012). Urban transportation can be put into three broad Categories. These includes, Collective, Individual and Freight transportation. (Rodrigue 2013)

• Collective Transportation (public transit). The purpose of collective transportation is to provide publicly accessible mobility over specific parts of a city. Its efficiency is based upon transporting large numbers of people and achieving economies of scale. It includes modes such as, buses, trains and subways(However not in San Fernando) and ferryboats.

• Individual Transportation. Includes any mode where mobility is the outcome of a personal choice and means such as the automobile, walking, cycling and the motorcycle. The majority of people walk to satisfy their basic mobility, but this number varies according to the city considered. For instance, walking account for 88% of all movements inside Tokyo while this figure is only 3% for Los Angeles. In San Fernando, many people may enter the city with Vehicles, but most of them walk once they are in the CBD fro example, due to lack of proper and sufficient parking facilities.
• Freight Transportation. As cities are dominant centers of production and consumption, urban activities are accompanied by large movements of freight. These movements are mostly characterized by delivery trucks moving between industries, distribution centers, warehouses and retail activities as well as from major terminals such as ports, rail yards, distribution centers and airports. The mobility of freight within cities tends to be overlooked. However, not much of this is seen within the CBD District of San Fernando. However, as you move away from the CBD towards the industrial estates, this can be seen more prevalent.

“Mobility is also a social equity issue. The share of the automobile in urban trips varies in relation to location, social status, income, quality of public transit and parking availability. Mass transit is often affordable, but several social groups, such as students, the elderly and the poor are a captive market. There are important variations in mobility according to age, income, gender and disability.” (Rodrigue 2013)

Within the context of Urban geography, the mobility paradigm highlights various 'immobile platforms' such as petrol stations, roads, car parks, airports and docks. These are, but not always, nodes through which many different forms of mobility are channelled and come together. (Hall and Barrett 2012)

Increased Mobility and transportation, has let to road congestion. This can be seen almost everywhere in urban cities. Road congestion has negative economic, social, health and environmental impacts that degrade the natural and built environment. This is also evident in San Fernando.

Addressing traffic congestion on the Bypass and on the internal roads will have to respond to the following factors:

• Inability of the critical intersections to handle the volume of traffic.
• Topography, particularly North San Fernando as road routing systems need to improve.
• existing roads which have little capacity for improvement due to roadside development.
• Limited number of arterial roads.
• Irresponsible trade practices by the private transit especially the maxi taxis.
• Pedestrian Jay-walking.
• Insufficient availability of on street space for taxi/maxi stands.
• Insufficient on-street parking space in the Central Business District.

Another serious problem within San Fernando, is accessibility in the traditional urban center. Most persons working in San Fernando, live outside of the city, and commute to work. The hospital also creates further problems of parking and traffic. Also there are a number of commuters bringing their children to schools in San Fernando, which further develops the amount of road congestion.

“LAST TRAIN TO SAN FERNANDO”

The event- The song- The myth

"Last Train To San Fernando"

In Trinidad and Tobago, trains were once a major form of transportation. Most people will tell you that San Fernando’s last service train was hauled by engine TGR No11 which today is on display at Harris Promenade, San Fernando, as can be seen in the picture above. This however is incorrect.

The Locomotive which hauled the last service train was TGR (Trinidad Government Railway) Engine No27. This train really was the very last passenger train to San Fernando.

Over the years both the event and the song – “The Last Train to San Fernando” – have become a part of Trinidad folklore, although largely through myth rather than fact

“In the calypso there are warnings that if she does not catch the last train to San Fernando she would be stuck and not be able to get another one, and her marriage the next day would be in jeopardy. There is absolutely nothing about a train line coming to an end in the calypso, but a myth has grown and has become part of Trini folklore.

It was after three decades of effort that a passenger railway system was finally on track. August of 1876 marked the real start of the passenger railway system in Trinidad that saw Port of Spain linked to San Juan, St Joseph and Arima.

With the east-west corridor covered, it was onto Couva by 1880, to serve the sugar planters in that region, and then in 1882, southwards to San Fernando. The west coast was now being serviced followed in 1884, by a line from San Fernando to Princes Town. Travel to hitherto far off places was finally affordable and available.

Meanwhile, the cocoa planters, like their central sugar-growing counterparts, were agitating for extensions from Arima to Guanapo and Sangre Grande, which were granted in 1896 and 1897 respectively.

The next phase of the railway system, in 1898, saw the tracks branching off the southern line, from Cunupia Farm (Jerningham Junction), through the Caparo Valley and onto Tabaquite.” (Khan 2012)

The following Video, shows the Song, Last Train to San Fernando.

“The song became a huge international hit by American Johnny Duncan in 1957. Johnny Duncan’s producer was Dennis Preston who had a Caribbean wife. She had apparently first drawn the song to Preston’s attention. It was claimed that the original song was written by the “Duke of Iron” (Real name was Cecil Anderson) but my information reveals that “Duke of Iron” was a West Indian performer in the USA who frequently performed “Last train” making it very popular abroad. He was not the original composer.
Michael Anthony’s book “Glimpses of Trinidad and Tobago” published in the early 1970s indicates that “Last Train” was composed by MIGHTY SPITFIRE (local Trinidad Calypsonian, whose real name was Carlton Joseph Gumbs) in the 1940s as — “a celebration of a late night stay in Port of Spain rather than the allusion to the closing of the San Fernando line”.
The song was found as the the 1950 Monarch winner, composed by the MIGHTY DICTATOR (Real name was Kenny St Bernard).
As already indicated above, the closure of the line to San Fernando occurred in 1965, a full 15 years after the song won the 1950 Monarch Competition.

Nevertheless, over the years it has certainly taken on a symbolic significance almost becoming the remembrance anthem for the closure of the Railway to San Fernando. Perhaps, justifiably so because it is fabled to have been played by guitarist as the “Last Train to San Fernando” pulled out of Port of Spain in 1965. “ (Guyanese Online 2011)

In my opinion however, it is very good of the City to keep its heritage/cultural monument. A history that can never be lost. My generation has never seen the light of trains that were once active in the past, and through generations, the appreciation for these artifacts are now being lost. That is why I find it commendable that the City upholds its legacy.

References

Hall, Tim, and Heather Barrett. 2012. “The informal economy in Cities – alternative economic spaces.” Urban geography. London: Routledge.

Khan, Nasser. 2012. "Last Train to San Fernando - But was it?" The Guardian Media Limited. Accessed April 10, 2014. http://guardian.co.tt/entertainment/2012-12-30/last-train-san-fernando-was-it

Ministry of Local Government - Home. Accessed April10, 2014. http://www.localgov.gov.tt/~/media/Resource%20Library/Spatial%20Development%20Plans%20Per%20Corporation/San%20Fernando%20City%20Corporation%20Spatial%20Development%20Plan.ashx.

Rodrigue, Jean P. "Transportation and the Urban Form." Accessed April 10, 2014. https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch6en/conc6en/ch6c1en.html.