This article deals with traffic inSaint Helena,Ascension andTristan da Cunha, that is all forms of traffic in theBritish overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
The island ofSaint Helena has a 138-kilometre-long (86 mi) road network, consisting of 118 kilometres (73 mi) of paved and 20 kilometres (12 mi) of unpaved road.[1] Most roads are single-lane, and uphill traffic has a right of way. A general speed limit of 30 miles per hour (48 km/h) applies to the entire island. On Saint Helena there is a public bus network that in January 2015 served five routes,[2] but was expanded in September 2015,[3] March 2016[4] and October 2017.[5]
The M/VHelena serves the island fromCape Town on a monthly basis.[6][7] The ship was built in 1998 in China and can take 4,924 tonnes (4,846 long tons; 5,428 short tons) of cargo, or 218TEU.
The M/VHelena previously carried passengers.[8]
Saint Helena has a feeder and a harbour:
Between 1990,[9] and the opening of airport to commercial passenger traffic,RMSSt Helena (1989) provided passenger travel service.
Saint Helena was previously served by ships on theUnion Castle Line,[10] and by a previousRMSSt Helena (1963) from 1978 to 1990.[9]
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With the opening ofSaint Helena Airport, scheduled flights have been operated since 14 October 2017, twelve years after the British government agreed to fund it in order to encourage tourism to the island.[11]
The new airport is served weekly fromJohannesburg (South Africa).[12] During the pandemic 2020-2021 this service were temporarily cancelled and instead monthly flights operated fromLondon (UK), but from 2022 there were flights from Johannesburg again, and by 2023 the flights came twice weekly in the summer season.[13]
In 1829, the Saint Helena Railway Company opened a horse-drawn railway from Jamestown toHalf Tree Hollow,[14] which was also known as Ladder Hill Railway, orJacob's Ladder. The main purpose was to transport goods from the port of Jamestown to the higher houses. The service was discontinued in 1871 because it was damaged by termites.[15]
Anothersmall rail network was built for theseawaterdesalination plant inRuperts. Details of the track are not known.[16]
OnAscension there is a road network of 40 kilometres (25 mi), which is continuously paved.[1] The public bus transport network has four stops (as of 2014).[17]
Ascension has a feeder in the island's capitalGeorgetown. The port was modernized in 2011 with a new crane, among other things.[18]
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WithWideawake Airfield,Ascension has had an airport since 1943. It is primarily used for military purposes, but is also served by monthly scheduled services fromSaint Helena.[19][20]
Previously civilian passengers were permitted on flights to and fromRAF Brize Norton in England.[21][22]
Tristan da Cunha has a road network of 20 kilometres (12 mi), half of which is paved or half unpaved.[1] The island has probably the smallest public bus network in the world. The fleet of minibuses is available to pensioners free of charge.[23]
The shipping traffic is of outstanding importance forTristan da Cunha, which has no airfield. All goods and travellers can only reach the island by sea. Tristan da Cunha is approached irregularly fromCape Town by MFV Edinburgh, M/V Baltic Trader, andS. A. Agulhas II.[24]
Tristan da Cunha has with the Calshot Harbour[25] a port inEdinburgh of the Seven Seas. The port was comprehensively renovated at the beginning of 2017. It is 2 meters deep and takes only smaller boats. All larger ships have to stay offshore and both passengers and cargo have to be transferred to small boats.
Tristan da Cunha has no airport or airstrip of any kind.[26]
The S.A Agulhas II has a helicopter which is used for transport between the ship and land.[27] The other ships regularly visiting Tristan da Cunha do not have that, and transport ashore is done with small boats which requires waves not to be too large.
