The Minister of Transportation informs us about summer projects, a time of increased demand for public transportation services.
Cubadebate | internet@granma.
June 28th, 2025
The Cuban Minister of Transportation, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, through his Facebook profile informed of actions geared at dealing with seasonal increase of need for services, summer in Cuba, while confronting the economic limitations affecting most sectors in the country.
«Provision of local services is most affected, particularly the services provided by provincial corporations. We are talking about essential services that ensure basic access to Cubans to a variety of destinations and if diminished they directly affect the daily life of Cubans», said the minister.
A portion of the initiatives are geared at mitigating these effects, explained Rodríguez Dávila, for instance the spread of services with electric tricycles, «a process we have been following and showing to everybody step by step from its beginnings. These vehicles are an acceptable alternative and are functioning already not only in Havana but in Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Matanzas, Cárdenas, Ciego de Ávila, Las Tunas, Holguín, Gibara, Bayamo, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, Baracoa y Nueva Gerona».
He added that in what is left of this year, the goal is to add 150 more tricycles to this program, to ensure that the provinces that are not yet included, and some additional municipalities, will be included and will have opportunity to contribute to the expansion of this initiative which has been widely accepted by people everywhere in Cuba.
At the same time, the minister noted that we are advancing with a Project to install renewable energy sources with capacity to store and accumulate energy so we ensure a total energy back up no longer dependent on our Electro-energetic National System (Sistema Electroenergético Nacional, SEN).
The new 100 microbuses will begin to operate in many provinces of Cuba. This flotilla will be distributed as follows -50 microbuses to the capital, 20 will go to Santiago de Cuba, 10 to Holguín, 10 to Camagüey, 5 to Villa Clara and 5 to Ciego de Ávila. We will inform you of the specific routes the microbuses will follow in each territory in the coming days.
The Minister added, in the specific case of Sancti Spíritus, a service of electric microbuses adapted to transport up to 11 passengers has been implemented and received with enthusiasm. «Actually, there are 28 in function now while the program continues on its first stage -until completing 50 units, and from there on expansion to other localities is planned and will follow».
The railway system is also in the process of revitalization. We have trains departing every four days, he said, and local services have been reactivated with high demand in particular in provinces in Center and Eastern Cuba. This Project has been possible because of the incorporation of new “ferro-buses” and the recovery of motor cars.
«For instance, the route Morón-Esmeralda, Holguín-Alto Cedro (benefitting five municipalities and seven rural communities), the Manzanillo train, or the local routes of Boquerón, Caimanera, Manuel Tames, Honduras and Cuneira in Guantánamo all fit the case. There is also the Pinar del Río-La Habana train offering service too. Soon we will have the train to Expo-Cuba and to Eastern Beaches in Havana. We already have train services to Morón-Camagüey, Guantánamo-Holguín and Morón-Perea starting this July», he explained.
According to Rodríguez Dávila there are plans for 45 additional trains warranting transportation of other organisms and ensuring people are not affected by train departures. Additional trains will increase general capacity and will help increase people's transportation through an accommodating waiting list.
Regarding sea transportation, he explained that the ferry “Perseverancia” goes every other day to Nueva Gerona and Batabanó, and that while there is room a catamaran is added to the service. The service is awaiting the addition of a second catamaran soon coming into service.
He also added that flights shared with foreign flying companies are back in place, connecting Havana with Holguín, Camagüey and Santiago de Cuba, as well as with Nueva Gerona.
«Summer is here, we need to make twice the effort to ensure proper transportation. The Ministry, with other organizations, has also designed a plan to ensure capacity to move 15 000 students, teachers and workers to their provinces in July, as well as their return planned for the end of August and beginning of September», explained the Minister. The plan, he said, will be centered mainly in using trains and buses from the Automotor Empresarial Group (Grupo Empresarial Automotor (GEA), with support from the Ministry of Tourism (Ministerio del Turismo (MINTUR) and the Company of Tourism Transport (Empresa de Transporte del Turismo (TRANSTUR S.A).
«There will be support for interprovincial transportation of people in general, but we have to be aware that it will have limitations and may not be able to completely cover the demand during these months», he explained.
Similarly, intermodal services connecting Youth Island with the Eastern provinces and Pinar del Río, to and from Batabanó, as buses of TRANSTUR and TRANSGAVIOTA will ease evacuation of terminals at critical times, in return trips transporting tourists, explained the Minister.
He also pointed out that during July Cuba will have the Student Games, which will require transporting more than 10 000 student-athletes at national level. Locally the priority will be transport towards beach and recreative centers, depending on fuel availability. On the other hand, he pointed out, we have also been transporting towards camping centers by GEA, a fundamental of transportation this summer as it is the rule.
«Despite obstacles, like fuel availability, lubricants and other essential elements, with the initiatives we have been developing we pretend to confront this summer stage with capacity to transport the highest number of passengers as possible. All this is always linked to fundamental security measures, as always, to avoid incidents attempting against the physical integrity of passengers and transporters», finalized Rodríguez Dávila.
Translation NSCUBA (Nova Scotia)