Editing Transport in French Guiana (section)

==Railways==
[[File:Ariane 5 launch pad.jpg|thumb|right|The railway in the Guiana Space Centre]]
A short railway is used within the [[Guiana Space Centre]] (this short railway is for transporting spacecraft inside the base to the launch pad, not for passenger use). The railway is double tracked and used by unpowered rail cars (tanker cars, flatcars and launch table transporter platforms fitted with bogies) and are towed by rubber wheeled vehicles with railway wheels or bogies to ride along the rail tracks ([[Road–rail vehicle]]s).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/frenchguiana04.htm|title=Space Centre Railways in French Guiana, 2014|website=www.internationalsteam.co.uk}}</ref>

From 1880s to sometime after 1926 a steam narrow gauge railway was used for gold mines in Saint-Elie<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/frenchguiana03.htm|title=Industrial Railways in French Guiana, 2014|website=www.internationalsteam.co.uk}}</ref> and two other lines were partially built and never used.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/frenchguiana02.htm|title=Prison Railways in French Guiana, 2014|website=www.internationalsteam.co.uk}}</ref>

Two prison railways were built in the 1890s. One line connected Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni to [[Saint-Jean-du-Maroni]]. Another line went to [[Charvein]]. The railway lines were abandoned after prisons closed and disappeared sometime after 1946.<ref name="auto"/>

There are no other railways in French Guiana and none have existed for revenue passenger service, and there are no connections to neighbouring countries. Some maps - including some on Wikipedia - depicting [[List of countries by rail transport network size|railway density]] give the impression of railways existing in French Guiana due to conflating the existing railways in [[rail transport in France|the metropole]] with the lack of same in French Guiana, thus creating a [[statistical artifact]].