If this isn't a hare brain idea?
Aside from building a Panama Canal type project from Puerto Plata to Haina, I don't know of anything more stupid than the Haina to Santiago train.
When people already can travel comfortably in modern buses to and from Santiago, I can't imagine anybody driving to Haina, paying an excessive highway tool, then pay a hefty parking fee to hold you car and risk your life in a patronage driven train, where maintenance will be non-existent and delays will be the order of the day.
I can almost imagine when the train passes by Villa Altagracia getting huge rocks thrown at it by the town's vandals. Then I can almost see the train conductor crossing his fingers at every crossroad hoping a drunk driver doesn't challenge the train's right of way. Then, during a blackout you could just sit there for hours waiting for electricity, while gang of muggers sorround the train in a desolated area. The electric gates and warning lights will not work with a blackout, leaving the train at the mercy of gate jumpers and trains in opposite ways colliding because of faulty lights. What about stray cows, donkeys and horses challenging the train moving at high speeds?
Who is going to protect the tracks from being dismantled by metal and wood thieves? Who's going to protect the tracks from vandals, when our police and army can't protect our border?
TW