7. The Maiquetia-Macuto Railroad is owned and financed by the English with a working capital of $100,000. The length is 7 kilometers, the gauge 0.915 meters; there are 8 bridges and 4 stations. The route is from Maiquetia to Macuto. The number of passengers carried in 1919 was 430,668 and freight amounted to 2,563 tons.
8. The Central Railroad of Venezuela is owned and financed by the English with a working capital of $3,484,500. The length is 60 kilometers, the gauge 1.07 meters; there are 23 bridges, 14 tunnels and 7 stations; the route is from Caracas to the station Tereza. The number of passengers carried in 1919 was 326,945 and freight amounted to 22,971 tons.
9. The La Ceiba Railroad is owned and financed by a Venezuelan Company with a working capital of $1,600,000. The length is 81.5 kilometers, the gauge 0.915 meters; there are 43 bridges and 5 stations; the route is from La Ceiba to Roncayolo. The number of passengers carried in 1919 was 9,649 and freight amounted to 21,706 tons.
10. The La Vela-Coro Railroad is owned and financed by the Venezuelan Government with a capital of $208,000. The length is 13.5 kilometers, the gauge 0.915 meters; there are 8 bridges and 3 stations; the route is from La Vela to Coro. The number of passengers carried in 1919 was 6,681 and freight amounted to 10,828 tons.
11. The Grand Railroad of the Táchira is owned and financed by a Venezuelan Company with a capital of $1,500,000. The length is 115 kilometers, the gauge 1.07 meters; there are 3 bridges and 13 stations; the route is from Uraca to Táchira. The number of passengers carried in 1919 was 19,070 and freight amounted to 19,562 tons.
12. The Santa Barbara-El Vigia Railroad is owned and financed by the Venezuelan Government with a working capital of $600,000. The length is 60 kilometers, the gauge 1.07; there are 37 bridges and 3 stations; the route is from Sta. Barbara to El Vigia. The number of passengers carried in 1919 was 11,940 and freight amounted to 17,821 tons.
On several of the main roads traffic is lighter now than twenty-five years ago, and notwithstanding the fact that rail transportation costs no more than that by pack mule, scarcely any of the railway enterprises have earned a fair return upon the capital invested, though certainly transportation has been quickened and rates have been steadied, if not cheapened. The principal reasons for this lack of earning power lie in the sparseness of the population, and its distribution along a long narrow strip of territory skirting the seaboard, a condition which leads to the building of unconnected lines with short hauls. Contributory reasons are the moderate producing and consuming power of the people, and the general refusal of the lines to grant low rates for the transportation of commodities of small value.
The waterways of Venezuela, numerous and general as they appear on the map, are singularly disappointing on closer investigation. The great Orinoco is a fine natural highway, it is true, as far as Pericos, some 600 miles from the mouth, but here the river is broken by the rapids of Atures, and beyond by those of Maipures, hence it is impossible for large boats to pass through to the upper river. The Apure, Arauca, and Meta are, of course, useful means of communication with the Colombian border regions and the southwestern llanos, but the numerous tributaries on the north side are generally too variable in depth for permanent traffic, and those on the south, as we have seen, are broken up by rapids for practically their whole length.
On the other hand, if we take the positive value of the river highways, rather than their actual extent, we shall see that they are of considerable importance; the rivers of Guayana and of the eastern llanos may be of little use for large boats, but the Orinoco forms a great, central artery, from which roads, and perhaps eventually railways, can diverge to the limits of the basin. Some of the llano tributaries, too, are navigable for steamers, and thus the State of Apure is now kept in communication with the outside world. Then, too, there is the great advantage accruing to the State of Zulia from its central lake, with its many tributary navigable rivers, along which large boats can travel throughout the greater part of the State and on to the boundaries of those of the Andes, as well as into the neighboring republic of Colombia. Along most of these natural and easily utilized lines of communication there are already services of steamers, nothing very advanced, it is true, but still a beginning.
The most important of the accessible regions of the country are the great plains stretching from east to west of the Orinoco and Apure rivers, well suited to cattle raising, the rich alluvial region east of Lake Maracaibo and the rich agricultural region around Lake Valencia.