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Comment by munk-a | Hacker News Reader

If we saw increased off-shoring to Colombia would it possibly finally result in a continuous Freight rail line through Central America? It's always struck me as exceedingly odd that Panama is the terminus for all land-borne transportation.

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> It's always struck me as exceedingly odd that Panama is the terminus for all land-borne transportation.

Might be because there's this chunk of Panama/north Columbia that's run by Guerillas and is one of the most dangerous places in existence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dari%C3%A9n_Gap)

There's this whole massive project that bombs the Darrien Gap with sterilized screwflies to prevent them from getting into North America[1]. I suspect opening that route to vehicles would probably help get them past the gap and into North America where they'd wreak havoc on livestock.

[1] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/north-ame...

Not just that, you have some of the highest concentrations of sea shipping lanes in the world competing nearby, with rugged landscape, earthquakes, and multiple socipolitical barriers along the route.

Sounds like they need some freedom.

What an immediately cynical, hilarious and eventually thought provoking response.

I suspect it violates HN guidelines (too snarky?!?!). However, I for one applaud it's pith!

There has also been concern that a land-based link would hamper the containment of foot-and-mouth disease that was eradicated from North America, and there are environmental concerns. Colombia proposed building a road through the whole gap:

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-08-20-mn-36988-...

But this has been heavily protested by environmentalists and natives alike. It might be less controversial to go northeast to Acandí by tunneling under the mountains, which would leave almost all of the forest untouched. Then you could build a long bridge, a coastal highway, or just keep using the ferry.

Nobody seems to have figured out how to make bridging the Darién Gap cost effective. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dari%C3%A9n_Gap#By_land

Plus, there's not even any rail line reaching Panama. The southern terminus of the North American rail infrastructure is Mexico, I think. I doubt trucking everything through Central America would be very cost effective. So you're not only building a new line through 66 miles of some of the most difficult and remote terrain in the world, you're building or refurbishing another ~1500+ miles of rail.

And then you're only reaching Columbia and Venezuela, with the Andes and the Amazon between you and the two biggest markets in South America: Brazil and Argentina.

It would be cool if it happened, but I think it would have to be a regional public works project funded primarily by the U.S. government. Unless Musk is looking for his next challenge (and he can make it pencil out with his Fermi-math voodoo). Maybe the U.S. can sell it to taxpayers as a jobs and economic development program to stem the tide of Central American refugees.

I flew across the Darien gap twice in the last week and the area has always interested me for the very subject of why don’t they join south and north. Simply, there’s no cost effective way.

The landscape is wet. You would effectively be building a bridge the whole way. Whilst fighting a guerrilla war, disease and ruining an ecological system in the process.

Who needs rail when there's massive port capacity in Cartagena and Panama?

Such a rail freight line would have to compete with comparatively-inexpensive sea freight, and probably couldn't do so cost-effectively.

The Darien Gap is insufficiently friendly to construction to permit that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dari%C3%A9n_Gap

> Panama is the terminus for all land-borne transportation.

Does the Panamerican highway not qualify as land-borne transportation?

I don’t believe one can travel across the Americas via the Panamerican highway. It’s more idea than reality.

You absolutely can, except for a good chunk in the middle of the highway in the Darien gap.

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