Of wheeled vehicles on Cuban roads, the heavy, wooden-wheeled, primitive style, slow-going ox-and mule-carts take precedence as freighters, and for passenger transportation the volante (flyer) takes rank of all others. Indeed, no other vehicle would be possible on many of the roads, not only because modern carriage building has not devised a vehicle strong enough to stand the strain, and light enough to be hauled, but because endurance in any of them for any distance would be impossible. The volante, drawn by one, two, or three horses, according to the exigencies of the highways, is the only possible form of vehicular travel. This vehicle consists of a two-seated bed, swung low on leather straps from the axle of two very large wheels, very wide apart, with shafts fifteen feet long. This peculiar gearing relieves the jolting, removes the danger of upsetting, and makes volante riding really endurable on rough roads, and a languorous luxury where the roads are good and meander among the waving palms and tropical vegetation of the gently rolling valleys.
The only street railways are to be found in Puerto Principe, where a short mule motor line exists, and in Havana, which has about twenty-seven miles of track, say about one hundred miles less than a city of over 200,000 population should have. Its power is principally horse, one route steam, and although it is badly managed, poor in service, and always in bad condition, its annual receipts are about $500,000. Under the new régime the opportunities for investment of American capital in street-railway building will be especially excellent, not only in the city of Havana, but in most of the towns of the Island. In the same field, on a more extended scale, will be the development of trolley lines through the interior, to take the place of the miserable roads which serve to retard the progress of the Island.
There are, in round numbers, one thousand miles of steam railroad in Cuba, almost all of which is standard gauge, and the most of which is owned and controlled by English and Spanish companies. There is no great central system; the lines are independent, short roads. The leading combination is the United Railways Company, with five lines out of Havana: (1) to Matanzas, fifty-five miles; (2) to Batabano, thirty-six miles; (3) to Guanajay, thirty-five miles; (4) to La Union, seventy-seven miles; (5) to Jovellanos, eighty-eight miles; a parallel line runs between Matanzas and Empalme, joining the line again at Güines. These lines are in the main well built and ballasted, having steel rails, stone culverts, and iron bridges, and they pass through rich sections of agricultural and grazing country.
The second in importance is the Western Railway, running to Pinar del Rio, 106 miles, and traversing the famous Vuelta Abajo tobacco district. The line next in importance is the Cardenas and Jucaro Railway, extending from Cardenas to Santa Clara, 110 miles, with branches to Montalvo from Jovellanos, twenty-seven miles; to Aguada from Cardenas, fifty-nine miles, to Itabo, thirteen miles; from Artemisal to Macagua, seventeen miles. These lines traverse a rich agricultural country, chiefly devoted to sugar-growing.
The Matanzas Railway, from Matanzas to Cumanayagua, seventy-three miles, is a well-built road, through a rich sugar district. The Navajas-Jaguey branch extends from the main line at Montalvo, twenty-five miles, to Murga in the interior. The Sagua la Grande Railway extends from Concha, the seaport of Sagua, to Cruces, forty-eight miles, where it connects with the Cienfuegos and Santa Clara Railway. This is a generally stone-ballasted road through a rich agricultural and fruit-growing section. The Cienfuegos and Santa Clara Railway extends from Cienfuegos to Santa Clara, forty-two miles. A portion of the country along the line is rough, but there are many fine sugar farms. The Caibarien Railway Company has a local line extending to Placetas, thirty-three miles. The Puerto Principe and Nuevitas Railway, forty-five miles in length, connects Puerto with Nuevitas, its seaport. This railroad has paid the extraordinary dividends of fifteen to twenty per cent. The Guantanamo Railway is a profitable road, four miles long, connecting Guantanamo with Caimanera, its seaport. The Marianao Railway is a suburban line, eight and a half miles long, connecting Havana with Marianao and La Plaza. It carries about 800,000 passengers annually at a thirty-cent fare. The Regla and Guanabacoa Railway is a local line, two and a half miles long, connecting the two towns, and is owned by the proprietor of one of the ferries between Regla and Havana. It has valuable terminal facilities in Regla. The Encrucijada Railway extends from Sitiecito, on the main stem of the Havana line, to Encrucijada, a distance of twenty miles, through a rich sugar and stock district. The San Cayetano and Viñales Railway is a two-and-a-half-foot gauge road, fifteen miles long, from the port of San Cayetano to Viñales. The Casilda and Fernandez Railway extends from the seaport of Trinidad to Fernandez, twenty-two miles. The Las Tunas Railway extends from Zaza to Valle, twenty-four miles, and was built to connect Sancti Spiritus with the seaboard, though it is not yet completed. The Zaza Railway, of three-foot gauge, is a private road, and parallels the Caibarien United Railways to Placetas, twenty-one and a half miles. The Jucaro-Morón Railway is a military road on the line of the Jucaro Trocha, connecting Jucaro on the south coast with Estero on the north, passing through heavy forests of fine timber for nearly its entire length. The Gibara-Holguin Railway connects Gibara with Auras, a small town in the interior, nine and a half miles. It runs through a very rich fruit district and is intended to extend to Holguin.
Penetrating thirty-three miles into the rich mineral and agricultural districts to the north of Santiago de Cuba, is the Sabanilla and Maroto Railway, a well-built standard-gauge road. A short branch extends to El Caney, famous in war history, and at Morón, twelve miles from Santiago, a new line branches to the north-east, passing through several unimportant villages and terminating at Sabanilla, six or eight miles away. The old line goes to San Luis, thirty-three miles from Santiago, passing Enramadas, twenty-one miles out; and from this point, or San Luis, it is proposed to extend the line to Manzanillo, a thriving town of 9000 people, the seaport for Bayamo and Jiguani, and the centre of a large lumber and sugar trade, as well as headquarters for the celebrated Yara tobacco leaf, grown along the Yara River, which empties into the sea a mile from the town.
The Ponupo Mining and Transportation Company, which is practically the Juragua Mining Company, an organisation which has done more towards the industrial development of Eastern Cuba than all other agencies combined, proposes to assume all the responsibility and expense of building, equipping, and running a first-class road from Santiago to Manzanillo, a distance of 110 miles. Leaving Enramadas, or San Luis, the road will pass through the towns and villages of Paso del Corralillo, Palma Soriano, Arroyo Blanco, Fray Juan, Baire Abajo, Las Piedras, Jiguani, Santa Rita, San Antonio, Bayamo, Jucaibana, Barrancas, Jara, Palmas Altas, and thence to Manzanillo. At each of these points a substantial station will be built; all bridges will be of iron, and the entire construction will be on the best lines of modern railway building.
The route extends through an almost undeveloped country, rich in the possibilities of wealth-producing. Fine grazing lands abound; the soil in many places is of the finest for cane-growing; much of the territory is covered with mahogany, cedar, and other hard woods; near Baire are iron and manganese deposits; at Guisa are thermal springs, famed for their medicinal virtues; about Bayamo, a city of 15,000 people, there are coffee and cocoa lands and manganese and zinc deposits; eight miles from Manzanillo are the broad fields where the famous tobacco grows, known as the Yara leaf, and in the vicinity of the city eight or ten large sugar plantations are in operation. Several rivers are crossed on the route, from which a vast water power may be secured for application to any kind of manufacture, and as the country is virtually new, the opportunities for settlers are unusually good. The company proposes to complete the road within five years at a cost of $2,100,000, and the facts that it has for a long time been successfully conducting the original road and that it is willing to spend its money in building the new line, are ample evidence that the road will fill a long-felt want and be a productive investment. Its construction should be encouraged in every way consistent with the best interests of all concerned, and that it will soon be a substantial fact, as well as a long step towards the consummation of a great trunk line running the entire length of the Island, goes without saying. The author visited the country along the line of this road and speaks from his own personal observation.
Generally speaking, these roads are fairly well built, but are in poor condition, owing to neglect growing out of the war. They are largely equipped with American locomotives and cars, usually of lighter construction than those in the United States. Indeed the passenger cars are built for summer travel, with wicker seats and plenty of ventilation. While some heavy steel rail is used, sixty to eighty pounds, there is much lighter rail put down, with the result that riding on some of the Cuban roads is nearly as painful to the passenger as is riding on the dirt roads. Fair time is made on the best roads, and the service is much better than might be expected. The stations of the railways in the cities are often creditable in architecture and conveniences, but those in the small towns and the country need to be improved.