[R-G] TRANSPORT-CUBA: Nearly There

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46139>
TRANSPORT-CUBA:  Nearly There
By Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Mar 17 (IPS) - Cuba's transport crisis finally appears to be
coming to an end, after three years of substantial investments and
reforms, although future economic growth could pose new challenges.

"A few months ago, I used to have to leave two hours ahead of time in
order to make sure I would be punctual. Now I know that I will never
have to wait more than 30 minutes for a bus," Mara Flores, who lives
in a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Havana, 45 minutes by car from
the city centre, told IPS.

Like many people in the Cuban capital, Flores uses the
government-subsidised public transport system to get to work. Last
year the number of routes connecting outlying neighbourhoods to the
areas where economic activity is concentrated were doubled, after
Chinese and Russian buses arrived on the streets.

Today there are 16 bus routes plying between the centre and the
suburbs, and one which connects the outlying areas. In addition there
are minor routes between these major arteries.

The optimum frequency would be one bus every 10 to 12 minutes on the
routes between the outskirts and the centre. The problem here is no
longer the number of vehicles available, but logistics and getting
buses to run on schedule.

According to the National Statistics Office (ONE), passenger transport
expanded by 16.5 percent and freight carriage by 12.3 percent in 2008.
The use of other means of transport, ranging from bicycles to private
vehicles, grew by 2.9 percent.

In contrast, ONE statistics indicate that passenger transport fell by
58 percent over the 1990-2005 period, a cutback that hit big cities
like Havana or Santiago de Cuba the worst, as well as the highway
network connecting the country's provinces.

In order to tackle the problem, the government invested millions of
dollars to buy new or second-hand vehicles, especially from Russia and
China. About 2,700 of these buses were already in service on the
island by the end of 2008, according to official sources.

"If the annual growth rate of passenger transport remains at the level
attained between 1998 and 2007 (14 percent a year), it will take five
more years to reestablish the level of service existing in 1989," said
an expert source quoted in Economics Press Service, a publication of
the IPS bureau in Cuba.

But deploying an adequate transport fleet is not the only problem. The
authorities have tried to improve working conditions for bus drivers
and other transport workers by increasing wages and providing uniforms
and training in modern technology. However, the Havana city government
has had to resort to bringing in drivers from other provinces to cover
the shortfall.

"The low level of training of transportation personnel is one of the
main causes of the staff shortage that is limiting the effectiveness
of the programme," the expert source, who recommended that the
education sector should "begin to emphasise the expansion of this type
of education," was quoted as saying.

The collapse of the Cuban economy after the demise of the Soviet Union
and its East European socialist allies in the early 1990s severely
affected the island's capability to move goods around the country.
Railway freight alone declined from 13 million tonnes to five million
tonnes at its lowest point, while one-half of all haulage trucks were
decommissioned.

The transport recovery programme, worth two billion dollars, got under
way in 2005 and is due to end in 2010. According to declarations in
the Cuban press from Transportation Minister Jorge Luis Sierra, the
rehabilitation plan includes a major restructuring as well as the
purchase of vehicles and equipment.

Expert sources say that in 2005 the armed forces directed a special
operation known as Operación Emergente which reorganised transport of
goods from the ports to their final destination, with the aim of
avoiding idle freight capacity in trucks and other vehicles, reducing
wear and tear and cutting down on fuel consumption.

Global positioning system (GPS) devices were introduced in trucks in
an effort to discourage private use of the vehicles, a practice common
in this country where making unauthorised use of state resources tends
to be seen as a short cut to solving personal problems, rather than as
a crime.

Cuba has devoted 500 million dollars to revitalising the railway
system. The funds were used to buy 550 freight wagons and 200
carriages from Iran and 100 engines from China, as well as purchasing
materials and setting up local factories to carry out repairs on the
railway lines.

The government has also earmarked some 400 million dollars to repair
bridges and highways, among them the Autopista Nacional (National
Freeway), which was only half-finished when the Havana-Moscow alliance
broke up in the early 1990s.

Another 300 million dollars are to be invested in the port terminals.
During the worst years of the so-called "special period" – the
euphemistic name given to the crisis - early last decade, it could
take 80 days to unload a cargo ship, while the number of harbour tugs
and lighters supplying food and water to the ships fell drastically.

The economic crisis also devastated the national merchant fleet, which
had been one of the largest in Latin America until the late 1980s.
This forced the island to depend on foreign ships, which under the
provisions of the U.S. Helms-Burton Act are forbidden to enter U.S.
ports for six months after docking in Cuba.

The Act, named for the legislators who introduced it to Congress,
Jesse Helms and Dan Burton, entered into force in 1996. It provides
for retaliatory action against any non-U.S. company that trades with
Cuba, tightening the embargo imposed by Washington on Havana in the
1960s.

Such restrictions create delays in the arrival of new equipment to
Cuban shores. For instance, the Iranian railway stock may have to wait
up to five months for embarkation until a ship can be found that is
willing to take on the risks of the long crossing and of being
blacklisted by Washington.

"One of the most important challenges to the transport rehabilitation
programme (for freight as well as for passengers) is the fact that
certain kinds of demand are likely to grow in the medium term," the
Economics Press Service article predicts.

The government hopes for a six percent growth rate in GDP this year,
compared to 4.3 percent in 2008.

Transportation services, while still recovering from their huge
setback, must cope with the expected economic surge, "particularly the
higher agricultural, livestock and industrial production," the expert
source said. (END/2009)