Minister of Public Works Miguel Vargas Maldonado has said it will be too costly. But the light train’s promoters, Rafael Calderon, Technical Secretary of the Presidency and Oneximo Gonzalez of the Metropolitan Transport Authority feel it is necessary to resolve the traffic chaos in Santo Domingo. The train reportedly would run from Km. 9 of the Duarte Highway to Avenida San Vicente de Paul/Las Americas Highway on the east side of Santo Domingo. It would reportedly cost the government US$200 million, not taking into account the cost of land expropriations and facilities.El Caribe newspaper looks into opinions of other experts on the construction of the train. Hamlet Hermann, former manager of the Metropolitan Transport Authority, says it can’t be done since the government built the overpasses on John F. Kennedy Avenue. He says the only studies on the train were carried out by the vendors of the train and that the promoters are really interested in the hefty commissions that would follow. He estimates the cost of transporting one person would be RD$40, approximately the same cost of taking a taxi today. He says solutions are needed now in the North-South direction of Santo Domingo, not East-West. In his opinion, the most economic solution would be to prolong Ortega y Gasset and Tiradentes streets down to the Malecon. “The tramway is an obsolete transportation device in the world today,” he concludes. Pedro Delgado Malagon, a former Minister of Public Works under a past PRD government, says he wouldn’t discard the construction of the train if it were purely a private investment not the way it is being proposed where the state makes the investment and subsidizes the fares. He said bus transportation is a much cheaper option.
