(23 May 2019) Cuba's railway system is undergoing a major overhaul, with the government pushing a program to revamp the decrepit and aging network with new cars and locomotives in the hope of restoring a rail service that was once the envy of Latin America.
On Monday, the Cuban Ministry of Transportation took possession 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 and buried under drifting dirt.
But the overhaul will be challenging, government officials acknowledge, even with the new Chinese-made rolling-stock, the remaining equipment, much of it dating from 1975, now lies in disrepair on the sides of rail yards, with some electrical trains that provide local links completely out of service because of aging equipment and downed lines.
     
And restoring 2600 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 ten years.
The station's platforms, which are nearly one kilometer long and have a total area of 14,000 square meters, recalls a bygone age when train travel was a principle mode of transportation, and the restoration has been a painstaking, and at times frustrating process, government officials say.
But Ricardo Cabrisas, Cuba's Minister for Economic Planning, says the ambitious plan is part of a broader effort to restore the island's rail system, "It's an ambitious plan that matches our long range goals," Cabrisas remarked at the ceremony on the outdy
skirts of Havana where the Chinese rail stock was offloaded from a cargo ship, adding the "effort is aimed at providing reliable transportation 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 1 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 a $1.50 U.S., making train travel an affordable means of transport for many Cubans.
Cuba Railways General Director Eduardo Hernandez says the new program is aimed at providing transportation to locals, but also hopes to lure tourists onboard with the new Chinese rail cars and locomotives, which have two classes of service, including an air-conditioned first-class.
The trains service Camaguey and Holguin, as well as Santiago, important tourist destinations and gateways to the beaches of the island's offshore keys.
The new first-class cars even boast hostesses, trained to cater to high-paying passengers, along with digital televisions, upholstered reclining seats, gleaming toilets and a restaurant car.
Yudith Marquez, a hostess for Cuban Railways, was enthusiastic about the new equipment, and says she hopes it's a sign of better days for the rail service.
"We are confident it's going to get better because after such a long time, after much time and many promises these cars would arrive, and they didn't, now they are here and we are going to take care of them and we ask people to help us do that because it's really a gift they (the government) are giving us."

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