The Minister of Transportation of Cuba recognized that the technical availability of the state means of transport in Cuba It has been below 50% due to a lack of spare parts for the last three years.
In a meeting with the official press, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila stated that transportation on the island is experiencing a “decrease in passenger and cargo transportation capacities” due to various objective and subjective factors, according to the report of Cubadebate.
The official blamed the crisis on the insufficient availability of financial resources, the lack of freely convertible currency to guarantee fuel, spare parts and other logistical elements.
As usual in the propaganda of the Cuban regime, Rodríguez Dávila blamed the US embargo, COVID and the economic crisis for the debacle, without assuming any responsibility for the administration he represents.
“The main transportation bases across the country have been running with virtually no spare parts for the past three years,” he said.
Likewise, the minister recognized that state transport is not profitable and also referred to to the poor condition of the roads in the country.
“The issue of roads is a factor that has a negative impact on public transport, in the case of automobiles and railways as well,” he said.
“There is a group of subjective issues, which have to do with organizational problems, regulation, organization of services, control, price setting, tax policy, coordination and organization of private carriers… Many factors on which we work that they are also among the problems of the sector,” added the minister, who lamented Cuba’s problems leasing oil tankers due to the embargo.
However, he affirmed that a fund has been created to reinvest the profits of the aviation and maritime-port systems in the buses of the provincial companies, which has allowed the recovery of more than a thousand means of transport.
In addition, they have legalized more than 30,000 vehicles have been legalized in the last few months. And favored the leasing of state means of transport to try to wade through the crisis.
“We have been distributing electric tricycles that provide services in different locations, in short sections in the cities, and we are going to continue with this program,” Rodríguez Dávila reported.
He also spoke of other actions such as the incorporation of tourism minibuses in the gazelle lines, the purchase of a ferry for transportation to Isla de la Juventud, the reestablishment of a group of railway services, a program to repair and paint stops and boarding points, the use of worker buses for other transportation, and the implementation of a public bicycle project
