The Hershey Train and the Collapse of Cuba’s Rail System

Lynn Cruz

HAVANA TIMES – Producing the independent film Corazon Azul (Blue Heart) by Miguel Coyula, we needed to film a train trip. The first thing that came to my mind was the time I spent over the years on the Hershey train coming from Matanzas to visit my maternal family, especially my grandparents.

Started in 1920, it was famous for being the only electric train that rolled in Cuba. With time it became a vintage object, also exploited for tourist purposes.

It owes its name to the famous American chocolatier who ordered it to be built, with the purpose of transporting passengers, but also to his employees. It passed through the small town of Hershey, where the businessman built, in 1916, a sugar mill, now in disuse and traveled the 98 km that separate Havana from the province of Matanzas.

Of the 17 cars that the train had in the early 1920s, there are three authentic cars built in 1917 in Pennsylvania, headquarters of the Hershey group.

Organizing the filming plan, I called the Casa Blanca station, from where the train departs in Havana, and to my surprise the train no longer exists. The custodian who attended me, with indignation, told me that four days before Hurricane Irma in 2017, it left for the last time.

He also told me that this information has only been given in the province of Mayabeque, since the train went through many of its towns and municipalities, being the most affected. He complained that they have not even taken the trouble to update the news on the Internet, which is why many tourists are still coming in search of the promised trip.

This man, who undoubtedly has a sense of belonging to the place, also said that the employees of that station lost their jobs, leaving only the watchmen.

I asked if they have given reasons, and he replied that there is a rumor about the breakage of the trains, apparently stationed at the Hershey station. He also said that the administration was more delinquent than common criminals and that they cared little about the workers’ fate.

Regretting the news, I said goodbye to the custodian, because this train, besides carrying the passengers for a very cheap price, carried with it the weight of History.

As my goal was to film a train trip, I thought then of the one that goes from San Antonio de los Baños to Havana, where another part of my family lives. I called the station located on Tulipan Street in the capital city of Nuevo Vedado and it turned out that it is also canceled since September, they have not given any reasons, they only say there are “breakages” and it is not known how long it will take to repair.

I then tried through the Central Station in Old Havana, which included transfers to almost all the provinces, and the only accessible train was to Sancti Spíritus, it goes out at night, and the scene I needed to film happens during the day.

In any case, we could even do without filming it, only that the geographic conditions of Cuba, with a mostly flat terrain, made the railway one of the main means of transportation. It is regrettable to note another of the great losses during the so-called Cuban revolutionary period.