Around 400,000 people are expected to benefit directly from it. We’re talking about the third cable car line in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. It is also the fourth system in the Caribbean country, as an urban system is currently being built in the city of Santiago de los Caballeros (see SI Urban 1/2024).

All four cable cars were commissioned by the state institution “Trust for the Development of the Mass Transportation System of the Dominican Republic (FITRAM)“ and are being constructed and operated by POMA in collaboration with local companies.

Cable car extends metro

The project, which involves an investment of nearly 250 million dollars, will have a maximum capacity of 4,500 passengers per hour in each direction and will consist of seven stations.

It connects the port of “Puerto de Haina“ with the metro station “María Montés“, serves peripheral areas, and extends the public transportation network. The travel time between stations varies because the stations are not equidistant from each other.

On average, the journey between stations takes about four minutes, so the total travel time is around 20 minutes. This significantly reduces the commute time for passengers, which is currently an average of one hour. Additionally, the authorities anticipate that traffic will be reduced from 3.09 million vehicles to 1.48 million.

Both would significantly improve the quality of life. Moreover, the Dominican government expects the number of public transportation users to increase to 1.5 million.

The cable car line addresses significant deficiencies in the Dominican Republic’s transportation infrastructure, where most commutes currently happen in unofficial and unsafe vehicles.

Cable car is part of network and fare system

The decision to build the third cable car was influenced by the success of the first two systems:

• Line 1 has connected the “Eduardo Brito“ metro station with previously isolated neighborhoods across the Ozama River since 2018.
• Line 2 has been running since 2023 through the densely populated neighborhood of Los Alcarrizos linking the area to the metro system.
• The third cable car line now completes the network to the southwest and will also be part of the integrated fare system of the Santo Domingo Integrated Transportation System.

In addition to the metro and cable cars, the public transportation system will include buses, with plans for trams and train lines in the future. The operating hours of the third cable car will match those of the entire system, from 06:00 AM to 10:30 PM.

With a speed of up to seven meters per second and 296 cabins, additional during peak times. This results in a high capacity of 4,500 passengers per hour in each direction.

Construction in two phases

It will take two years before the first phase of this cable car line float over Santo Domingo, says Guillaume Ployon, project manager at POMA:

“Together with our experienced local partner J. FORTUNA Constructora, we have already successfully completed three urban projects in the country, which, despite complex interventions in the urban environment and inconveniences for the population, were always completed on time. Therefore, I am very confident about this current cable car project!“

The first section will be completed initially. It will start with the “Duarte“ station, which will be connected to the “María Montez“ metro station and located near a highway junction. The other two stations, “Buenos Aires de Herrera“ and “Pintura,“ will be located near important road intersections.

In the second phase, that will be in operation two years after the phase one, the stations “Ensanche La Altagracia“ and “Café de Herrera“ will be built – also near major streets.

The sixth station will connect to a tollbooth on the Sánchez Highway, while the seventh and final station will form the entrance to the Puerto de Haina harbor.

Politicians are getting an overview of the construction. © Presidency of the Dominican Republic

Maintenance and operation

This new line will only be in opertation before two more years, but for the other three cable cars in Santo Domingo and Santiago de los Caballeros, where POMA is involved in the operation and maintenance, the french company has decided to invest in the country with its own workshop and training facility dedicated to their local activities and also to “POMA Academy“ in order to train constantly their employees.