Havana Cuba. – There is no doubt that, along with the food crisis suffered by the Cuban people, the problems with passenger transport are also another of the chapters that make life extremely difficult for ordinary Cubans.
There are not a few people who must dedicate more than two hours a day to find a means of transportation to take them to their workplaces or educational institutions.
The shortage of buses, the disorganization of the sector, the mistreatment of the means of transportation, the late departures of trains and interprovincial buses, as well as the financial losses of many of the transport companies are some of the anomalies that affect this important sector of the national economy.
Another irrefutable proof of the chaotic state of passenger transport in Cuba can be seen in the drop in the number of people transported in recent times, despite maintaining or increasing the demand of the population.
During the five-year period 2017-2021, the number of passengers transported in the country decreased from year to year, including people transported by state buses, by railways and by private means. In 2017, a total of 2.26 billion passengers were transported. But, already in 2021 the figure dropped to 751 million passengers, according to the Statistical Yearbook of Cuba 2021.
It is necessary to highlight that those qualified in the statistics as alternative means (cars, pedicabs and private cars) always led the transportations in all the years of the aforementioned five-year period. For example, in 2021 alternative media transported 175 million people. The state urban buses (those that travel in the cities and towns of the country) transported 148 million people, while the trains only transported one and a half million passengers.
And the trend in the transportation of alternative means, especially private drivers (boteros), tends to grow. After reaching around 23% of the transportations in some of the years of the 2017-2021 five-year period, already in the current 2022, according to information provided by the Ministry of Transportation in one of the permanent commissions of the Cuban Parliament, private carriers are transporting , on average, to 30% of the passengers in the country.
Well, what is the treatment of the Castro authorities towards those private drivers who are carrying the weight of transportation in the country? Well, nobody imagines recognition or government encouragement. On the contrary, private taxi drivers have to put up with constant harassment from state inspectors, who impose heavy fines on them for the smallest detail. In addition, they must face the lack of fuel ―with the consequent endless queue at the gas stations to refuel the car―, and the high costs of the accessories of their means of transport. All of the above has caused, as it also emerged in the parliamentary session, that not a few private carriers have chosen to cancel their licenses to carry out this activity.
When bringing up the issue of “abusive prices” that some of the boatmen would be applying, the deputies “they reiterated the instruments and powers that municipal governments have to deal with such a sensitive matter”.
In other words, the deputies of the Castro Parliament give the green light to the territorial governments to continue or intensify the repression against private transporters.
We imagine the catastrophe that will take place if more boatmen surrender their licenses. Sure, the ruling class doesn’t care much. They own cars to move everywhere. Once again it will be the population that pays the piper.
OPINION ARTICLE
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