Havana/Fuel shortage, damaged vehicles and systemic crisis are reflected again in the figures of the Transport in Cuba. Both passengers and loading down again, according to the last balance published by the National Statistics and Information Office (ONEI).
If between January and June 2024 there were 454.4 million transported people, in the same period of this year there have been 407.9 million, 10.2% less. Divided by media, only the moved by school transport (from 38.8 million last year to 40 in 2025) and the maritime. Given the constant fall in birth and demographic decrease due to emigration, the first must be due exclusively to vehicle recovery. The rest, tourists, state workers and urban transport in general, experiences a decrease.
Not only does the number of people who move by conventional means lower, but also for what the Onei calls “alternative means” – that is to say animal traction cars, bicitaxis, trucks and private cars – which nevertheless implies a considerable amount of the passengers transported. In the first half of this year there were 169.1 million, compared to 191.5 million of the same period of 2024, 11.7% less.
International maritime transport also falls loudly
Regarding the transport of goods, the decrease, of the 26,051,800 tons of the first half of last year at 24,100,700 of this is also evolved. The brutal fall of the load rail transport – of 3,123,200 tons to 2,378,600, 23.8% below – is very partially compensated by the rise in maritime transport: from 1,623,800 tons to 1,898,900, which represents 16.9% more compared to last year.
These flourishing numbers are due, however, exclusively at the cabotage, because international maritime transport also falls sneakefully, 36,800 tons in 2024 to 26,400 this year. A sailor, who a few years ago boasted the international seas on the ship where he works as an electrical engineer, has not been out of the island platform for months because his ship is one of those used for the transfer and storage of fuel that reaches the island and that is dispatched in Altamar or is stored in the tanks waiting for the ability to land. “We are like crazy about so many turns but nothing to go outside that is where the search is,” warns the sailor to 14ymedio in allusion to the products he bought on his trips and sold on the island.
By trains, according to official figures, which is mostly transported are construction materials. Its decrease, of 30,200 tons to 23,300, is consistent with the debacle of the sector recognized by the Government Just a few days ago.
The figures verify black on white what Cubans experience every day
As for the air load, it experiences a rise of almost double, although they are incomparably small amounts next to the other media: from 1,200 tons to 2,100. It is also remarkable to increase the transport of road food, which rises from 2,514,000 tons to 2,650,000, although again, the decrease in the transport of construction materials – of 3,797,700 tons to 3,017,900– lowers the number of what moves in trucks.
The figures, in any case, verify black on white what Cubans experience every day: Guaguas shortagehigh prices of private taxis, Lack of bricks for new homes.
Passenger transport has not even improved with the new Foton Chinese microbuses, sold to hype and saucer by the authorities. Newly released, the gazelles Asian They started presenting problems In Havana, and this weekend, Sierra Maestra He revealed that in Santiago de Cuba they are equally a disaster. An inspection of the Taxi Santiago agency showed that the service does not comply with the itineraries at the established schedules due to the lack of vehicles and the blackouts that prevent recharging vehicle batteries. Of the 20 new Units incorporated last June, only 10 work are barely work. The others are “paralyzed by breaks, lack of tires, batteries and other problems, in addition to the lack of drivers.”
