Havana/A passenger train covering the Havana-Sancti Spíritus route suffered a derailment on Wednesday morning near the municipality of Placetas, province of Villa Clara, with no injuries reported among the travelers or the crew.
As Yaima Ángel Hernández, president of the Municipal Defense Council, informed the official media, one of the four cars in the convoy derailed about 500 meters from the Cumbre station, in Placetas. Around 80 passengers were traveling on the train, known as El Espirituano, who were evacuated from the place and transferred by land to their destinations.
The causes of the derailment of train number 31 remain under analysis by the competent organizations, it states the information in Escambray. Mirtha García Jiménez, deputy director of the Cuban Railway Union, explained that “work is being done to solve the derailment to return the track to good condition.”
Also this Wednesday, at 7:50 am, the Artemisa-Havana train suffered an accident at kilometer 1.5 of the Artemisa branch. The driver of a truck did not respect the signals and crossed the railroad without stopping first, which caused a collision with locomotive 312053. No injuries were reported in the crash, although there was material damage to the vehicle and the locomotive.
Last August, the Guantánamo-Havana national train derailed in a section near the Bellamar Caves highway, in Matanzas.
Both incidents occurred just hours after some services on the country’s railway routes were resumed, suspended by the passage of Hurricane Melissa, which left major damage to the road infrastructure in the east of the country.
This type of accident has become frequent in recent years in Cuba. In 2024, three trains – two of them with passengers – derailed in less than a month in the section of the Central Line between Jovellanos and Quintana, Matanzas, an area that has become the Bermuda Triangle of the Cuban railway.
Last August, the Guantánamo-Havana national train derailed in a section near the Bellamar Caves highway, in Matanzas. Seven cars left the road, four of which were completely separated from the rest of the convoy. Despite the magnitude of the event, only three slightly injured among the more than 820 passengers traveling on board.
In that case, the authorities recognized that “the impact was severe on the road infrastructure” and, although the preliminary hypothesis pointed to the poor condition of the railway as the main cause, an official report was not issued on possible responsibilities. It is estimated that 67% of roads and 40% of infrastructure need maintenance in the country.
The deterioration of the Cuban railway system, affected by the lack of maintenance, the aging of the locomotive fleet and the shortage of parts, has turned derailments into another symptom of the national transportation crisis. While the Government promises to modernize the network with the help of foreign partners, passengers continue to depend on obsolete trains, makeshift repairs and increasingly precarious infrastructure.
