Rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

is provided by one state-owned operator and several private ones, mainly for

sugar mill A sugar cane mill is a factory that processes sugar cane to produce raw sugar or plantation white sugar. Some sugar mills are situated next to a back-end refinery, that turns raw sugar into (refined) white sugar. The term is also used to refer ...

s. There have never been any rail connections with neighbouring

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

History

Railroads in the Dominican Republic were planned as early as 1877 when the Dominican Government granted a concession for construction of an electric tramway between

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

to Puerto Plata never constructed. The first line (''Ferrocarril Samaná-Santiago'', with 1067 mm gauge), connecting Sanchez to La Vega with long, started in 1881 and was opened on August 16, 1887. A branch of additional long from La Gina to

San Francisco de Macorís San Francisco de Macorís is a city in the Dominican Republic located in the northeast portion of the country, in the Cibao region. It is the capital of the Duarte Province and the sixth most populated city in the country since 2010. The name ...

was opened in 1893. With a later extension from Cabilla to Moca this railroad was enlarged to a network of . The second line (''Ferrocarril Central Dominicano'', with 760 mm gauge), connecting Puerto Plata to

with long, started its construction in 1891 and was opened by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Lilís on August 16, 1897. Later a extension for the ''Ferrocarril Central Dominicano'' (Dominican Central Railway) was started in 1906 between

and Moca, being opened on October 24, 1909. This railway was fully owned and operated by the Dominican Government since 1908. A northward branch for the ''Ferrocarril Samaná-Santiago'' (Samaná to Santiago Railway) connecting its main line from Cabuya to Salcedo was opened in 1909 and an extension between Salcedo and Moca was started in 1913, finally connecting the Samaná to Santiago Railway with the Dominican Central Railway in Moca on February 27, 1918. There are plans for connecting Santo Domingo to Puerto Plata through Santiago de los Caballeros, but never materialized. The Dominican Government bought in 1939 the Sánchez-La Vega main line and Cabuya-Moca branch of the Scottish-private owned ''Ferrocarril Samaná-Santiago'' and in 1944 took the remaining La Gina-San Francisco de Macorís branch. Now in full possession of both ''Ferrocarril Samaná-Santiago'' and ''Ferrocarril Central Dominicano'' railway networks, in 1946 the Dominican State unificated both northern railways to made the state-owned United Dominican Railways (''Ferrocarriles Unidos Dominicanos'') -long system. This system lacked of operational autonomy to use its revenues for maintenance and as results, the Puerto Plata-Santiago-Moca railway line was closed in 1951 and dismantled between 1955 and 1957, and the remaining network of Moca-Salcedo-Cabilla, La Gina-San Francisco de Macorís, and La Vega-Cabilla-La Gina-Sanchez lines were closed on February 3, 1976.

System

National railways

The network consists of several lines, for freight and passenger transport, using several gauges. Due to the closure of some of them, during the 20th Century, the network has been partly reduced to a series of scattered branches, mainly concentrated around the cities of

San Pedro de Macorís San Pedro de Macorís is a city and municipality (''municipio'') in the Dominican Republic. The capital of its eponymous province in the east region of the country, it is among the ten largest cities of the Dominican Republic. The city has approx ...

and La Romana. The list below shows an overview about the original network: * Central Romana Railroad was established in 1911 in the sugarcane fields. The total length of the line is , being the

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

. * The Dominican Republic Government Railway ( United Dominican Railways or ''Ferrocarriles Unidos Dominicanos'') was a

narrow gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

. Now defunct. 150px, Narrow Gauge Sugar Cane railway in San Pedro de Macorís * There are operated by other sugarcane companies in various gauges: , , gauges (1995).

Urban railways

The first

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT) or heavy rail, commonly referred to as metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport that is generally built in urban areas. A grade separation, grade separated rapid transit line below ground su ...

system opened in the state, inaugurated at the end of 2008, is a metro network serving the capital

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

. It consists of two lines for a total length of , with planned expansion. A

light rail system Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...

has been planned for

Santiago de los Caballeros Santiago de los Caballeros ("James, son of Zebedee, Saint James of the Knights"), often shortened to Santiago, is the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic and the fourth-largest city in the Caribbean by population. It is the capital of ...

, the second Dominican city.Santiago Light Rail at subways.net
/ref>

References

External links