Heritage route
St. Kitts Scenic Railway
Basseterre → La Vallee · St Kitts and Nevis
The last railway of the West Indies loops the island on a 1912–26 sugar-cane line, ridden in double-deck open-top cars.
Between 1912 and 1926 St. Kitts ringed itself with a 762 mm railway to haul sugar cane to the central factory at Basseterre, and when the sugar industry closed in 2005 the line had already found a second life carrying cruise passengers in purpose-built double-deck cars. The train rounds the island’s Atlantic side, rumbling over tall steel bridges that span the ravines running off Mount Liamuiga. A local choir and rum punch are part of the ride; sightseeing buses complete the circle.
Along the way
- Canefields outside Basseterre
- Steel bridges over the ghuts
- Black Rocks lava coast
- Mount Liamuiga views
- Dieppe Bay
How this line was checked
- The 25 km this route shares with OpenStreetMap relation 16162929 is drawn from that relation's own nodes, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: 94.6% of this line lies within 250 m of real track, a median 4 m from it
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: St. Kitts Scenic Railway — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
- See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it
Questions and answers
How long is the St. Kitts Scenic Railway?
The St. Kitts Scenic Railway runs 29 km from Basseterre to La Vallee.
How long does the St. Kitts Scenic Railway take?
The fastest scheduled journey is 2 h 15 min for the 29 km. That is an average of 13 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 30 km/h.
Who runs the St. Kitts Scenic Railway?
St. Kitts Scenic Railway, with double-deck open-top railcars.
How old is the St. Kitts Scenic Railway?
The line has been in service since 1926. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.
How often does the St. Kitts Scenic Railway run?
Cruise-ship days, mainly Nov–Apr.
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