Nov 19, 2025
Hard Truths by GHK Lall
(Kaieteur News) – I like what I am hearing from President Ali. A rail link connecting the East Bank Demerara to the East Coast Demerara (EBD-ECD).
It is the kind of infrastructure project that should make the citizens of an oil rich country proud. I am. No one, not one PPP Government supporter could say that I am always down, down, down, on their beloved leaders and government. I have my say, differ on the less than the best.
By the same standard, when there is what holds significant promise, relief, for the future, then that must be applauded. I do, and a well-thought out, efficiently functioning rail link, stands as one. Truth be told, the president knows well what I represent; but politics inhibit him from publicly admitting to that discernment.
There are so many commonsense positives in an EBD-ECD rail link. I urge from the highest government official to the lowest citizen to think of the boon that would be to citizens using the roads of Guyana. Congested and cardiac-inducing they are, and almost all hours of the day. With more vehicles rolling off the wharves monthly, the traffic crawl becomes longer and slower. Not good for the blood pressure or the nerves.
There are all those lost manhours to Guyanese stuck in traffic daily both going and coming, and students trapped in the same ordeal, having to surrender study time that they cannot afford. Negative, negative, and here’s another one.
What about all those exhaust emissions, the dust that gathers in the home, and respiratory afflictions that develop to those prone to such pollutions. For those living close to busy carriageways (that same EBD-ECD ribbon of road) can write prose or poetry, depending on their disposition, about that other fallout from the endless streams of vehicular traffic. It is called noise pollution. Remember that one? Anyone close to that torture? Guyanese subject to different kinds of road-related anxieties should have gotten the picture by now, for a simple reason. There are in it. I move on.
A rail link encircling, serving, the EBD-ECD corridor has the potential to remove significant numbers of Guyanese from car seat to train seat. Think of the difference that that would make in the daily commute on the roads. Think of the savings with the fuel bill, from all those auto air conditioner units on, and more stopping and starting, than any real moving.
Then, there is difference in road carnage, and road shakedowns, due to less users plying the roads in any direction. Of course, fewer vehicles on the crowded EBD and ECD roadways mean more open lanes, and incentives to step on the gas. Speed thrills. It does something else, also. Amid my own interest in a rail link of this kind, there is a factor that has some validity, which is now brought to the attention of planners and road users.
It is a long running belief that Americans have a love affair with their four-wheeled chariots. The wide-open roads are there in abundance, and that has a special magnetism all of itself.
Taking a glance in the local environment, my sense is that a huge subset of Guyanese drivers may find it difficult to leave their vehicles parked and walk to the station to catch a train. To say this differently, though Guyanese voices uninterruptedly lament the woes on the road, and its drain on them, the switch from being behind the wheel, and not having to share space with strangers, could lead to not as many road users leaving the daily grind of local roads behind them.
People have grown accustomed to their working family (spouse and students) all being in the same place, and having some input to make in their movement, however slow and tedious. The result could that the bulk of the rail link patrons could come from those without their own transportation, from the ranks of the aged, and those who could make good use of a cheap train fare. To put a little icing on the cake, I recommend that Guyana’s 76,000 senior citizens get a free pass, or pay half price. I have already leaped to the stage that it is worth doing, with feasibility study to support, challenges and what nots.
Still, I believe that an EBD-ECD rail link project would be worth the investment of money, manpower, and other resources. Daily the traffic nightmare intensifies, with nowhere to go and nothing to do. There is always some level of venting, which has a huge following from Guyanese drivers.
Traffic woes compete with the punishing heat and increasingly unstable internet service to rob this country of valuable manhours. An East Bank-East Coast rail link could address two of those that cost so much.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
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