Cuba looking to revive the golden days of its railway system

Cuba looking to revive the golden days of its railway system

Cuba’s railway system is undergoing a major overhaul, with the government pushing a programme to revamp the decrepit and ageing network with new cars and locomotives in the hope of restoring a rail service that was once the envy of Latin America.

Cuba’s ministry of transport took possession on Monday of 80 new Chinese-made passenger cars, part of a promised consignment of 250 rail cars and locomotives the island will receive by year’s end.

At the same time, the government is busy restoring and repairing rail lines throughout the island, some with rusting rails overgrown with weeds or buried under drifting dirt.

But the overhaul will be challenging, government officials acknowledge, even with the new Chinese-made rail stock.

Cuba railway
A woman crosses the railway tracks in Havana, Cuba (Ismael Francisco/AP)

Some electric trains that provide local links are completely out of service because of ageing equipment.

And restoring 2,600 miles of track, communications lines and dozens of crumbling rail stations around the island will be a monumental task.

Workers have been restoring Havana’s main rail terminal, an eclectic structure built in 1912, with four floors and a mezzanine, for over 10 years.

The station’s platforms, which are nearly one kilometre (more than half a mile) long, recall a bygone age when train travel was a principle mode of transport, and the restoration has been a painstaking, and at times frustrating, process, government officials say.

Cuba railway
New railway passenger cars brought from China are inspected at their arrival in Havana (Irene Perez/AP)

“It’s an ambitious plan that matches our long-range goals,” Mr Cabrisas remarked at the ceremony on the outskirts of Havana where the Chinese rail stock was offloaded from a cargo ship, adding the “effort is aimed at providing reliable transport across the island”.

According to the Cuban Transportation Ministry, trains carried 6.7 million passengers in 2018, a sharp drop from almost 11 million passengers in 2004.

The government hopes to increase ridership by one million in 2019 on long distance routes.

Train service to the far-eastern cities of Santiago, Holguin, Camaguey and Guantanamo are heavily used by locals.

The Havana-Santiago trip costs as little as 32 Cuban pesos each way, about 1.50 US dollars, making train travel an affordable means of transport for many Cubans.

Cuba Railways general director Eduardo Hernandez says the new programme is aimed at providing transportation to locals, but also hopes to lure tourists with the new Chinese rail cars and locomotives, which have two classes of service, including an air-conditioned first-class.

“The recovery programme for the Cuban railways runs through 2030, and it includes all aspects of the system, which includes rolling stock to modernising the communications of the railway system.

“That’s what we aspire to. We want to restore the central rail system to its original state,” Mr Hernandez said.

The trains will service Camaguey and Holguin, important tourist destinations and gateways to the beaches of the island’s offshore keys.

Cuba Reviving the Railroad
Railway worker Norberto Rosales repairs a gate at the central train station in Havana (Ismael Francisco/AP)

Cuba is the only country in the Caribbean that offers island-wide rail service.

It once boasted the first country-wide rail line in Latin America, starting service in 1837 with a 17-mile long line built to transport sugarcane.

The Chinese rail cars are the first new equipment received on the island since 2001, when a shipment from French Railways for the Havana-Santiago line was imported, allowing Cuba Railways to offer modern service for its most heavily travelled route.

The remaining rolling stock is a mix of Canadian, German, French, Russian and now Chinese, and despite the push to improve service, Cuba Railways faces a daunting task providing reliable service in the near future.

Cuba Reviving the Railroad
Rails on a railway flat car (Ismael Francisco/AP)

Most tourists shun the train because of its reputation for slow and shoddy service.

But Yudith Marquez, a hostess for Cuba Railways, was enthusiastic about the new equipment, and says she hopes it is a sign of better days for the rail service.

“We are confident things will get better, because after so much effort, we are not going to let up. We have been waiting for this for a long time and they have been promising this for long time, the new equipment never got here, for one reason or another. But now, it is finally here,” Ms Marquez said.

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