Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, head of the Ministry of Transportation, reported through his Facebook profile that the Union of Cuban RailwaysDue to high demand for the service, the service will be increased to two trips to and from that destination on the designated days.
The senior official said that the measure responds to concerns raised by the population, and that “the desire to facilitate the recreation of our people has a decisive influence on this.”
Following the decision taken, from July 19 the train that provides the service to the eastern beaches will run twice a day on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The rest of the days it will maintain the usual frequency, except for Mondays, when the locomotive and the wagons will receive the planned maintenance.
Thus, the train will depart at 9:00 am, from the platform located on Elgido and Arsenal streets, in the municipality of Old Havana, and will return from the beaches at 11:10 am.
For the second frequency of the route, which remains at an estimated 1:35 hour interval, it would leave from the same platform at 1:30 pm and return at 6:35 pm.
Although the minister did not elaborate on any further details, it is assumed that the route will maintain the same fare and stops as originally established.
Resuming the route to the holiday area seeks to mitigate the high demand for that route, in the midst of the extreme crisis that the transport sector is suffering, which has worsened in recent years.
In a recent program shared with President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Minister Rodríguez Dávila acknowledged that the country is going through one of the worst moments in recent years, being able to sustain only half of the passenger transportation it had five years ago.
According to the data presented, the transport system currently only guarantees the mobility of 2.7 million passengers per day, significantly lower than the 5.9 million registered five years ago.
The situation is a result of a lack of vehicles, spare parts and frequent problems with access to fuel.
