Cuba's old trains offer fine-grained look at country off the beaten track

Cuba's old trains offer fine-grained look at country off the beaten track
Associated Press Oct. 29, 2015 | 12:27 a.m. EDT + More
By RAMON ESPINOSA, Associated Press

SANTIAGO, Cuba (AP) — From east to the west, trains offer a
fine-grained, slow-moving view of Cuba that few foreigners ever see.

Goats graze alongside tracks in the countryside, forcing trains to brake
to avoid hitting them. Old American sedans line up at a crossing while
locomotives pass. Horse-drawn carts cross the rails after a train has
gone by.

A boy hitches a ride home from school with a train's engineer. A man on
horseback rides alongside tracks that used to carry tons of sugar from
Cuba's now withered sugar industry. A young man boards with goats to
sell in Havana.

While the island is slowly modernizing its rail system, mistreatment and
theft of railway property by the people it was built to serve ensure it
remains the slowest way to get around already slow-moving Cuba.

The trip from Havana to Santiago, 475 miles (765 kilometers) to the
east, takes an average of 15 hours, if the train doesn't break down. A
slightly more reliable train with air conditioning currently is not
running while it undergoes repairs.

On the way from one end of the country to the other, families chat and
try to catch a few minutes of sleep stretched out between rattling
seats. The train's rocking lulls children to sleep under the eye of
adult relatives. Men stand next to an open train door, chatting.

At their peak, Cuban trains featured dining cars and other high-end
services. Today, refreshment comes from the vendors who board at many
stations offering cold sandwiches and soft drinks. Snacks are also sold
outside.

Cuba became the first Latin American country with a train system in the
mid-19th century when colonial Spain began connecting Havana with the
sugar-growing regions outside the capital. The network grew to 5,600
miles of rails crisscrossing the island before the system fell into
disrepair. It suffered along with much of the country's infrastructure
when the Soviet Union's collapse cut Cuba off from the subsidies that
Moscow had pumped into its economy. The longstanding U.S. trade embargo
made it hard to get parts.

Trains connecting Cuba's capital with the former chocolate company town
of Hershey in Matanzas province are filled with tourists who pay less
than 50 cents for the trip as the island floods with visitors after the
declaration of detente with the United States.

As for the route between Santiago and Havana, Cubans pay a little more
than $1 to shuttle goods or visit faraway family. Visiting foreigners
are charged $30 for the same trip.

Source: AP PHOTOS: Cuba's trains offer fine-grained look at country - US
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