Transportation Deployment Casebook/2023/Cuba

Streetcars in Cuba

Introduction to Streetcars

Streetcar is a rail-based vehicle that is operated on the laid track transporting passengers across streets and cities, and it was a chief public transit mode in the past for many countries and cities in North America. The streetcars at the initial stage were run by horses or powered by a battery. These operation methods were inefficient and high cost. However, the invention of generators allowed streetcars to be continuously powered along the track by the electrified wires placed above the laid tracks. Cuba is one of the earliest countries to construct railways. The streetcar railway system in Havana used a twin trolley pole that was only used by a few in the World, but they also used a single trolley pole in the suburban network.

The Impact of Streetcars

The streetcar was a significant development of transport over horse-drawn vehicles. Similar to horse-drawn vehicles, the first developed streetcar was pulled by horse along the rail. However, the wheels were carefully designed and manufactured to provide a much more comfortable ride than the previous vehicles and to prevent the wheels from rolling off the track. Moreover, a streetcar pulled by a single horse on a rail was bigger and transported more passengers in comparison to the previous vehicles. Therefore, with the low fare, streetcars provided easier access to travel greater distances for all people, especially the middle class for any purpose, such as going to work, to market, or to do social activities.

Public Transits Before the Streetcars

Horsecar

The horse-drawn streetcar was the initial form of a streetcar that are powered by overhead electrified wires. It is an animal-powered streetcar. Cuba was one of the first countries to use the streetcar system. The horsecar line opened on the 3rd of February 1858. But these trams were designed to only carry freights. On 20th September 1859, horse-drawn streetcars for passengers were added. Havana, the Capital of Cuba was the second city in Latin America to operate the tram system. By 1865, 32 passenger streetcars and 16 freight streetcars were operating in Havana with a total track length of 17 kilometres. However, there were evident limitations to using horsecar to transport goods and people in Cuba. This is because of the limited hours a single animal can run the streetcar, and the horses required caring, which includes grooming, feeding, cleaning and providing shelters or barns for the horses to rest. Moreover, in order to carry passengers and freights for several kilometres, it is reported that each streetcar required more than ten horses to provide stable and secured travel. Therefore, the horsecar system was inefficient and expensive for both operation and management.

Evolving Markets in Cuba

The first railway boom occurred from 1830 to 1868. In 1830, Cuba was already preparing for railroad transports as they were one of the first countries to operate streetcars. In this era, Cuba was a colony of Spain, so the investment into railway transport was supported by the Spanish high authorities and Cuban elites. The first railway tracks were laid between Havana, Güines, and major sugar-producing areas during that time. In this period, Cuba was the main producer of sugar in the World, producing and selling greater than 6 million metric tonnes of sugar to the World annually. So, the main purpose of the railway construction was to improve sugar transportation across the World. Later on, the use of railway transport extended from goods to goods and people. From 1827 to 1877, the population of Cuba was more than doubled, where the population was 704,487 in 1827 and 1,509,291 in 1877. Due to the significant population growth in Cuba, more towns are developed around the main cities, and transportation of people became more significant. And also efficient and bigger transport modes were required to carry more passengers at a time. Therefore, the government invested in passenger streetcars to meet the needs of the people and began operating developed streetcars, such as streetcars with overhead electrified wires, as introduced in the above sections.

Invention of a Streetcar

Frank J. Sprague is the inventor who installed a large electric streetcar system in Richmond, Virginia, in 1888. Sprague worked for Thomas Edison in 1883 to help Edison develop electric lighting. But Sprague showed his interest in electric traction, so he quit working for Edison and became a founder of 'Sprague Electric Railway & Motor Company'. During this period, Sprague invented a constant-speed and non-sparking motor with fixed brushes and a regenerative braking system. Regenerative braking allows returning of power to the main supply body through the use of drive motors, which he verified that it is beneficial and practical to be used in streetcars.

These inventions created in 1885 by Sprague significantly improved the design of the streetcars at that time. Sprague's inventions allowed them to design streetcars powered by overhead electrified wires and major improvements on the streetcar motors, gears and also the previous trolley pole design that was introduced by Charles V Depoele in 1885. Then, his electric streetcar system replaced most of the relatively inefficient horsecars in less than a year.

Life-Cycle of the Streetcar in Cuba (1858 - 1952)

Early Market Development

The initial market niche of a streetcar in Cuba was the buyer and seller of sugar. At that time, Cuba sold more than 6 million metric tonnes of sugar annually, so the first railways were constructed in the sugar production areas and the big cities like Havana to allow faster and easier transport of sugar across the country and the World. Therefore, the first streetcars were freight streetcars, whereas passenger streetcars were later added to the railway system to expand the market niche of streetcars in Cuba from transporting goods to both goods and people. The total length of the track was 17 kilometres during that period.

In 1921, the first closed streetcar constructed by HER, Havana Electric Railway began its operation. It had an arch roof and an additional side window compared to the previous streetcars which had 8 side windows. The new design improved passenger safety and comfort and the advertisement emphasised its speed, convenience in travel, and safety of riding the closed streetcar. This is evident through the message written in the advertisement, which is translated into English as "VERY IMPORTANT. YOUR TIME IS WORTH MONEY. TAKE THE FIRST CAR AND ASK FOR A TRANSFER AT THE APPROPRIATE INTERSECTION . . . TRAVELING BY STREETCAR IS HAVING LIFE INSURANCE WITHOUT BUYING A POLICY".

Birthing Phase

The very first streetcar only carried freights, and the first passenger streetcar was added on 20th September 1859. The initial passenger streetcar track was laid from Havana to Carmelo 16 days before the opening of the first passenger streetcar. Then in 1859, the Havana urban railway lines extended to Cerro and Jesús del Monte. A year after, the Urban Railway of Havana, 'Ferro Carril Urbano de la Habana' formed Urban railway and Omnibus of Havana, 'Empresa del Ferro-Carril Urbano y Omnibus de La Habana' by merging with the coach company. And in 6 years after the opening of the passenger streetcar system, Havana railway ran 32 passenger and 16 freight streetcars with a total track length of 17 kilometres.

The streetcar system began to grow, and with the increasing population, Havana urban railway ordered large 8-wheel streetcars from Stephenson Company in New York and six steam locomotives from Baldwin. In 1873, the horse-drawn streetcars were replaced by these new streetcars on the Camelo line. In 1882, mule-drawn streetcars on other lines stopped due to the delays on the waterfront, and another line to Castillo del Príncipe was constructed to expand the railway track. As time passed, the Urban railway of Cuba, 'Ferro Carril Urbano' tried to install electrified wires above the track to upgrade the railway system. However, the plan failed by conflict occurred between Cuba and Spain. Four days after the Spanish-American War, when Cuba became independent from Spain, the Urban railway of Cuba, 'Ferro Carril Urbano' sold its railway to the American, Canadian, and French syndicate for 1,472,000 pesos. They gathered and founded the Havana Electric Railway company, HER in January 1899.

Growth Phase

In 1900, HER started to construct electric plants and bought 110 single-truck electric streetcars with twin trolley systems from Jackson & Sharp company in the US. The Twin trolley system is used to protect the underground pipes from heavy rains as the electric current from the overhead electrified wires can be insulated by the ground. The first electric line was constructed from Havana to San Juan de Dios at the beginning of 1901. At the end of 1901, the entire 110 electric streetcars were delivered from Jackson & Sharp company and the electric liens opened in every existing line. So, greater movement with electric streetcars was allowed all over the city. The standard track gauge was recorded as 1435mm in Havana. As the horse-drawn streetcars experienced congestion on the waterfront, they constructed an elevated railway over the waterfront area, 'Calle San Pedro' to solve the severe congestion problem. From 1906, Her built streetcars in Havana by purchasing trucks from McGuire and Brills, and motors from General Electric. And By 1913, HER operated 372 streetcars. When enough streetcars were on the track operating all over the cities, HER constructed the first closed streetcar in 1921 that consists of an arch roof and 9 side windows to improve passenger comfort. This streetcar had an additional window compared to the previous streetcar. Then, all of the existing streetcars were reconstructed to the new design and also the later built streetcars were built to this design. In Havana, 578 streetcars operated on a track with a total length of 244 kilometres at the end. After 1925, there were no new streetcars or tracks constructed and since 1901, the streetcar fare remained at 5 cents.

Maturity and Decline

From 1925, buses and jitneys began to operate and followed the streetcar tracks and took the streetcar passengers as they had the advantage of being unrestricted on the track or railway. With the following national wide strike in 1933, streetcar ridership reduced from 140 million to 69 million passengers by 1935. In 1940, the elevated railway at 'Calle San Pedro' has disassembled due to the reduction in ridership of streetcars. However, during World War II, the ridership of streetcars increased significantly, as oils and tires were restricted and buses couldn't operate without oil. But after the war, oils and tires were unrestricted again and buses operated in Cuba again. Therefore, streetcar ridership decreased back. In 1949, HER replaced old streetcars with 44 secondhand streetcars from Newark, New Jersey. But they couldn't reach the breakeven point and HER proclaimed bankruptcy in mid-1950. A company called Autobuses Modernos S.A. purchased HER and they operated the streetcar system until the 29th of April 1952, when Havana's last streetcar, number 388 operated.

Reinventing Streetcars

In the past, streetcars were the main transport that allowed passengers to travel between cities and towns. But as new transports with greater travel advantages, such as buses began to operate around the country, streetcars lost their competition and lost their passengers. The main reason is the restricted movement of streetcars, as they can only move on the installed railway. In the current World, trains and buses are the main transports to travel between cities. But as the cities grow, some large cities require a long time walking from one end to the other end, such as from Sydney Chinatown to Myer Sydney City, where they are located at the end to another end of Town Hall. Therefore a light rail is installed on this route that is used by many people in Sydney City. The difference between Sydney City light rail is that passengers use light rail to travel inside a large city. But in the past, since the large cities were not as big as the current large cities, buses were more effective in travelling as their movements are not restricted by the railway. Therefore, the Sydney City light rail is good evidence of reinventing streetcars so that they provide services that meets the needs of the people.

Quantitative Analysis of the Cuban Streetcar Network

Methodology

A quantitative analysis of the Cuban streetcar network is performed to overview the life-cycle of the streetcar system in Cuba. In this analysis, sufficient streetcar railway length in miles by years is required and only Havana Electric Railway, HER in Havana provided enough data to perform an analysis. The data is sourced from McGraw Electric Railway Manual - the red book of American street railway investment from 1902 to 1920 and the few missing data were estimated using linear interpolation.

There are birthing, growth, mature, and decline phases in every life-cycle of a technology and these phases of the Cuban streetcar system are approximated in this section. The obtained data are used to estimate the three-parameter logistics function to create an S-curve.

S(t) = Smax/[1+exp(-b(t-ti)]

where:

• S(t) is the status measure,  (track length in miles)
• t is time (in years),
• ti is the inflection time (year in which 1/2 Smax is achieved),
• Smax is saturation status level, and
• b is a coefficient to be estimated.

The saturation status level, Smax is unknown for HER as the data after 1920 is inaccessible. Therefore, random trial and error has been conducted to obtain the best value of Smax based on the values of each R-squared and t-statistic. The predicted track length is estimated by using single variable linear regression to obtain the estimated c and b values as shown below.

Y = bX + c

Where:

• Y = ln(length / Smax - length)
• X = Year

Havana

Regression Result

Variable	Value
Smax	160
b	0.09016
ti	1916.05

Length of Tracks in Havana (miles)

Year	Track length	Predicted track length
1902	37.0	35
1903	38.1	38
1904	48.2	40
1905	50.81	43
1906	50.81	46
1907	50.81	49
1908	50.81	52
1909	50.4	55
1910	51.5	59
1911	51.5	62
1912	53.9	66
1913	53.9	69
1914	65.7	73
1915	73.4	76
1916	81.2	80
1917	97	83
1918	97	87
1919	97	91
1920	97	94

The regression result shows that the saturation length from the analysis is 160 miles, and the half the saturation is achieved in early 1916. The predicted track lengths displayed in the graph seems moderately accurate as the general trend of the actual and predicted track length lines are not perfectly alike. The R-squared value of this model is 0.85, which is acceptable for this model, and the greatest difference is approximately 15 miles from the year, 1917. The reason for the minor inaccuracy in the model is the missing data and limited accessibility of the data, as the data before 1902 and after 1920 are unobtainable.

From the graph, it is assumed that the birthing phase of the Havana strreetcar is from 1902 to 1913 as the total track length only increased slightly in this period. The graph shows a significant increase in the track length of the Havana streetcar from 1913 to 1920, which is estimated to be the growth phase. And the mature phase of the Havana streetcar is from 1920 and onwards, however, this is not accurate as the data after 1920 was unavailable from the McGraw Electric Railway Manual.

S-curve of Havana Electric Railway from 1902 to 1920 using total track length in miles

Life-Cycle of Havana Electric Railway

	Years
Birthing	1902-1913
Growth	1913-1920
Maturity	1920-onwards