Drastic restrictions on cross-country travel took effect yesterday in cash-strapped Cuba, with spaces on ever scarcer trains and buses now reserved for the sick, people traveling for funerals and other emergencies.

Cuba has been running on empty since the United States in January cut off its fuel imports as part of a pressure campaign aimed at forcing changes to the communist island’s economic model, if not its leaders in Havana.

Transport across the island, which was already reeling from the worst economic crisis in memory, has screeched to a near halt as petrol pumps run dry.

From yesterday, trains from the capital Havana to cities in the east only ran every 16 days - compared to around three times a week previously. Public buses, which used to run at least once daily to provincial cities, will only operate one to three times a week.

Deputy Transport Minister Luis Ladron de Guevara emphasized that no permits were needed to travel but that a “priority system” would operate.