Users of Titsa buses have been complaining for a year about the saturation of several lines, especially one: 122, from Candelaria to Santa Cruz de Tenerife. “The buses have been full since six in the morning,” travelers protest on social media, claiming having had to wait for another bus because some arrive at the first stops from Candelaria full and the driver does not allow more customers.
One of the most insistent passengers in the face of this saturation of the 122 is called Yaiza Rodríguez. Her complaints come from a year ago. In November 2022 she wrote on her X profile: «Let’s go with one of Titsa’s line 122. Today we go at a different time and from 8 people at the stop until after 40 minutes. Are you still using the rush hour excuse? This user insisted yesterday in another tweet. «122 from Titsa, 6:45 and half a route to go. We have been in this situation for a year and the Tenerife Cabildo still has not reinforced this line. 20 people standing and according to them the maximum standing size of the vehicle is 40.
Yaiza Rodríguez and other users urgently request more buses for line 122, as there are passengers who are arriving late to their jobs, mainly in the capital of Tenerife, due to saturation that has returned after the summer holidays, with the return massive population employment and the beginning of the school year.
The Cabildo has explained that the free public service, both on the Titsa buses and on the tram throughout 2023, is generating “a large increase in passengers, around 45% higher than last year.” The island Government is committed “to working to have more resources (buses and drivers) and, with this, reinforce those lines with greater demand during peak hours.”
The statistics corroborate the protests of Yaiza and other users. According to the latest official figures published by the company that manages the public bus transportation service, from January 1 to January 6, line 122 accumulates more than one million passengers, 52.3% more than the year before. previous, which by these dates had registered the figure of 674,775 users.
A very populated route
This line 122 runs through highly populated areas of three municipalities of Tenerife –Candelaria, El Rosario and Santa Cruz–, the majority of the route runs through dormitory cities of the Metropolitan Area with a large population that works in Santa Cruz or La Laguna. Specifically, it passes through Punta Larga, Barranco Hondo, Radazul, Tabaiba, Polígono de La Campana, Santa Maria del Mar o Polígono Costa Sur.
The number of public transport passengers in Tenerife has skyrocketed after the entry into force, on January 1, of free vouchers for those passengers who make more than 15 trips a month, both on Titsa and on the tram. Specifically, it increased from January to July by 16.3 million travelers compared to the same period in 2022.
Titsa and Metrotenerife, companies dependent on the Cabildo, set record figures in the first seven months of the year with 50.9 million passengers, just 12.2 million times the difference from last year’s total, when 63.1 were registered. In fact, the numbers have no historical precedents.
In the case of Titsa, in the period from January to July 38.5 million people used the bus, that is, almost 12 million more than in the same period in 2022, a 45.74% increase in travelers. By area, the Metropolitan Area stands out with 6.1 million more and the South, with more than three million, while long-haul lines increased by 1.7 million passengers.
