Cuba’s public bus system has ground to a halt since the Trump administration imposed a de facto blockade on the island in January.
The number of daily bus departures from Havana to other provinces has plummeted from 419 in 2025 to just 11 this year, Cuba’s Transportation Minister Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila told Reuters.
Nationwide, the number of bus routes has dropped from more than 100 to 21. Rodríguez Dávila estimates that total public transportation trips will fall 75% this year compared with 2025, while interurban transportation will decline 90%.
“These are families that can't move around, people who can't visit their sick loved ones, others who can't get to a hospital,” Rodríguez Dávila told Reuters.
Cubans have increasingly turned to carpooling and electric vehicles to get around. But prolonged blackouts have left even electric taxis stranded.
In July, we spoke with taxi drivers in Havana who have found a way around the blackouts by installing solar panels on their electric tricycles, allowing them to charge their batteries without relying on the electrical grid.