Photo: RRSS
Text: Fede Gayardo
In the midst of the difficult situation with transportation and fuel in Cuba, the government continues to “innovate” to find solutions to the crisis. This time, it will launch the first Yutong brand railway bus that will begin testing in the coming days.
Through a report by Cuban Television it was known how the bus will be adapted for its conversion into a railway.
In this regard, the deputy logistics director of the Provincial Transport Company of Camagüey, Luis Beltrán Pérez, indicated that it was necessary to reach an agreement with a group of insurers with the objective of “finding important parts that we did not have, nor are they entering the country.”
As part of the work, Beltrán added, the railcar was fitted with a bumper, a sandbox and railway wheels, which will allow it to travel on railway tracks.
Félix Caballero Velazco, one of the mechanics working on this process, explained that “the most complex tasks carried out during the manufacturing of this equipment was the adaptation of tires for railway wheels.”
Once launched, the railcar will travel through 12 communities in the Camagüey municipalities of Santa Cruz del Sur and Vertientes with a capacity for 36 seated people and 25 standing people.
Several days ago, the state newspaper Adelante reported that the Yutong vehicle was moved to Camagüey from Havana for urban service, but since it lacked several components, it was decided to transform it for circulation on the railway lines.
Similar transformations had previously been carried out in Cuba with regard to means of transportation, as is the case of the Diana buses. However, this is the first time that they have been carried out with one from the Yutong brand because, according to the aforementioned local media, the works were more complex due to their dimensions.
