Cuba

Country Details

See Wikipedia

National Railway System

Ferrocarriles de Cuba (FCC), which does not appear to have a website.

• UIC code: numeric 40; alpha CU

Infrastructure

• Gauge: standard
• Electrification: Only the former Hershey Railway from Havana Casablanca to Matanzas and some of its branches were electrified at 1200V DC, see specific paragraph below.
• Rule of the road: right

Maps

Various schematic maps are available at the Wikipedia Spanish language page.

Timetable

• Online: timetable information is available at The Man in Seat 61 and Fahrplancenter.
• Printed: summary timetables are included in the European Rail Timetable. It is not known if FCC publishes a printed timetable.

Note
Fuel shortages and a lack of serviceable equipment continue to severely restrict FCC operations:

• Long-distance "nacional" services from Havana at best run twice a week to one of four destinations: Guantánamo, Santiago, Holguín or Bayamo/Manzanillo; and even with this frequency, suffer cancellations and seriously late running.
• Many local services (e.g. Santa Clara - Moron - Nuevitas, Santa Clara - Cienfuegos, Santiago - Manzanillo, Guantánamo - Holguín, Matanzas - Los Arabos, Havana Coubre - Guines - Palos) are either long term suspended, or run for short periods then cease again so are very unreliable.

Long distance travel by any form of public transport is a challenge with all internal flights suspended, a large part of the long distance bus network not operating and the unreliability of the "Nacional" and local trains.

Hershey Railway

This line runs from Havana Casablanca station (accessed by ferry from Havana Vieja) via Hershey to Matanzas, with a branch from a separate "Callé 7" station in Hershey (adjacent to the line depot) to Jaruco; it is electrified at 1200V DC overhead, and is the only electrified railway in Cuba. It was built by the Hershey Chocolate Corporation to typical US interurban standards, and was merged into FCC when Cuba's railways were nationalised after the 1959 revolution.

Following significant hurricane damage in late 2017 there has been no service from Casablanca to Hershey, and subsequently the Hershey - Matanzas service was suspended leaving only the 13km branch from Callé 7 to Jaruco operating.

Other Railways

In 2018 the narrow gauge Rafael Freyre Sugar Mill system operated railbus passenger services some distance into the surrounding hills to villages with no road access, plus steam for purely tourist services; the situation in 2023 is not known. Additionally many rural areas (e.g. around Manati) have private company services on private tracks operated literally by "buses" on rail wheels but details are almost impossible to confirm.

Tourist Lines

Pre-COVID, there were a handful of former standard gauge sugar cane mills providing steam hauled rides up to around 5km into the surrounding fields as part of the visitor experience, including Jose Smith Comas, Australia, Marcelo Saledo, Patria o'Muerte. It is believed none are now offering rides as tourist numbers have not recovered. Again pre-COVID, there was a diesel-hauled, purely tourist operation north from the UNESCO city of Trinidad to at least Iznaga but the current status is unknown. Any reports of active lines would be appreciated by the Compilers.

Metro and light rail systems

None

Obscure and Sparse Passenger Services

See PSUL: World Beyond Europe