14ymedio, Manzanillo, 1 April 2024 — An esplanade full of garbage surrounds the Manzanillo railway station, where abandonment prevails, from the old terminal to the mechanical traffic lights. Trains that arrive in that station in Granma province often suffer accidents and derailments. The most recent of them – that of the Havana-Manzanillo train, which occurred on March 26, without injuries – made the fears of those who pass daily on the damaged rails come true. The key is in the track clamping system, which has been unmaintained for decades. Light years away from modern railroad tracks, those of Cuba still use wooden ties, completely rotten in several segments and with rusty nails.
As it is common for the railroad ties to detach from the track, the correct separation between the two tracks is mismatched, and when the train arrives, it does not find a stable track for its movement. That was the cause of the derailment of March 26, in addition to the illegible signage, the precariousness of the equipment and the rusty mechanisms of the tracks, which make a quick diversion action impossible in case of emergency.
“It’s a real danger,” says Enrique, a railway worker in Manzanillo, who warns that it’s just a matter