$2 billion to upgrade Cuba's transportation system over 5 years

$2 billion to upgrade Cuba's transportation system over 5 years
Posted on Sat, Dec. 15, 2007
The Associated Press

HAVANA --
Cuba will spend more than $2 billion over five years to upgrade its
dilapidated public transportation system, state media reported Saturday.

The Communist Party newspaper Granma quoted Transportation Minister
Jorge Luis Sierra saying the improvements include adding 1,500 buses to
the public fleet.

Vice Minister Joel Beltran Archer said that more than $1 billion already
had been invested in the nation's public transport in three years as the
country struggles to recover from a severe financial crisis in the early
1990s after the Soviet Union collapsed and Cuba lost its preferential trade.

Other plans include extensive repairs to the pothole-pocked main
highways across the Caribbean island and the addition of more than 1,000
taxis to urban streets in the coming year.

Cubans frequently criticize the island's transportation system, saying
there are not enough decent buses and other vehicles to travel to work
and school quickly and efficiently. Interim leader Raul Castro, filling
in during his older brother Fidel's illness, has made improving public
transport a key priority.

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