San Juan Transportation

Transportation in San Juan

Systems of public transportation is necessary in a city in order for it to develop and for its population to have a means of efficiently going to and from places to do their daily business. Aside from transportation systems comprised of expressways, highways, and other smaller roads connecting one point of a city to another, it would be most beneficial if a city also has air, water and rail transport systems so that people can have more options to choose from depending on their needs and requirements. One such city which has provided its population with several kinds of public transportation systems is the City of San Juan in Puerto Rico.

San Juan Port
This is the largest and busiest seaport facility in the entire peninsula of Puerto Rico. Located in the capital municipio of San Juan, the San Juan Port or the San Juan Harbor handles a significant majority of the tourist and cargo ships in the entire Puerto Rico peninsula. Approximately 90% or more of the tourist cruises and cargo ships that deal with Puerto Rico use the harbor and seaport facilities of San Juan Port.

In fact, the San Juan Port is so large and full of activity that it currently considered as the fourth busiest harbor in all the Western hemisphere. With several dozens of container ships docking in and out of the San Juan Port, not to mention all the cruise ships coming from or to San Juan Port in order to visit Puerto Rico, it comes as no surprise why this sea transportation facility is so busy.

Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport
One of the two airports that serve San Juan, the Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport is considered as the principal commercial airport in the San Juan area although it is actually located in the neighboring municipio of Carolina. It is considered as the busiest airport in the entire Caribbean region, providing airport facilities to more than 35 airline companies for several years now.

Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport
Before the Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport was built, the main airport in San Juan was the Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport. This airport can be found in the municipio of San Juan and is near several popular facilities and destinations such as the San Juan Bay and the Puerto Rico Convention Center.

Unlike the Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport which is primarily a commercial airport, the Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport serves as a general airport to San Juan. This general aviation airport is also very useful to San Juan and the rest of Puerto Rico because it serves the Puerto Rican flight schools of Caribbean Flight Center and the Isla Grande Flight School.

Tren Urbano
The Urban Train or Tren Urbano in San Juan was a project whose aim was to help lower the traffic in the city by providing the population with alternative public transportation systems to use instead of cars. The train system was completed in 2004 and cost a whooping 2.25 billion dollars. Unfortunately, the population of San Juan seems to prefer driving their own vehicles so the Tren Urban did not receive the projected number of passengers it was expected to attract and therefore was not able to significantly help lower the amount of traffic in the city.