The Santo Domingo Metro celebrated its 10th anniversary on 29 January. The service is a blessing for hundreds of thousands of commuters that pay the same RD$20 fares in effect since opening day in 2009.
The director of the Metro, Manuel Antonio Saleta García said that in its first 10 years, the service has transported 515.1 million fare-paying passengers. A new record of passengers for a day was reached on the 10th anniversary day, Tuesday, 29 January 2019, when the mark of 360,000 passengers for a day was surpassed. This is 120,000 passengers more for the same day in 2018.
What’s different this year is that more cars are in service, and line two that reaches into Eastern Santo Domingo, is now operating. Saleta said that in January 2018, the Metro had been transporting around 240,000 passengers a day.
Saleta said that the peak days for usage of the Metro are Mondays and Tuesdays. In January 2018, the Metro was operating with a fleet of 34 cars, of which 28 were in operation. Now Saleta says the Metro has a fleet of 40 cars of which 39 are in operation.
The Metro director said the government has plans to increase the cars to 72 to expand the capacity of Line 1. The government has already ordered 18 cars and another 24 will soon be contracted to offer better service to the users.
“Changes need to be made in the exchange circulation lobbies between line 1 and 2 with more stairs and elevators, and at the María Montez station where we also have to make changes to expand the area and allow more effective mobility,” said said Saleta.
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Diario Libre
31 January 2019
