Cuba's transportation minister says public transport has collapsed since the US imposed a de facto ban on fuel imports. Bus service has been cut sharply, freight is shrinking, and electric vehicles are growing in number.
Cuba's public transportation has fallen to one of its lowest points, according to Transportation Minister Eduardo Rodriguez Davila. The collapse followed the US decision in late January to impose a de facto ban on fuel imports to the island's communist-run government. In an interview in Havana this week, Rodriguez Davila told Reuters: "Traditional public transportation is at one of its lowest points of all time."
Bus service and freight shrink
The minister estimates passenger trips on public transportation would plunge 75% this year versus last. Public bus service to the provinces from Havana dropped from 419 daily in 2025 to just 11 this year, he said. Bus routes island-wide have been slashed from over 100 to just 21.
Inter-urban transportation, a mainstay for Cuban workers, would fall 90%, he said. Domestic freight transport is expected to fall to around 20 million tonnes this year, less than a third of the 70 million tonnes moved across the country last year.
The US says the now nine-month-long fuel blockade and recent beefed-up sanctions are necessary to upend Cuba's government, which it calls inept and corrupt. Cuba and the United Nations have called the blockade illegal and a violation of the human rights of all Cubans.
Electric vehicles grow in number
Meanwhile, Cubans have turned to hitchhiking, impromptu carpooling and, increasingly, far pricier private transportation. Rodriguez Davila says Cuba now has 150,000 electric cars, bikes and tricycles, double the number in 2025 and around 15% of the total one million vehicles in Cuba.
By August, 40% of vehicle imports were electric, up from just 3.5% in January 2025, thanks to import incentives that waive or reduce taxes for electric-powered cars and bikes. The minister noted that such vehicles are often twice the price of those that use gas or diesel.
The transportation ministry had just purchased 60 solar charging stations to distribute countrywide, Rodriguez Davila said. Yet at one stop on a government-led press tour, dozens of yellow electric tricycles owned by a state company sat idle in a parking garage because there was no electricity to charge them.
Source: Investing.com
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