At the end of June 2015, I had the opportunity to travel to Cuba for the third time in seven years. During that stay, I realized a short photo essay about the legendary Hershey Electric Train, which runs between Casablanca, a suburb of Havana, and Matanzas, some 90 kilometers to the east.

Built in 1917 by American industrialist and chocolate king Milton S. Hershey to shuttle workers and sugar between the Hershey Company’s sugarcane refinery and the port of Havana, the train was nationalized after the Cuban revolution. It has since been converted into a passenger train. Nowadays, for a mere 1.5 peso (approximately 7¥), labourers, students, farmers, senior citizens and other travellers may hop on the train four times a day in each direction for a ride whose duration can never be predicted with certainty. Indeed the train, which is made up of two worn-out carriages built in Spain in 1945 with a driver’s cabin at each end, has become infamous for its frequent breakdowns and the various disruptions it encounters along its way, such as herds of cows blocking the tracks.

The series of photos presented here were all taken aboard the Hershey Electric Train or at one of the tiny stations serviced by it.

Bienvenidos a bordo! Welcome aboard!