Pichardo,
This whole idea of freight transport makes no sense. If it were cross-continent as in the U.S., okay.
But within the capital, or from the capital to Santiago?
From Santiago for a 2 hour trip to the capital by truck... how does it possibly make sense economically or timewise to take freight from a location in santiago to a train depot using local carriers... unload... administration... place on train... send to capital... administration... unload... put on local delivery in capital... and send to destination - when it can simply be picked up in Santiago, driven to the capital in 2 hours, and be delivered?
You're making what's a 2-3 hour transfer something that would take 24-48 hours and add cost. Any logistics manager would tell you what you're suggesting is inefficient at best.
I think you're a bit lost here:
The freight rail will service the cargo from the North of the country (mainly the industry and agriculture sectors) to the ports of Haina and Caucedo, same on the back haul.
From the industrial park's own yards (rail will be placed along all the industrial blocks) the containers are filled on the fitted rail dock, inspected and sealed (pretty much the same as they do now with wheeled containers) and set on pick up schedule for that night shift.
The yard motor latches the well car seating container, scans the codes, and sets for the next one. Once all well cars are latched, the yard motor checks with administration and checks out the load to the waiting area. The next yard will do the same until all well cars are set, those that require double decking, are in a special part of the yard fitted to that end. They are loaded and secured, scanned and the yard motor again checks out with administration to place the convoy in the waiting area.
The process gets repeated for each industrial park/yard that's on that night's scheduled pickup call. Once the pickups are done with by the yard motors, the engine arrives to pick up the convoy of well cars and latches them for departure. They check with administration heading out and take their route towards the next pickup for the night. This process repeats for each zone and once the engine hits the maximum gross load it can safely pull, it departs towards the port of shipping. The engine can repeat this several times during the scheduled commercial use of the rails, no matter how many well cars are seating in the waiting areas, all the loads will reach the ports on time for shipping out.
At designated port facility (in this case lets say Haina), the train arrives to a special section where the cargo is received, scanned and checked using an x-ray, radiation and other security stuff in place for that reason. The train clears the inspection process and unlatches the convoy into a waiting section that dismounts the containers from the well cars in mere minutes per each. The containers are handled as they always are in the port and find their respective loading section, where they sit until their ship is ready and in the berth.
The process from the ports to the industrial parks is the same but on reverse!
Any logistical manager would tell you that dealing with an untold number of tractor trailers with individual containers in their back, is crazy when compared to rail freighters...
First of all the bulk of containerized exports from the DR come from industrial parks and large agricultural enterprises, all of which are now hauled by trucks wherever they need to go and sit. The commercial rail will simplify the majority of that shipping process to the docks by a great percentage.
Which is more efficent, cost effective, time saving and rather easier to manage:
100 people departing in 100 cars on the road from Santiago to the port of Haina, all driving and having to clear independently the security and administrative checks at both points, than a single 100 passenger bus leaving the same place to the same destination and carrying out the same process per vehicle?????
It's that simple!
The freight service on rails is aimed at import/exports from the productive sectors of the country. As things go along, new yards will pop up in key places to allow independent shippers and small to medium biz to enjoy the same savings and services.
What you miss greatly is that yard motors, are in charge of the daily task of readying the well cars in the industrial park's rail yard for the engine to come latch them up in a single stroke. The engine only has to sit idle for about minutes to clear security and administrative checks. Each stop for pickups is the same for engines all along the way. There's no 24/48 hours of waiting, etc... In fact the very reason of doing the rolling at nights, saves on many aspects that still kill so many biz today in those parks: Delays of outgoing and incoming containers. There's no such thing on a dedicated rail system for the freight trains...
