titsa, the island’s public bus company will incorporate 80 buses by the middle of next year in order to reinforce its lines throughout Tenerife. Of the total, 20 of these vehicles will be acquired through a lease so that they can start operating as soon as possible thanks to an investment of more than 4 million euros. The other 60 buses will arrive well into next year. These are hybrid vehicles that are part of the batch of 110 of this technology acquired by the Island Corporation. This type of hybrid bus uses two types of energy to get around: a engine internal combustion, usually diesel, and one or more electric motors.
With these incorporations to “meet the increase in demand”, as Enrique Arriaga, vice president of the Cabildo de Tenerife and Minister of Mobility, remarked, the Titsa fleet will go from the current 580 vehicles to 660 once all the units arrive hybrids. For the award of this lease contract for the 20 vehicles that will arrive urgently, Titsa has launched a tender to which companies from all over the country can apply and in which the lowest vehicle mileage will be given special points, criteria social such as the number of places for people with reduced mobility or having illuminated signs or seat belts in each of their places.
Rent, a quick resource
Enrique Arriaga, who is also president of Titsa, assures that The increase in the number of users of public transport “has led to us having to resort to renting in order to have new buses in operation in the shortest possible time”. It details that the lease is “a temporary and quick solution to improve and increase the service provided by Titsa until the new buses in the fleet are incorporated and thus meet the growing demand”, especially after the implementation of the 50% discount. % in fares since last September 1 both in the buses and in the tram. In this way, the monthly pass for residents in the Canary Islands has come to cost 19 euros, the fare for young people, people over 65 and the disabled costs 15 euros and passes for 5 tram trips are paid at 2.50 euros. Only last month, Titsa accounted for 4.1 million passengers.
Stepwise
Arriaga recalls that “in addition to the arrival of these vehicles until March, the transport company will receive in stages 60 hybrid buses that are part of the batch of 110 vehicles acquired by the Island Corporation to use on urban and interurban lines” . The insular director of Mobility, José Alberto León, clarifies that four of the vehicles that are acquired will provide urban services while the remaining 16 will carry out intercity routes and will have a greater number of seats, reaching 67. And he adds that in both cases they will be sought buses with low CO2 emissions and with different features that increase the comfort of passengers. Since September 2019, the island bus company has received more than a hundred vehicles and by the middle of next year they expect to incorporate 80: 20 renting and 60 hybrid.
