The great Guyanese light rail enigma

Oct 14, 2025 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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(Kaieteur News) – Somewhere between the potholes, the speed humps, and the endless ribbon of road projects that now connect our traffic jams more efficiently than ever, the government has suddenly discovered the idea of a light rail system. It’s a bit like discovering yoga after a lifetime of chain-smoking—commendable, yes, but perhaps a tad late.

One has to admire the enthusiasm, though. After years of widening roads, duplicating lanes, and creating four-lane roadways for the express purpose of being stuck on them in style, someone finally looked around and said, “What if people didn’t have to drive at all?”

Of course, the details remain as clear as a Demerara River at dusk. We are told that the light rail will improve mobility. Wonderful. But what kind of mobility? Passenger? Cargo? Or perhaps the movement of ceremonial flags at Independence Day? No one quite knows. Because if it’s for cargo, then we are in the territory of fantasy engineering. Light rail is not designed for heavy freight—it’s not the sort of thing you use to ship tons of rice or containers of rum. It’s for people, preferably sitting, sometimes standing, occasionally wondering why they didn’t just take a taxi.

And therein lies the comic absurdity of the whole enterprise. You don’t decide to build a light rail system after you’ve expanded your highways. That’s like buying new furniture for an apartment you’ve already rented out. The logical approach—the one used by countries that don’t believe traffic jams are part of the national identity—would have been to plan rail corridors alongside the new highways. Imagine that: a sleek train gliding beside the road, while drivers peer enviously from their cars, regretting every monthly installment at the bank for their loan used to buy a new SUV.

But in Guyana, logic is not always in use. The government’s policy has been to allocate prime land alongside the new four-lane roads for commercial and industrial enterprises: This might be great for commerce and industry, but it’s disastrous for urban planning. Instead of preserving those lands for a mass transport system, we’ve given them to people who will ensure there are even more cars, more trucks, more traffic.

So now, in the period of our infrastructure boom, we find ourselves contemplating a light rail network with no space to put it. Maybe it will hover above the roads, suspended by optimism. Or perhaps it will snake through the median strips between lanes, occasionally stopping to pick up passengers who have managed to climb the guardrails. I can already picture the inaugural ride: the President cutting the ribbon, the train moving ten feet, then stopping because a truck is blocking the track.

Still, it’s progress of a kind. The government’s newfound interest in public transportation shows that, at least theoretically, it understands that perpetual road expansion is not a strategy—it’s an addiction. Every new road invites more vehicles, and every vehicle adds to the chaos. Trinidad learned this the hard way. For decades, they widened roads, built flyovers, and expanded intersections, only to end up with longer and more stylish traffic jams. Now Guyana seems determined to audition for the sequel: Trinidad 2 – The Guyana Gridlock.

If only someone had the courage, or perhaps the sense of humor, to say: “Let’s stop chasing after cars and start moving people.” Because a well-designed light rail system could transform the country. It would reduce commute times, save millions of manhours, cut fuel consumption, and spare us from the daily ballet of honking and overtaking that currently passes for driving. But that requires foresight—and foresight, as we know, is not a local specialty. In the end, one almost feels sorry for the light rail project. It’s entering a world that wasn’t built for it, a world of asphalt ambition and roundabout dreams. It’s as if we’re trying to fit a violin into a steelpan orchestra. Still, I wish it luck. If it ever materialises, I’ll be the first to buy a ticket—assuming, of course, the station isn’t located where the government has already approved a new shopping plaza. Until then, we’ll keep building roads to solve traffic, a bit like drinking to cure a hangover. And when the gridlock reaches biblical proportions, we’ll no doubt announce a new study—perhaps this time, on the benefits of teleportation.

(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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• Demerara River, Peeping Tom, traffic jams, train

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