Inaugurated in 2019 after an investment of more than six million pesos, the Sancti Spíritus National Bus Terminal, the most modern on the Island, keeps all its services closed, except for passenger collection.
“The last time I was there, there was a blackout,” Juan, a Havana resident who travels frequently to this newspaper, told this newspaper. Sancti Spiritus. According to his version, he has never seen the cafeteria open and has had to drink water directly from the toilets due to the lack of open gastronomic services.
His vision coincides with that of the report published by this Monday the official journal Escambray, that qualifies the area as a museum “with the halls impeccably clean and empty most of the time, with immaculate walls, treasuring places and furniture so that they look as beautiful as the first day.”
The terminal has three waiting rooms for more than 350 people, gastronomy services, a commercial area, a lactation room, post office and ETECSA points, a Wi-Fi zone, a taxi booth, a medical post, a reception and a left-luggage office, almost all unused. completely.
“There is no waiting list, that is in the old terminal, which was supposed to be for municipal or inter-municipal trips”
“There is no waiting list there, that is in the old terminal, which was supposed to be for municipal or inter-municipal trips. So, the bus leaves the new station and has to go to the old one to pick up passengers, if it is to be Some empty seats have remained, and then, then, hit the highway and leave for Havana. A very absurd thing,” continues Juan.
According to Escambray, mobility restrictions to stop the spread of covid-19 were the ones that brought the waiting list to the provincial terminal. Although the idea was for it to be temporary, since the new station reopened at the end of 2021, the service has not returned.
“They tell me that the measure was taken as a result of the covid -a passenger told the official newspaper-, but in the rest of the nation most of the restrictions were dismantled. So, why does this terminal only work for reservations, that these days are almost half of those that were in 2019?
José Lorenzo García, provincial director of Transportation in Sancti Spíritus, assures that the operation copies that of the Havana station and that other territories already do so. “Although it is true that today the new terminal has a more limited use, when the fuel situation in the country stabilizes, the number of trips will be able to increase and we will be able to receive the more than 100 buses that, on average, entered here daily,” ensures.
“Why does this terminal only work for reservations, which these days are almost half of what they were in 2019?”
The newspaper affirms that most of the people who enter the terminal, as they have a reservation, go directly to their bus and do not use the services, while the old station is abuzz despite “the lack of hygiene, seats and ventilation , lack of food and lighting and the worst, the almost zero entry of buses”. Escambray He affirms that, according to the travelers, the drivers who come from the east of the Island, leave passengers in the new terminal and do not go to the other one “as long as they do not go back”, leaving empty seats while people wait in vain.
“I have been waiting for three days for a bus to take me to the East, but until today no one has entered, I travel accompanied by a child under eight years of age and the worst thing is that there is almost nothing to eat here and what they sell is expensive and without quality, there is a lack of water for washing hands and they never clean the room”, says a user to the newspaper.
Yaíma González Pérez, one of the shift managers of the Viajero Company, affirms that they have to use their cell phones to use their cell phones to sell tickets when there are blackouts, in addition to not having ventilation.
Natacha Castro Piña, also from the Viajero Company, considers it a priority to improve this old terminal, since it is used so much. “We are not asking for resources to do our job, although we still have needs, I only hope that those who access the last-minute service feel cared for and have elementary comfort in that place for a stay that sometimes exceeds 24 or 48 hours,” he adds.
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