PINAR DEL RIO, December 19 (Víctor Rolando Arroyo, UPECI /
www.cubanet.org) A year after they took down the train station in Paso Real, a
small town in the province of Pinar del Río, residents try to make do
without rail service in a region where there are few other transportation
services available.
Government officials ordered the station closed saying there were no funds
to maintain operations.
"The measure has caused a lot of headaches, besides not making any
sense, because economic activity is growing in this region, which has depended
on the trains for more than a century," said Armando Robaina, a retired
railroad worker.
Vicente Zayas, another retired railroad worker, said, "There is no way
to justify how they looted the station. They took out all the equipment and even
relocated the tracks."
When the trains go through Paso Real now, they make unscheduled stops and
people have to improvise their own steps to climb, because the track is very
high in places.
"No one knows when the trains go by, or in what direction. Nor can you
make reservations, or send packages, because all these services were canceled,"
said Robaina.
Produce warehouses and trunk lines that fed into the main track were also
shuttered.
Area residents now have to travel between seven and eleven kilometers to Los
Palacios or Herradura to catch a train.
Versión
original en español
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