The company Russian Railways (RZD for its initials in Russian) has once again promised that it will resume an abandoned million-dollar plan that will aid in the recovery and modernization of the Cuban railway.
They announced it at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, which is taking place these days in that Russian city, and they provided details about the contract they intend to resume with Cuba, despite the suspensions and delays of previous years, mainly due to the payment incapacity of the Cuban government.
"The contract for the remodeling and modernization of Cuba's railway infrastructure includes several railway branches, especially the central line Havana-Santiago de Cuba, which is 835 kilometers long," said Serguei Pavlov, deputy director of RZD, to Sputnik News as quoted by Prensa Latina.
In addition, the southern line from 19 de Noviembre to the Navajas station is included, along with the Havana node and the Montalvo branch, totaling 166 kilometers; and the Cienfuegos to Santa Clara line and the Refinería branch, totaling 77.4 kilometers. The aforementioned renewal adds just over a thousand kilometers to the 12,000 that the Island has, which were already in the original plan.
The projection would bring about reductions in travel time for the trains, especially for the route between Havana and Santiago de Cuba, which could be reduced from up to 24 hours of travel to 12 hours, almost half of the current time it takes.
The executive of RZD commented that the contract involves the development of a general plan for the railway infrastructure, the creation of a unified center for railway transport management, and the training of personnel.
According to Pavlov, they are in contact with Havana to resume this ambitious project, which had been shelved in 2020.
"Unfortunately, we have had to suspend our comprehensive modernization project of the Cuban railway infrastructure due to economic difficulties and quarantine restrictions on the Island, but we hope to resume the works after the situation has stabilized," the official pointed out in October of that year, emphasizing that they would be resumed "after the situation has stabilized," referring to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In October 2019, the Russian investment company Sinara signed an agreement to invest nearly 200 million in Cuban railway infrastructure, which included the delivery of 75 locomotives during the 2016-2021 period.
That year, RZD also signed the contract with Havana to begin the modernization of the Cuban railway system for a value of 1.888 billion euros (more than two billion dollars).
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