The Cuban Ministry of Transport (Mitrans) today enabled almost a dozen new stops and changes in some schedules of the national train routes, informed the head of this sector, Eduardo Rodríguez.

On his Facebook profile, where he has some 40,000 followers, the minister announced the day before that national passenger trains will make additional stops in new locations to facilitate boarding and alighting from the train.

With the measure, the user of the service will not have to travel to distant places to access this means of transport «in circumstances in which the provinces and localities of the country have serious limitations with transportation, said Rodriguez.

He also announced that as of Monday, train number 12, which runs between Santiago de Cuba and Havana, with its usual departure time of 15:05 (local time), will leave five minutes later and is expected to arrive at its final destination at 9:15 (local time) the following day.

This regular service will be supplemented by stops in the eastern towns of Cacocum, Holguín province, and Mella, in Santiago de Cuba, said the Mitrans director.

In another of his regular and widely commented posts on the social network, the minister highlighted the fact that, as of yesterday, national train number 17 (Havana-Bayamo-Manzanillo) will be able to stop in Aguacate, a community in the western province of Mayabeque.

The minister pointed out that no national train has stopped in Aguacate in the last five years since these trains have been running with air-conditioned or ventilated cars from China.

The Havana-Bayamo-Manzanillo train also moved its usual departure time from 18:25 (local time) to 19:20, with an estimated arrival at its final destination at 14:40 (local time) the following day.