The only vehicles that continue to provide a little service in the province are the electric tricycle fleet, which meet only a small fraction of demand.
By 14ymedio
HAVANA TIMES – The authorities of Pinar del Río reported that the suspension of public transport that begins this Saturday – justified by the “difficulties” in acquiring fuel – will continue “until conditions allow the restoration.” Nor will the train from the provincial capital to Havana operate, indispensable for pinareños who work in the capital of the Island.
Another of the affected routes is the one that leads to the municipality of Guane, which will resume its “usual departure until the 16th,” according to a statement from the Directorate of Transport. This train left on September 12 to transport students from the provincial capital, although the report does not specify if they are scholarship students whose return transport is guaranteed.
The only vehicles that continue to provide service in the province are the fleet of electric tricycles in which the Minister of Transport, Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, has encoded the solution to the debacle of transport – a partial one, since it depends on the unstable electricity generation of the country. The statement, however, does not explain whether the 20 tricycles in Pinar del Río will continue to operate normally after the announcement.
Rodríguez Davila said last June – when the tricycles were donated – that it would be “very important to incorporate these vehicles” due to the “difficulties with the availability of fuel, spare parts, batteries and tires for the means of transport.” It was a preview of what was to come after the summer.
The key to keeping the tricycles going is the operation of thermoelectric plants and other components of the National Electric System, which continues from one crisis to the next. Both the thermoelectric plants and the floating generating platforms, the “patanas” rented from the Turkish company Karpowership, are in check for the same reason that the province’s transport is paralyzed: the lack of fuel, an excuse to which the Government has been resorting for years to explain the debacle.
According to the daily report of the Unión Eléctrica Co., this Saturday unit 2 of the Felton thermopower plant (Holguín) and units 5 and 6 of the Renté thermoelectric plant (Santiago de Cuba) continue in repair. About 50 distributed stationary generation plants are paralyzed, and the Regla generator – part of the floating plants that the Government celebrated as one of its energy solutions – are also out of service.
A deficit of 890 megawatts was estimated over the weekend, which translated into more blackouts, offering no relief even though the summer – the most critical period due to high consumption – is over.
Each province has sought supposed alternatives in the face of the crisis. In Villa Clara, whose provincial capital depends almost exclusively on private transport, the official press has denounced the overexploitation of animal-drawn vehicles. Horse-drawn carts, which connect the center with key points of the city – hospitals, the bus and train terminals, and the exit to Camajuaní – increasingly expose the drivers’ abuses.
This Friday, Vanguardia described how the animals are subjected to “fright, pain and fatigue” when they are whipped by the cart drivers. Faced with the passengers’ protests, the driver replies: “The horse is mine, and I’ll do with it what I want. If you don’t like it, get off.”
Amid the crisis, with no end in sight, it is almost ironic that the Government organizes a Renewable Energy Fair with the aim of “exchanging experiences and knowledge that pay tribute to Cuba’s strategy of changing its energy matrix.” With money from its allies – in particular China – the Island plans to install more and more solar panels, a new “solution” with which the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, promises – as he has done so many times before – to end the blackouts once and for all.
Translated by Regina Anavy for Translating Cuba
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