14ymedio, Julio César Contreras, Cienfuegos, 3 August 2024 – Climbing with difficulty onto a horsedrawn cart, cramming inside an electric tricycle or paying more than 100 pesos for a motor scooter are the transport options that Lidia has to shuffle every morning when she sets out for work in Cienfuegos. For a bus to actually arrive, or for some Lada driver* to decide to give her a lift, these are no more than “miracles” which happen with less and less frequency since the start of the fuel shortage and the lack of public transport vehicles. If you want to move about, private vehicles are the only option.
“It’s useless to wait at a bus stop”, the 65 year old Cienfuegera told 14ymedio. Private transport is usually more efficient and more readily available she says, but it’s the prices which stop people from using these vehicles.
“From the entrance to Calle Industria to Paseo del Prado, a horse drawn cart ride costs between 15 and 20 pesos, but that zone is always full of people due to its proximity to the provincial hospital so it’s difficult to get a lift around there at peak times. If you need transport quickly, or you need to go a longer distance, the motor scooters can cost you up to 500 pesos for just a few kilometres”, says Lidia.
For those living in the surrounding areas, managing to get into the city for work or for running errands is an Odyssey. “I live in Pueblo Grifo, on the outskirts, and pay 200 pesos for a motor taxi that takes me from Villuendas Park to the centre”, says Luis, another Cienfueguero, complaining about the few options available and their high costs.
“Okay if they were fixed prices but the problem is that tomorrow they’ll raise the price by 50 pesos and you’ll still have to pay it without complaining because there’s nothing else available and it’s weeks since I last saw a Diana”, he says, referring to the inter-urban buses that carry that name.
In answer to anyone who might ask what happened to all the inspectors who were supposed to prevent abusive pricing, Luis replies sarcastically: “It would seem they all went off to Venezuela to look for petrol (gasoline)”. The Cienfuegero assures us that in the last few days he’s only seen, sporadically, the official in charge of the Pastorita bus stop. “He works a bit in the mornings with his clipboard under his arm, without getting even the minimum of respect from drivers”, he complains.
If Cienfuegos’s bus stops seem to be deserted for the major part of the day, it’s not because the transport is efficient and quick but that the passengers know that if they bother to wait around for a bus to arrive, “they’re gonna be there until nightfall”.
It doesn’t bother the private car owners who offer transport to travellers that there aren’t any buses or that the inspectors are disappearing. “At the end of the day that brings us more clientele and more work”, says the driver of one motor scooter. “It’s true that people can’t always pay our tariffs, but the prices aren’t that way because we want them to be but because inflation affects us as well”, he says.
Tyres and wheels, spare parts, petrol, duty payments and maintenance costs, “all that is money which we have to find at the end of the day and we still have to earn enough to live on, because if not then the business can’t be sustained”, he explains. “The passengers are sometimes annoyed or refuse to pay. It’s unfortunate that people treat each other badly when it’s the people higher up that have the solution in their own hands. When someone’s like that with me all I can say to them is ’either get in, or stay where you are’”.
Translator’s note: Government officials who are issued government cars — generally Russian made Ladas — are required to pick up and drop off passengers (at no charge) at designated areas, but commonly fail to do so.
Translated by Ricardo Recluso
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