The first railway in Colombia was in fact the Panama Railroad which crossed the isthmus of Panama in 1855. However, in 1903, Panama became a country in ints own right; therefore, the first railway in present day Colombia was the line opened in 1871 between Barranquilla and Sabanilla (present day Puerto Salgar), a distance of about 22km. The gauge is variously reported as 1080mm or 1067mm; however, subsequent railway development in the country was mainly to a gauge of 3ft (914mm).
The Colombian national railway system, Ferrovias, went bankrupt towards the end of the 20th century. Some effort was made to restart services using a shadow operating company, but with limited success. Railway freight operation has now been transferred to two private consortia. No passenger services, other than one tourist train, are in operation at present.
The city of Medellin has a metro system, first opened in 1995.
