Cuban Lawmakers Discuss Public Transportation Problems

HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 16 (acn) Notwithstanding Cuba's efforts to improve public transportation, this remains one of the main dissatisfaction of the population due essentially to the poor state of roads and few resources available in the country.

Members of the Cuban parliament, gathered in the Committee on Care Services, which meets in the Conventions Palace in Havana, forwarded today to the Ministry of Transportation (Mitrans) major claims that transcended during their inspections regarding the pressing issue.

Representatives of several provinces recognized the slight improvement in their territories, with the introduction of new buses, as a result of efforts to alleviate the shortage of resources, particularly in rural areas.

However, the low technical availability of the existing stock still affects, as well as the increasing deterioration of road, sometimes it even becomes a "perfect excuse" of self-employed drivers to increase ticket prices.

Deputy Wilfredo Romero, from Pinar del Río, warned on this situation, referring to the problems that limit, in his province, the transportation of passengers by alternative and privately run means.

He exemplified in the route of the municipality of Guane to the city of Pinar del Rio, used daily by hundreds of workers, private taxi double and even triple the usual price of the service, using as excuse the poor condition of the streets and the measures taken to prevent accidents.

On the subject of supply and demand in this service, increased as a result of greater openness to management by non-state forms, Susana Ceja, deputy for the Havana municipality of Centro Habana, asked Mitrans to find a formula to put a stop to these increases in rates, to avoid affecting the population.

Havana lawmakers also exposed other shortcomings that limit the transportation of more than one million residents of the capital, between these, delays of the buses which arrive 35 minutes after due time-sometimes even at peak times, and indiscipline committed by drivers in fare collection and respect for bus stops.

Augustine Chiang, Holguin, said that in his province about 70 percent of passenger transport is borne by alternative means such as carts and rickshaws, due to the low technological conditions and public transportation means available to meet local demand.

Transport Minister César Aroche, invited the debates in one of the standing committees working of the National Assembly of People's Power (ANPP), said that this year all provinces except Santiago de Cuba, expanded somewhat their motor park; however, Mitrans continues to seek alternatives to solve the situation in a strategic sector for development.