Chinese Wagons and Spare Parts for Cuba's Railway Network

The Chinese container ship “Tian Le” (IMO 9722730), from the COSCO fleet, has docked at the port of Havana, where it unloaded passenger wagons for the Cuban Railway Union (UFC), as well as 14 containers with various spare parts. The national railway network has just over eight thousand kilometers of tracks, of which 5,064 kilometers are for public use. The rest is agro-industrial for the transport of sugarcane from sugar mills, mining, and other industries.

It mainly uses about 700 diesel locomotives, and just over 150 kilometers are electrified. The network connects all the provincial capitals of the country and the six most important ports, such as Mariel, Havana, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Nuevitas, and Santiago de Cuba. It transports about eight million passengers and 8.5 million tons of goods annually, as well as just over two million tons of cane, sugar, and derivatives.

Photo: Carlos Vadir Góñiz