The Santiago Light Rail is a planned light rail

Light rail

Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...

 system within the City of Santiago de los Caballeros

Santiago de los Caballeros

Santiago de los Caballeros is a city in the Dominican Republic. Founded in 1495 during the first wave of European colonization of the New World, today Santiago is the second largest metropolis in the Dominican Republic, located in the north-central region of the Republic known as Cibao valley...

, Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

 and the Cibao International Airport

Cibao International Airport

Cibao International Airport also known as Santiago Airport, is located in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic's second largest city. It's the country's third busiest airport by passenger traffic and aircraft movements....

. This will be the second urban rail transit

Urban rail transit

Urban rail transit is an all-encompassing term for various types of local rail systems providing passenger service within and around urban or suburban areas...

 system in the Dominican Republic (Santo Domingo Metro

Santo Domingo Metro

The Santo Domingo Metro is a rapid transit system in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. The Santo Domingo Metro is part of a major "National Master Plan" to improve transportation in Santo Domingo as well as the rest of the nation. The first line was planned to relieve traffic...

 being the first) with inauguration planned for 2010.

Approval and Construction

The construction of the light rail line crossing Santiago was approved by the Santiago municipal government. It is intended to help the city's traffic problems. To be constructed by Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 railway company FEVE

FEVE

FEVE is a state-owned Spanish railway company, which operates most of Spain's of metre gauge railway.-History:...

, the line will be relatively short and will take 14 months to construct according to city officials. The Dominican central government will not provide construction funds. It will end at the Cibao Airport, its total length will be 22 kilometers. Construction was originally scheduled to begin in mid 2008. As of today the project is on hold due to insufficient studies about the benefits of this system. It is reported that as soon as studies are complete, work will commence.

The train stations have not been officially announced, though it is reported that here will be twelve, including the Heroes of Restoration monument in the city centre, Independencia Avenue, Cincunvalacion Avenue, with its terminus at the Airport.