Havana's Camel Buses: Because Cuba Couldn't Build a Subway - TWICE!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 เม.ย. 2024
- Ever see or wonder about those huge camel buses ('camellos') that ply the streets of Havana, Cuba?
In this video, you are going to learn the history of the camel buses, when and why they came into being, who created it and why it looks the way it does.
We will also take a look at two attempts by the Cubans to build a subway system in Havana. The first attempt was in the 1920s, and the second attempt was in the 1980s. There's also evidence that subway constuction was well underway in the 1980s, but abruptly stopped.
Let's take a ride on a camel bus!
#buses #cuba #rapidtransit #transporation - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
I remember as a kid in the 90s the horrors of the camel buses. We would call them "rolling monsters" because they were big and they stank. In the middle of summer, with no air conditioner, it was a human pressure cooker. On top of that not everybody could afford deodorant, so the body odors were exasperating. If it started to rain, especially a downpour, it was even worse because the people seating on the window seats would close them to avoid getting wet, cutting off the only source of fresh air. That thing became a disgusting sauna filled to the limit with people pressing against each other. Seating was limited, so the majority of passengers were standing up. The joke on the street was that travelling on the camel buses was like being on a late Saturday night movie: "Adult language, Sex and Violence".
Wow, thanks for those memories! Thank you for watching and for your comment!
I'm intrigued by the use of sleeper cabs on this service.
They're using whatever semi trucks they can find.
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In the Soviet Union, there were somewhat similar buses made up of a tractor unit and a semi-trailer, known as the APPA-4 (АППА-4) model. However, these were only used for passenger transportation within airport premises. The use of such a layout with a semi-trailer was justified by the fact that, at that stage of technological development, it was the only way to create a bus with a fully low floor, ensuring quick passenger boarding and disembarking.
As for the Cuban camel buses themselves, I noticed many details reminiscent of Hungarian Ikarus buses, such as windows, fittings, handrails, and other small interior decorations. It's possible they were salvaged from decommissioned buses. Additionally, in Cuba, similar components and parts were used in the production of their own Girón buses, suggesting also the possibility of local manufacturing.
Thank you for watching and for your very informative comment!
Havana having a Soviet-style metro could've been so cool! Pyongyang has a cool Soviet-style Metro! The Pyongyang Metro is famously deep! The Pyongyang Metro is among the deepest metros in the world, with the track at over 110 meters (360 ft) deep underground. Due to the depth of the metro and the lack of outside segments, its stations can double as bomb shelters, with blast doors in place at hallways. Construction of the metro network started in 1965, and stations were opened between 1969 and 1972 by Kim Il Sung. Most of the 16 public stations were built in the 1970s, except for the two most grandiose stations, Puhŭng and Yŏnggwang, which were constructed in 1987. The Pyongyang Metro artwork is incredible too. Like Moscow and St. Petersburgh Metro stations, Pyongyang's stations have chandeliers too! At Yonggwang (Glory) station, its chandeliers represent the fireworks that celebrated the Koreans' victory, and the pillars are sculpted in the shape of victory torches. At Kwangbok (Liberation) station, there are murals showing scenes of the forest from which Kim Il-sung led guerrilla anti-Japanese attacks.
Another Soviet-style metro system that more people should be talking about is the Tashkent Metro. It's one of the most stunning metros anywhere, and it took until 2018 for them to lift the photography ban and allow tourists to take as many pictures as their hearts desire. Sure, the Tashkent Metro was inspired by the Moscow Metro, but it's more than that. Almost every subway station in Tashkent is fascinating. They all have their own unique architectural features and artistic elements. Some look like ballrooms with huge chandeliers hanging from the ceiling while others look like a film set from a science fiction movie. Walking through it is like walking through the city's history. Every station shows a part of Uzbek history, and they all tell a story from the Silk Road to the empires that once ruled over it.
Thanks for the great info! Yes, Pyongyang has an interesting metro - but most outsiders have not been allowed to see most of it. I've also seen pictures of the system in Tashkent, it's really nice. Thank you for watching and for your comment!
Camellos is pronounced "kah-meh-yohs", with the ll making a y sound! This was a very good video on what is definitely one of the weirdest buses around! In Cuba as well as the Canary Islands and Puerto Rico, buses are called guaguas, thanks to many Canarians who came to Cuba and PR! The word guagua is an onomatopoeia stemming from the sound of a Klaxon horn! The Camello is an understandable solution in an extreme situation, you make the best of what you have, and Cubans remain strong and resilient people! Even with their extreme situation, Cuba manages to still have a lot of transit! The MetroBus network this video was about, currently has 17 lines! Besides the bus network, Havana also has the Havana Suburban Railway and the Hershey Interurban! Outside Havana, the suburban rail network serves some towns of its metropolitan area in Artemisa and Mayabeque provinces. The Hershey Interurban on the other hand is Cuba's only surviving electric line, linking Havana to Matanzas via Hershey/Camilo Cienfuegos, and it was originally built by Hershey to transport sugar to the port of Havana.
The Cuban national railway network in general is around 2,830 miles! The 1,024 kilometers (636 mi) Central railway runs from Havana to Santiago de Cuba in the eastern region. An interesting fun fact about Cuba's trains is that it was actually the first in the whole Spanish-speaking world to get trains! Yes, even before Spain itself! Cuba's railway history began in October 1834 during the colonial period when the Queen Regent Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies approved the first line. This was built by the Compañía de Caminos de Hierro de la Habana between Havana and Bejucal at 27.5 km or 17.1 miles in November 1837. Spain wouldn't get trains until 1848!
Wow, Avery, thank you for all of that great information! Sounds like Cuba has more transporation than I thought! Thank you for watching and for your comment!
On a trip to Cuba in 1996, fellow travelers and I of course saw the camel buses. I mentioned at one point Cuba's plans for a metro and the camel bus routes may be similar to the planned metro lines. Fellow traveler replied the camel buses were developed because of great need to move large numbers of people around the city.
Several short passenger rail lines have operated in the Havana city limits but not frequently.
Four Caribbean cities have subways if you count Central and South American cities on the Caribbean coast or in the region. Caracas since 1983, San Juan since 2004, Santo Domingo since 2009, Panama City since 2014.
Thank you for watching and for your informative comment!
Poor man's train. There's no 'sub' on that idea, just a train without costly rail construction.
So a BRT?
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Cuba should seriously consider asking for the help of the Dominican Republic on building the Havana Metro. They have the best dam subway metro system in the Caribbean and growing! With new lines underway, ever increasing ridership, and proposals for other metro systems in other cities of the island state.
Thank you for watching and for your comment! Good idea!!
A "dam" subway?!
Havana should be a world class city and Cuba should be one of the wealthiest islands in the world.. Heck, the whole Caribean should be a wealth region.... anyways - It's crazy they are using these buses. I have seen many videos speaking about how bad they are at transit, but they do look cool as heck. Wonder what one that was fully modernized would look like.
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First they need to get rif of 1 party government.
Love your work. And have fond memories of visiting Cuba as a Canadian before Americans were let in.
Thank you for watching and for your comment! I appreciate you kind words!!
Plans for longer intercity passenger carrying combination rigs in the U. S. were quashed in the first half of the 20th Century by the Pennsylvania Railroad, which did not want the highway competition. They got a law passed by Congress prohibiting tractor-trailer rigs from being used for carrying passengers as unsafe.
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You learn something new every day. Great video, thanks for sharing.
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I have 3 videos showing local bus services in Havana in 2013. The camels were gone, but on my last day I saw a single one running light seemingly from a suburb to pick up the PM crowd, it was all rusted out. I read somewhere that their heavy weight was tearing up the roads. They received new articulateds from Asia, and I see from this presentation that some were chopped up and made into new Camels. Really awful what our craven politicians have put those people through.
Very interesting info! Thank you for watching and for your comment!
seeing those Roman trucks in Cuba (Man engine licence, french Saviem Cab licence) brings back memories of our own communism. It was bad, and those trucks were bad, but the drivers that knew how to operate them and maintain them are living legends!
Very interesting about the truck cabs! Thank you for watching and for your comment!
Cities that have needed a proper metro for decades? Havana, Ulan Baatar, Baghdad... So far only the plans for Ulan Batar have advanced and that's a shame. Even if you can't get them built even a revival of the old tram networks in each city would be a blessing compared to the alternatives... I.e these camel buses...
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In 2008 a subway web site said reports of Ulan Batar, Mongolia getting a metro turned out to be a hoax. Baghdad reportedly began building a metro under Saddam Hussein but nothing came of it.
Cincinnati in the 1920s built some subway tunnels, but has never used em.
Lagos, Nigeria years ago was planning a rail transit system with used Toronto metro cars. I believe it's partially built but don't know whether in operation.
@@haweater1555, said system was replaced by a new subway system with _new_ trains instead of Toronto's cast offs: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagos_Rail_Mass_Transit
Reminds me of the plane-to-terminal buses in Kiev Borispil airport in the early 1990s.
I think I've seen pictures of them - the trailer was yellow? Thank you for watching and for your comment!
This also reminds me of every city that scraps its rail project only to propose an inferior BRT alternative then proclaim it "virtually the same thing"... Let me stress BRT will never be LRT much less RT... It's a poor man's technology that makes everything good about transit and turns it on its ear. Sure it's cheap but that's where the advantages end... Ride for the passengers? Worse! End to End transit speed? Worse! Cost to operate per passenger? Worse! Cost to operate and maintain? Worse! It goes on and on like this..
There are some really nice BRTs like the Tempo or the UVX, OGX.
They’re not LRTs by any means but they are very nice services for what they serve.
We have LRT in Phoenix and it’s well used. They’re adding two LRT extensions and one new BRT.
LOL, great statement! Thanks for watching and for your comment!
Sticky North, I despise it too, and don't know why cities build them instead of building light rail (the contagiously-bordered city [to Toronto] of Mississauga has a crappy BRT system instead of building the light rail line it _should've/should be_ building [Toronto also has a problem with building light rail, as shown by what happened to the Transit City project that was destroyed by Rob Ford: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_City)
Orange County had a Semi-Trailer bus in the 90s. I would see it in Downtown Los Angeles as a kid and thought they were cool. Never got to ride sadly.
Yes! I think it was called a Superbus. Thanks for watching and for your comment!
The California Department of Corruptions (corrections) (?) and several sheriff's departments have these buses; although they have a noticeably reduced capacity in comparison to the regular equipment used, several inmates state that it's "luxury travel" due to the interiors of these monstrosities being a miniature rolling cell block, complete with cells with toilets and bunks.
How's jim81jim doing
@@thisisall50charactersbeing47 Not Well. He's got the cancer
I have ridden only once about 5 years ago it was quite an experience, thankfully it was only a short 15 minute trip.
Wow, that must have been unreal! Thank you for watching and for your comment!
While not for any long-distance travel for years the Wisconsin State Fair had a tractor pulling probably some old homemade trailers with low step boarding in the center to carry Patron's to and from the outline parking lots. There probably were three or four of them and it probably cost 50 cents. It's probably been 25 years since they last ran due to pedestrian congestion and lack of easy places to turn around. The best part was the new tractor is it had rolled down the production line no more than 2 mi away at Allis Chalmers
Interesting! Maybe a subject for a future video! Thank you for watching and for your comment!
The recycled artculated trailer-bus is cool !
Sure is! Thank you for watching and for your comment!
Currently trending...
With a title like Cuban Bus crisis of 1964, are you surprised - I thought reds loaded missiles on buses
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@@JeffreyOrnstein Happy to have discovered your channel
Rode a similar vehicle at an Airport when I was a kid. Either at Heraklion (Crete) or Malta, can't recall which. Possibly both.
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Great video. I am pretty sure the giant shipyards building Liberty Ships in WWII used a precursor to the Cuban camel busses as part of the US war effort.
Possibly! Thanks for watching and for your comment!
This should make developed countries ask:
if the primary goal is to move people on fixed routes, why do we need to move people on expensive modernized trolleys and dedicated trains when buses and bus drivers can do the same?
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i'd love to ride one at one point in my life.
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Reminds me of the
Mercedes-Benz L6500 Sattel-Zug mit Kässbohrer Sattel-Omnibus
Of the 1930s
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My copy of "The Bus World [𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑒] Encyclopedia of Buses" shows the similar "SuperBus" , built by Carrocerias Preconstruidas of Mexico. This book was published in 1988, but it says: "two units started a three year test in Los Angeles - Orange County service in August, 1987" . I wonder if it completed the test and what was the reaction?
These SuperBuses ran in Orange County then Palm Springs, California. State legislation prohibited use of this tractor-trailer setup in diamond carpool lanes on freeways, which negated their usefulness, if I remember correctly.
Thank you for watching and for your comment - very interesting!
Great info, thanks!
I boarded one on a route feeding a rail line. Did not ride it but I found it to be truly dismal in terms of lighting, and the A/C was powered by a noisy generator. Nobody with a choice would ever want to spend an hour or two a day on such a vehicle.
Kolkata city in India used to have these trailer buses in 1970s & 80s... Running them for heritage purpose or using a morden version of them for BRT, wouldn't be bad (Personal Opinion)...
Thanks for the interesting info! I think Mumbai also had these! Thank you for watching and for your comment!
@@JeffreyOrnstein Yeah you're right
@@JeffreyOrnstein There is also a double decker trailer bus still running. Search "The only trailer double decker bus in entire India!"
Reminds me of what we called cattle cars that the Army used during boot camp.
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are trams not an option?
Guess not! Thank you for watching and for your comment!
Here in the US used school busses are really cheap. I guess they can't get them because of some trade embargo. Although somehow they are getting American truck tractors
Good observation! Thanks for watching and for your comment!
Jeffery. You haven't mentioned it, and hardly any commenters have either, but the single biggest factor in Cuba's poverty is the trade embargo. Cuba's greatest suffering is not due to its own government, or it's association with America's enemies past and present, but because of the economic sanctions imposed by the United States. The vast majority of the world, including much of the liberal democratic west condemns this imposition every year at the UN. Just thought I would provide additional context that must always be considered when comofortable westerners want to gawk at foreign poverty without acknowledging their own hand in making things this way.
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Those remind me of the cattle cars ascthey where called on the us army,they where international load star single axle tractors pulling these livestock type trailers which all the boot campers stood up and the drill sergeant sat down and yelled at us
LOL, thank you for watching and for your interesting comment!
I hope that they mean by Subway they mean at ground or elevated, I think trying to build it underground would be a terribly expensive idea, not a good idea giving risk of flood damage.
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Çonstruction Companies in Nigeria used them in the 80's and 90's
Sounds interesting! Thank you for watching and for your comment!
I'd be afraid of riding in a trailer wherein the driver can't even see the passengers and vice versa. See the movie _The Long, Long Trailer_ .
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Would Railbuses qualify for this channel? I think you would find the Leyland National and the Class 142 Pacer Railbus that British Rail had in the 1980's interesting, they used to bounce and screech all over the place and just as bad as these truck buses.
Thank you for watching and for your comment! Sure it would! Others have done the Pacer...but what I would like to do is a video on the early Leyland railbus that was sent to the US for trials. SEPTA (Philadelphia) used it for half a day and returned it, LOL.
Bus Rapid Transit.
Done Cuban.
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Cam-ay-yos, not cam-eh-los. The double ll is pronounced as a "y".
Ok, will try to remember that for next time! Thank you for watching and for your comment!
@@JeffreyOrnstein No, thank you for such an interesting video! All best.
I’m surprised this was’t adopted in Melbourne as a cost cutting measure given the LNP’s contempt for commuters and The Lonie Report (our Beeching Report) with elements of vested interests with cost cutting being the only policy.
Thank you for watching and for your comment! Didn't know you had a Beeching equivalent down there, LOL!
Yeah, I know we have lots of problems but Cuba is not better than the USA.
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Its so horrible that it's comical.
LOL, thanks for watching and for your comment!
If we had removed the sanctions like I don’t know in like the 90s It is likely they would’ve never had to use these again currently at the moment. Cuba has prioritise feeding its own population before it can go into transport because it is suffering quite a lot because The only major trading partner that they really had (I think I may be wrong) the union of Soviet Socialist republics Collapsed in the 90s
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Poor man's subway? I can do one better - How about poor man's rich non-metro - an 89km elevated bus transit in Capital of Pakistan that cost more to build and maintain than an actual metro rail system would have.
Thank you for watching and for your comment! LOL, sounds like an idea for a video!
@@JeffreyOrnstein It'd be fascinating, if it weren't so sad - good ol' corporate greed and politicians' treachery
Extra!
Pa ovo je bolje od bilo kog zglobnog autobusa. Kao neki kubanski BRT sistem!
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Iberia Airways had similar vehicles
Really!? Thanks for watching and for your comment!
This is certainly a "Thanks for watching and for your comment!" Type moment.
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