Tren Interurbano ("Interurban Train") is a commuter rail system centered in San Jose, Costa Rica, with lines extending to nearby Heredia, Alajuela, and Cartago provinces. As a commuter line, the train runs during morning and evening rush hour, but there is currently not service either in the middle of the day, or on weekends.
Costa Rica has a narrow gauge railroad system that dates back to the 19th century, when Costa Rica was a commodity economy based around coffee and bananas. After some decades of disuse, in 2005, this old railroad network was reused as the basis of a passenger rail service, run by INCOFER, the government railroad monopoly. This is one of the few passenger railroad services in Central America. As mentioned, the system runs only during rush hours (which in Costa Rica means from 5-9 in the morning and 3-8 at night). It has a few "stations", covered buildings where passengers can by tickets, and also many "platforms" where passengers wait and buy tickets from a conductor when they board. It currently has three lines: one to the Eastern suburbs of Cartago, another to the northern suburbs of Heredia and Alajuela, and a third to the western part of San Jose. The three lines all have different fares, which are typically a little more than one US dollar. The total length of the lines is on the order of 10-15 linear miles from the central station to the end points, although they often follow quite twisty courses.
I will forego technical specifications to talk about my personal experience with this train system, which I have used several times, on its three extant lines. One of the first things notable is the lack of the normal amount of guides and signage to the train that I would normally expect. If there is a neighborhood platform, there is no indication of where to find it, and it is simply a matter of being familiar with the neighborhood. The platforms also don't have signs saying their name, or which direction the trains are going in. And although they make a good effort at accessibility, many of them would be difficult to use for a person with a disability. The trains are also second hand, and sometimes are older and have trouble making it up the steeper parts of the network. They also tend to be quite crowded, and I have usually ended up standing (with the exceptions being during a reverse commute). Although this is a commuter rail service over short distances, sometimes it seems to be going further than it is: indeed, from San Jose to Cartago, the trains cross the continental divide. The process of buying a ticket onboard, as conductors move between densely packed passengers, can also be difficult. The train stations are also not especially coordinated with San Jose's chaotic bus network, with no real concept of what in North America is called a transit center. The trains are also not particularly fast, although at times, they are much faster than buses or cars caught in San Jose's congested streets.
In other words, all of this to say that there is less hand holding, and things are less cushy, on the Tren Interurbano, than someone who has come from a country like The Netherlands, or Japan, or even The United States would expect in their mass transit systems. The network is a legacy network, built for freight, that isn't reflective of San Jose's current population patterns. The train equipment and infrastructure also sometimes feels jury rigged. I have ridden the train system many times, but from interest---it takes some planning and patience to figure out how to use it.
The reader may not be particularly interested in how to take a train in San Jose, Costa Rica. And some of the details I wrote about here will probably change--hopefully for the better. But there is a relevant issue when discussing this train station. Costa Rica is a developed nation, by some criteria. It is a member of the Organization for Economic Development. However, it is one of the newest members (entering in 2021), and also one of the poorest, as well as being relatively small. One of my biggest surprises about Costa Rica was the contradiction between the high level of welfare, health and technology (with a dentists' office every block), and the somewhat dispirited appearance of its infrastructure. And the Tren Interurbano is an example of that. I feel that Costa Rica is making a valiant effort to deal with problems such as urban congestion, air quality and fossil fuel dependency---but as a middle income country with a small population, its access to capital and technical expertise make this more difficult. So, in short, the Tren Interurbano is an example of the challenges faced by, and the solutions found by, middle income countries when it comes to infrastructure.