Traffic in St. Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha

RMS St. Helena

Calshot Harbor, Tristan da Cunha

Wideawake Airfield, Ascension

St. Helena Airport (2014)

Jakobsleiter, former cable car, St. Helena

This article deals with traffic in St. Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha , i.e. all forms of traffic in the British Overseas Territory of St. Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha .

Road traffic

The island of St. Helena has a network of 138 kilometers of roads , consisting of 118 kilometers of paved and 20 kilometers of unpaved roads. Most roads are single-lane, with uphill traffic enjoying the right of way. There is a general speed limit of 30 miles per hour across the island . There is a public bus network on St. Helena, which served five routes as of January 2015, but has been expanded since September 2015 and has included numerous new routes since March 2016 and October 2017.

On Ascension there is a road network of 40 kilometers that is paved throughout. The public transport network of buses has four stops (as of 2014).

Tristan da Cunha has a road network of 20 kilometers, half of which is paved and half of which is unpaved. The island has the smallest public bus network in the world . The fleet, which includes a minibus, is available to retirees free of charge.

shipping

The shipping traffic is of outstanding importance for Tristan da Cunha, as it does not have an airfield. All goods and travelers can only reach the island by sea. Tristan da Cunha is approached irregularly from Cape Town by Edinburgh , SA Agulhas II and Baltic Trader .

The only regular connection St. Helena with the outside world was - until the introduction of scheduled flight operations in October 2017 - the RMS St. Helena , which supplied the island in scheduled services. The St. Helena ceased operations on February 18 2018th Since then, the Helena has been serving the island from Cape Town as a supply ship every month (first voyage was in April 2017).

The overseas area has four ports or landing stages :

Jamestown (pier) on St. Helena.
Rupert's Wharf in Rupert's Valley (harbor) on St. Helena (since June 2016).
Georgetown (pier) on Ascension. The port was modernized in 2011 with a new crane, among other things.
Calshot Harbor , Edinburgh of the Seven Seas on Tristan da Cunha. The construction of a new port was planned for 2014. The idea was discarded due to the cost ( £ 21 million ).

Air traffic

With the Wideawake airfield , Ascension has had an airport since 1943. This is mainly used for military purposes, but has also been used in regular services from St. Helena since October 2017 .

With the opening of St. Helena Airport in May 2016, the RMS St. Helena should cease operations. Since the airport has only been in regular service since October 14, 2017, St. Helena operated until February 2018. The new airport will be served weekly from Johannesburg ( South Africa ) via Windhoek ( Namibia ).

Rail transport

In 1829, the Saint Helena Railway Company opened a horse-powered cable car from Jamestown to Half Tree Hollow , also known as the Ladder Hill Railway (now Jacob's Ladder ). Its main purpose was to transport goods from the port in Jamestown to the houses above. Their service ceased in 1871.

Another rail network was built to the seawater desalination plant in Rupert's Valley . Details about the railway are not known.