Public transport on the Island registers record figures. The entry into force of the free bus and tram service through the use of the voucher raised the number of passengers who used Titsa and Metropolitano to 21,180,690 during the first three months of the year. A figure that is obtained with the 16,022,690 passengers who traveled in the buses of the Cabildo company throughout the Island and the 5,160,000 who used the guided transport in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and The Lagoon.
“The implementation of the free public transport measures at the beginning of the year opened a new perspective in the way of dealing with the situation of mobility problems on the Island”. It is the first conclusion that the president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, exposes. In his opinion, the data on the increase in public transport in Tenerife “are frankly good.”
From January to March, Titsa increased its number of travelers by 5,092,990, 45.5% more than the data for the same period of the previous year. During the last month alone, it exceeded the data for March 2022 by almost two million. The numbers in its lines are ascending, with an average of 40% in almost all of them.
The bus by routes
The best data is recorded in the interurban lines of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where the increase is 57.9% compared to the first quarter of last year. In the case of interurban La Laguna, growth stands at 41.6%.
The long-distance lines that have the north of the Island as their destination and origin are the ones that show the most notable increase in users. Specifically, 53.4%, which is equivalent to an increase of more than 1.2 million passengers. However, routes to and from the South carried 38.9% more passengers. The worst data is provided by the service linking the North and the South, in which the increase in passengers stands at 12.7%.
Bus transportation on the routes of the northern region exceeds 1.7 million passengers. In other words, 54% more than those who used the service in the same period of 2022. In the case of the Metropolitan area, the 3.6 million new users are equivalent to a 45.2% increase, while in the South it reaches 44.5%, although it is the region of the Island that moves the most by bus, increasing the figure by almost four million. One more than in Santa Cruz and La Laguna, where it grew by more than three million (39.1%).
Advocate that “we are working to meet the demand that we now have”, highlighted the development “of the process for the largest recruitment of personnel ever carried out in Titsa”, without forgetting “the incorporation of the largest number of buses to the service, up to 300”. The island president pointed out that, “in some cases, these buses will increase frequencies and, in others, they will replace vehicles that are already years old.”
Trolley car
From January to March, the tram added 5,160,371 passengers, which represents a growth of 49.6% compared to the year 2022 (3,449,939). Consequently, the average demand during working hours has also experienced a progressive increase until it reached more than 73,400 daily users in March.
March, the most
In January and February the number of passengers was above 1,600,000 passengers, but in March the highest demand in the 16 years of light rail service was recorded: 1,928,111 passengers. The company refers to the free transport passes as the factor that drives the use of the tram. He explains it and ensures that “just over 80% of the validations during the month of March were carried out with this type of free tickets, the Youth Pass and the Canarian Resident Pass being the most used”, which exceeded 730,000 and 680,000 validations, respectively. Of the total trips made in the month of March, approximately 26% were carried out through the ten+móvil application.
Effort
Pedro Martín valued the result of the work carried out by the insular Government that he presides over. To do this, he refers to the fact that, “with all the possible handicaps that we have been able to find, such as the lack of supplies due to the war or the delay that ordering this type of vehicle may entail in the short term, since they are almost manufactured to measure, we have been able to start renewing the fleet and configure a service adapted to all these new realities”. In this context, he points out that the insular public transport company “reinforced seven lines to adapt them to the increase in demand.” Lines that correspond to the provision of the service in all the regions of the Island.
Effectiveness
That the increase in passengers exceeds 50% compared to last year in the case of the tram, a figure that the president places at around 49% for buses, leads Martín Domínguez to defend that “evidence that these measures facilitate and promote the citizens replace their private vehicles in favor of other more sustainable collective proposals that will help unblock the island’s roads”. And he qualifies: “In the case of the buses in the Metropolitan area, this increase is even close to 60%, which shows that the public is in favor of the use of public transport.”
Seriousness
Pedro Martín calls for rigorously addressing this problem. «The solution to mobility problems on the Island cannot be written down in half a page. They are an accumulation of decision-making and the implementation of actions related not only to the island roads, but also to measures such as the use of public transport and, even, proposals such as the one we have made to the University to stagger their entrance hours to the Anchieta and Guajara campuses».
Projects
The president of the Cabildo recalled that “the HOV bus lanes, where it is possible to implement them, is another of the necessary proposals”, as is the expansion of the third lane of the TF-5 to La Orotava, or the connection between Guamasa and the lower part of La Laguna, which will go out to tender this summer. That is to say, «concrete solutions that are already more than ideas because they are already projects with budgetary commitment and environmental impact reports, even»he pointed out, but indicated that “population awareness must be promoted to optimize and reduce the use of private transport.”
The results that the two public transport companies linked to the Cabildo are obtaining lead the president of the Corporation to insist that the work they develop is what Tenerife needs. Along these lines, Pedro Martín alluded to the fact that “the Island has been advancing in the solution to mobility for four years and it does so rigorously.” Point in which he mentions the work carried out by the administrations in terms of roads, “where we have not stopped at announcements but can contribute projects and facts”.
Time
The president of the Cabildo explains that this is the line of work and points to the evidence: “There are large works in progress in terms of roads, such as the closure of the island ring between Santiago del Teide and El Tanque or the walkway over the Padre Anchieta roundabout which is expected to be finished in October, with the burying of the TF-24, the highway of La Esperanza». Actions that contribute to solving the problem of retentions in the TF-5, he maintains.
Martín calls for reflection on the obvious: «Nobody can escape that any project with a cost of more than 100 million euros requires a two-year process, at least, to have all the authorizations and be ready to start. the jobs. That always happens.”
Social peace
The record numbers of users registered by Titsa and MetroTenerife in this first quarter of the year occur in a labor framework that has not registered a single strike, although advance notices were registered in both companies. The negotiation route “worked.”
