FERISTSA was the name of a proposed 1600 miles (2,574.9 km) USD

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

 $3 billion privately owned commercial railroad going from the Panama Canal Railway Company through the entire length of Central America

Central America

Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

, linking with Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

's rail system at the Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

 border, and thus to the United States of America.

Description

The railroad's main cargo would have been containers

Containerization

Containerization is a system of freight transport based on a range of steel intermodal containers...

 to and from ports in Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

, El Salvador

El Salvador

El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...

, Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

 and Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

. Currently, standard gauge track does not extend continuously south of Mexico and many of the existing narrow gauge lines to the south are abandoned, disconnected, derelict, or disused.

Planning

In , the Shaw Group announced that it was in talks with a number of large United States railroad companies to operate FERISTSA. At that time, the Shaw Group estimated that engineering feasibility studies would be ready in two years, arranging the project's financing, the bank syndication and the equity investment would take an additional year and construction of the project would take another four years, putting its initial completion around 2012.

The project is no longer mentioned on Shaw Group's website; the railway has not been built.

Route

The FERISTSA would have run North-South from Mexico to Panama and beyond.
Mexico Guatemala El Salvador

Transport in El Salvador

-Railways:*total: 602 km . Rehabilitation in progress*narrow gauge: 602 km gauge...

 Honduras Nicaragua Costa Rica Panama