Passengers argue over ferry destination and miss departure from Muelle de Luz
Kenny Fernandez Delgado said a single vessel was serving Regla and Casablanca and that he encountered another wait when he sought the bicycle bus as an alternative.
A disagreement among travelers waiting at Muelle de Luz prevented the ferry from departing for either Regla or Casablanca on Wednesday, November 4, according to passenger accounts. Kenny Fernandez Delgado placed the incident at about 4:10 p.m. and said a single vessel had to cover both destinations from the Old Havana terminal.
The allocation of trips had caused frustration among those waiting, according to another user's comment: three trips had gone to Regla while Casablanca had received one. The accounts said mothers who needed to reach Casablanca to pick up their children at school were among those affected and were late collecting them because of the delay.
Fernandez said the captain chose to return to the Harbor Master's Office with the vessel empty after another similar argument had occurred on an earlier trip. The suspension was announced without a time for service to resume. One witness described the wait as unbearable and said a young man suffered convulsions during the conflict among passengers.
The complaints about the wait also included the account of a woman who had used the ferry with her son the previous Tuesday. The passenger said the number of people aboard frightened her during the bay crossing and that she wondered how she would escape if the vessel sank while they were on board.
After leaving the terminal, Fernandez tried to continue on the bicycle bus, the service that crosses through the bay tunnel, but he had to wait there as well. According to his account, only two vehicles were operating, too few for the demand he encountered. He described a buildup of travelers, bicycles and motorcycles at the stop where he sought an alternative to the sea crossing that had just fallen through.
The difficulty of connecting the two sides of Havana Bay has gone unresolved for years and had already led some users to seek other ways across. In June, some people ventured through the tunnel on foot after waiting more than seven hours without a bus arriving.