Two new stops on the national train route that runs from Santiago de Cuba to Havana were announced by authorities from the Ministry of Transport on the island.
"Starting today, July 22, national passenger trains will make additional stops in new locations to make it easier for passengers traveling to those destinations to board or disembark from the train there, without having to travel to distant places in circumstances where the provinces and localities of the country have serious limitations with transportation," wrote Transportation Minister Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila in a Facebook post.
The official indicated that these stops will be in the municipality of Mella, in Santiago de Cuba, and in the locality of Cacocum, in Holguín, which will be made by train number 12 originating in Santiago de Cuba and heading to Havana.
It also reported that the train "that usually left at 3:05 p.m. will now leave at 3:10 p.m. starting today, with an expected arrival in Havana at 9:15 a.m. the following day."
At the beginning of this month, the Eastern Railways Company (EFO) announced the launch of new routes in that region of the country, coinciding with the summer season on the island.
For them, the routes Santiago-Manzanillo, Bayamo-Manzanillo, and Holguín-Antilla are planned, and there is also an evaluation to reincorporate the Guantánamo-Holguín route, according to what Yasnay Sánchez Robert, Operations Director of that regional entity, informed the official newspaper Granma.
The directive added that the state subsidy remains regarding the fares, meaning that there will be no price increase for tickets in relation to the previous service on similar routes.
It is also expected that these itineraries will remain beyond the months of July and August.
Despite these new additions, the transportation crisis in Cuba remains acute. It was recently reported that in Santiago de Cuba, people are paying up to 1,500 pesos to get on a waiting list in a clandestine queue at the train station in order to travel.
"We have been here for weeks trying to travel and we haven't achieved anything. Outside there are about five lists created by people who have this as a business, and the needy are the ones who cannot resolve it. They charge 1,500 pesos, not to get registered, but to get on the damn list," detailed an affected individual to independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada.
On other occasions, images have gone viral showing travelers forced to push an old train. This happened a few weeks ago with a train that was making the journey between the municipality of Sagua la Grande and Santa Clara, in Villa Clara, in a scene that is not unprecedented in Cuba.
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