Santo Domingo Metro

A Subway In Santo Domingo

The first subway in Dominican Republic

The Santo Domingo Metro is a rapid transit system under construction in Santo Domingo. The system was planned to relieve the congestion of traffic in the Máximo Gómez and Hermanas Mirabal Avenues in the center of the city. The Santo Domingo Metro is part of a major National Master Plan to improve transportation and expand infrastructure.

Approval and Construction

The current president Leonel Fernández started and proposed the construction of the first subway system in the Dominican Republic and second in the Caribbean. The project has been prompted by the need to reduce the continually rising heavy road traffic congestion and air pollution which severely affects productive time and health of the citizens of the city. The system will complement other forms of public transportation such as OMSA Metropolitan Office of Buses Services buses and the government estimates that around 100 feeder buses will be in service.

The first line of the mass-transit system will have sixteen stations; 6 elevated, 10 underground and a total track length of 14.5 km (9.6 miles).It will connect Villa Mella (north of the city) with La Feria (south of the city), which will hopefully bring relief to the current public transport system of Santo Domingo.

Daily ridership is expected to be about 200,000 passengers. According to the official version, the Santo Domingo Metro is scheduled to open for free use by the public in May 2008 and commercially in August 2008. Tests are scheduled to begin in February 2008. On February 27th Dominican Independence Day, president Leonel Fernandez promised to go on a test ride of this new subway system.

Station Locations

In September 23^rd, 2007 incumbent President of the Dominican Republic Leonel Fernandez while in his Trip around the East coast of USA announced that the Santo Domingo Metro Station names will no be named by streets but instead have a name of important historical people of the Dominican Republic. Even thougth this has been announced, it still not official which are the names and as of now the only information known is the location of each station as shown below.

Elevated Section:

• Mama Tingo(Charles de Gaulle) at Hermanas Mirabal Ave., Villa Mella
• La Paz at Hermanas Mirabal Ave., Sol de Luz
• Los Cerros at Hermanas Mirabal Ave., Buena Vista II
• Los Guaricanos at Hermanas Mirabal Ave.
• Parque Mirador Norte at Hermanas Mirabal Ave.

At Ground Station:

• Isabela (Cementera Dominicana) The operations control centre is located on this station

Underground Section:

• Nicolas de Ovando at Máximo Gómez Ave.
• National Cemetery at Máximo Gómez Ave.
• Peña Batlle at Máximo Gómez Ave. (Café Induban)
• John F. Kennedy at Máximo Gómez Ave. ( planned cross east-west connection to Line 2 )
• Centro Olimpico at Máximo Gómez Ave.( planned cross east-west connection to Line 3 )
• Teatro Nacional (National Theatre) at Máximo Gómez Ave.
• Educación (Secretaria de Educación [Ministry of Education]) near Máximo Gómez Ave.
• Alma Máter (Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo – UASD)
• Abraham Lincoln (Instituto Dominico Americano)
• La Feria (Centro de los Héroes)

Note: Station names are speculative, they may change as the construction and/or completion of the infrastructure approaches, and more information becomes available.

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Trainsets

French consortium Alstom will supply a total of 19 Alstom Metropolis 9000 three-car trainsets (57 cars) from its factories in Belgium, France and Spain in a contract worth 92.5 million euros.

The first train was shipped from Barcelona in December 2007 and arrived on January 3rd 2008. The standard gauge units have air-conditioning, CCTV and passenger information, and can accommodate 617 passengers. The trains are limited with sets of 3 cars to begin their operations, but all stations are being built to accommodate 6 cars each in anticipation of expected future ridership demands. 17 trainsets will be in service, with 2 as spares.

Accolades

The Metro will be run as an independent institution from the debt-ridden Dominican government; as such it’ll be run as a self-sufficient vs State-funded capitalistic enterprise. If anything up to this point the cost per km constructed is a remarkable achievement to comparable international projects already built or under-construction.

The recent signing of the modification to the Law 125-01, making it a felony to steal electrical services, without a doubt, will allow the energy providers to meet the continuous electrical demands of the users without the disruption all too normal nowadays. The Dominican Republic produces more energy than it consumes and part of the problem has been addressed with that modification to the existing Law. The addressing of the second problem of loss in transit is currently underway via the construction of an electrical superhighway from the north of the country where most of the production goes to the Santo Domingo metro area and upgrades to the system.

Future Extensions

There is a subsequent construction phase to extend the rail system service within Santo Domingo by adding 5 more lines after Line 1 is finished and tested. The lines already planned are:

Line 2– Will run east-west under John F. Kennedy Avenue, from the farthest metropolitan stretch of the city to the eastern part of the city, Santo Domingo Este and outskirts Los Alcarrizos. Construction will begin in mid to late 2008.

Line 3– Will pass by the city Center and under “27 de Febrero” Avenue which is considered the main business thoroughfare in the city and reach across the Ozama River to Santo Domingo Este.

Line 4- Will run north-south under Gregorio Luperon Avenue from La Plaza de la Bandera to Kilometer 9 of the Duarte Highway connecting lines 2 and 3 in the west of the city.

Line 5- Will run north-south under San Vicente de Paul Avenue from the Las Americas Highway intersection to Mella Road connecting lines 2 and 3 in the east of the city.

Line 6- Will run south-east branching out of line 2 at the San Martin Avenue intersection and ending at the Colonial Zone. The exact route of this line is not yet known.

National Master Plan: On these same notes the Santo Domingo Metro project is not a local or otherwise single phase plan. As allowed by the head of the administration in charge of the project under construction in the national district of Santo Domingo, the Metro is a National Master Plan to be done in phases accordingly extending from the initial first line to link the entire National territory with a Mass-Transit system. The National Master Plan as it was referred to by Diandino Peña (Head Administrator of OPRET) is an ambitious and economically feasible phase by phase plan to be continued for the next 50 years or more to advance the country’s transit networks.

Map of the Metro and future extension

Pictures of the Santo Domingo Metro

Station Casandra Damirón (National Theater)

Gallery photo