A fight among passengers at the Muelle de Luz in Old Havana halted the boat service connecting this dock with Casablanca and Regla on Wednesday, following a dispute over the destination of the only available vessel.
According to the testimony on Facebook from user Kenny Fernández Delgado, the incident occurred around 4:10 PM, when passengers headed to Regla and Casablanca began to argue about the route the boat should take.
Faced with the inability to control the situation and after a similar altercation on a previous trip, the captain decided to retreat without transporting anyone and head to the Port Authority. The service interruption was announced "until further notice."
A witness who observed the incident recounted that "a great conflict broke out, even causing a young man to convulse," and described the wait as "unbearable." According to another comment, the frustration arose because the boat had made three trips to Regla and only one to Casablanca, which heightened the desperation of those waiting to cross to that destination, including mothers who arrived late to pick up their children from school.
Fernández also described the difficulties he encountered after leaving the dock and heading to the bike bus. "This is how it is. So I went to the bike bus and here we are waiting because there are only two, and obviously, they can't handle the demand. This place is packed with bicycles, motorcycles, and people," he wrote.
The ciclobús, which transports passengers through the Havana bay tunnel, also did not have enough capacity to meet the demand.
It’s not the first time that those from Havana have found themselves with no options to cross from one side to the other. In June, some ventured to cross the tunnel on foot after waiting more than seven hours without any bus arriving.
A user who crossed the bay on Tuesday with her son described the overcrowding on board and the fear she felt during the journey. "I was scared by the number of people inside. A thousand thoughts crossed my mind, one of which was: if this sinks, how do I get out?" she recounted.
Fernández criticized the lack of alternatives to meet demand and called for authorization for micro, small, and medium enterprises (mipymes) to expand transportation options between Havana and the other side of the bay. "It's not a matter of removing state transportation; we just need to allow others to transport passengers, since the state is not allocating the resources it has, but it does have them for other matters," he wrote.
However, some commentators questioned whether the entry of private transporters would solve the problem. One noted that transport micro, small, and medium enterprises (mipymes) are already authorized, but they also face fuel shortages and would charge similar rates to other private providers.
Another person reported that transportation inspectors arrived to "scare" a private bus that had stopped to pick up passengers at the entrance of the tunnel, while the state vehicle was waiting for the stop to fill up.
"This situation is untenable," summarized a citizen in the comments. "All they do is throw the people into a struggle, who are desperate, without transportation, without water, without gas, without food."
The episode once again highlights the shortcomings of a service that has been operating on the edge for years. Of an official fleet of six vessels, since at least February 2024, only one operates daily. The boats are nearly 40 years old.
In March, an vessel ran aground in the bay and had to be towed, while in October the service was interrupted again because, according to officials, the documentation for the vessels was "poorly done."
In October, the Minister of Transport, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, admitted that the sector was "at one of its lowest levels of all time". According to the figures he presented, interprovincial trips from Havana dropped from 419 daily in 2025 to just 11.
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