AREQUIPA, Peru – Russian Railways (RZD) presented details of a contract with Cuba to modernize the island’s dilapidated railway network at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Tuesday.
According to RZD, quoted by the Sputnik news agency, Latin PressThe contract for the remodeling and modernization of Cuba’s railway infrastructure includes several railway branches, especially the Havana-Santiago de Cuba Central Line, 835 kilometers.
Work will also be carried out on the Southern Line, “19 de Noviembre-Navajas Station”, including the Havana node and the 166-kilometer Montalvo branch, as well as the Cienfuegos Line (Santa Clara and Refinery branch) 77.4 kilometers, the company indicated.
In total, more than 1,000 kilometers of Cuban railways are planned to be modernized, and with this the Cuban regime hopes to increase the speed of trains from 60 to 120 kilometers per hour, freight transport will increase from 14.7 to 21.6 million tons, and passenger transport will rise from 7.8 to 24.3 million people.
The duration of the trip between Havana and Santiago de Cubaaccording to RZD forecasts, will decrease from 20 to 12 hours.
The Russian company also noted that the contract involves technological solutions, the development of a general plan for the development of railways, the creation of a unified centre for railway transport management and staff training.
The subsidiary RZD International and the Union of Cuban Railways signed a contract to restore and modernize the island’s railway network in 2019. The works would have a Russian budget of 2.314 billion dollars, with an estimated execution period of 10 years.
Cuban railways: victims of the crisis
In recent months, the Cuban railway has emerged as one of the victims of the deep economic crisis in Cuba. In this regard, the figures of the debacle were revealed last March in the television space Round Table.
Lisvany Fernández Rivero, acting general director of the Railway Transport Administration, pointed out in his speech that 67% of the tracks and 40% of the infrastructure works need maintenance on the Island.
The director commented that to guarantee the sustainability of the infrastructure, 900 million pesos are required annually, of which a good part is in foreign currency, specifically 25 million dollars “for materials, supplies and parts.”
The maintenance of the railway line also requires between 60,000 and 80,000 concrete sleepers per year, but in 2023 only 15,000 were financed and will be built this year.
According to published graphs by official means CubadebateIn 2018, 51,600 sleepers were manufactured and in 2019 the number increased to 61,600, although these numbers subsequently decreased, as in 2020 and 2021 around 45,000 were counted, while in 2022 it fell to 12,000 and last year to 7,200.
As for the wooden sleepers, most are produced domestically, and to a lesser extent imported. Still, compared to the 3,500 made in 2021, only about 270 were made in 2022, a figure that increased to around 1,200 in 2023. There are also problems in repair of bridges and railways in general, the official said.
