Havana Transportation Tips by sourbugger

It's all about percentage risk,,,,

Wilber Wright said : "If you are looking for perfect safety, you will do well to sit on a fence and watch the birds."

On the other hand if you actually look at tables of safety records (how trainspottery can you get ?) you will find that Cubana, the national airline regularly finds itself at the bottom of league table.

There are various statistical methods, but 'accident rate' measures reported safety problems per 100,00o flights. Most first-world airline have a figure under 1, but Cubana comes in with a whopping 24, over twice the figure of any other national airline.

It also seems to beg the question of how many 'accidents' are not reported.

Having said all that you are still travelling on a safe form of transport compared to Cuban roads !

Mode: TO

Type: Airplane

Website: http://www.icao.int

A motley collection of carriages..........

Cuban railways has seen chronic under-investment for years. Cuba seems to buy all it's stock secondhand from anyone who is willing to sell, apart from the US because of the trade embargo and the UK because ours stock is used until even Albanian railways would not accept them as a free gift.

Train 1 & 2 are very smart (ex French stock), but all trains are prey to long delays for any number of 'operational' reasons (the wrong type of sun or something).

A trip back from Matanzas a few years back took us six and a half hours (it should have been less than 2), which included long periods in total darkness.

The Cubans took it all in their stride and saw it as an excuse for an impromtu party, the British cracked jokes about how it was still better than Virgin Trains and the Germans just looked utterly confused.

Mode: TO

Type: Train