A Day’s Salary is Spent in Two Trips

A Day's Salary is Spent in Two Trips / Veizant Boloy
Posted on September 7, 2013

LA HABANA, Cuba, September, www.cubanet.org — With the 2013-2014 school
year beginning, Havana's public transport crisis is hard to overlook.
Bus stops are already crowded with waiting passengers and the situation
could become even worse in the coming weeks as students begin making
increasing use of public transportation.
"After 2007, when the articulated buses came into service, the situation
got a little better. Waiting time between buses was reduced to less than
twenty minutes," says Teresa, a route inspector in the Havana
neighborhood Tenth of October. "But stops were still crowded and delays
were longer than scheduled."

On the Roundtable television show last July experts claimed the problem
stemmed from the critical economic situation, which has led to almost
half the buses serving the Cuban capital being idled.

Granma, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party, reported that at the last meeting of the Council of Ministers it
was acknowledged that among the reasons fewer buses are in service are
antiquated technology a shortage of spare parts, acts of vandalism and
poor conditions in maintenance facilities and roadways.

The Havana Provincial Transport Agency announced that it will take steps
to alleviate the situation. It has promised to reinforce inner-city
public transportation along some routes in the capital. It is now
providing the public with the well-known Russian-made "Giron" buses,
which have survived three decades of marked decline in this sector. They
will take the place of articulated and single-carriage buses made by the
Chinese manufacturer Yutong.

Opinions indicate that transport workers and the average Cuban believe
the island's transportation system would benefit from a continued
expansion of cooperatives beyond agricultural and into the urban
transport sector. This includes cooperatives which would lease vehicles
from the state as well as those that would offer technical assistance
and vehicle repair services.
Guaguas* for five pesos

Examples of similar cooperatives are the so-called taxis ruteros. They
offer more comfortable travel — some are even air-conditioned — for five
pesos a ride.

Carlos, a laborer who works far from home, confesses, "I can't afford
this luxury. I have to make do with the one peso guagua. I make 315
pesos a month and, since I have to catch three guaguas to get to work, I
have to watch what I spend."

People like Carlos, who make barely ten pesos a day, cannot rely on the
public transport system. If they want to avoid having what little they
earn docked, they must get to work on time, which means leaving home up
to three hours in advance.

In Cuba, public transport is a vital component in gauging the success of
the "updating of the economic model" called for in the economic policy
guidelines. This sector is almost completely funded through the state
budget. This is the reason so many people blame the Cuban state for not
meeting demand.

veizant@gmail.com

From Cubanet

September 3, 2013

Translator's note: Pronounced wah-wah; Cuban slang for bus.

Source: "A Day's Salary is Spent in Two Trips / Veizant Boloy |
Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/a-days-salary-is-spent-in-two-trips-veizant-boloy/