By Fatima Kenair Alvarez. On January 1, the population of Tenerife he started taking the free bus. He Island Council is allocating a good amount of millions to pay for the transportation service, in charge of public companies Titsa and Metrotenerife, with the desire to reduce the historic queues that occur on Tenerife’s roads and make progress on environmental issues. It was tempting to try to get people to stop taking the car with such an exquisite candy, but what’s the point if the existing demand cannot be met? What happens at the La Laguna Interchange every day is a resounding test.
The buses that must arrive at peak times, such as 2:00 p.m., they cannot board all the people in line because the vehicles are practically full from Santa Cruz. Traffic congestion also does not allow them to arrive at the stipulated time, so there are huge accumulations of people who lose up to two buses waiting to fit into one. That improvement that Rosa Dávila, president of the Cabildo, spoke of a few weeks ago is still not palpable. “Last time we only got four,” another regular user told me as we stood in line.
But the worst thing is not taking double or triple time to get to where you need, but not being able to get there. One night I wanted to take line 103 at 9:40 p.m. to go from La Laguna to the Puerto de la Cruz station and reach line 363 at 9:40 p.m. 10:40 p.m., which is the only line that goes to Buenavista and the last one that left because it was the weekend. I showed up early to ensure a good spot in the long line, but when the vehicle approached the pick-up point it decided not to stop. Furthermore, the whole situation of chaos coincided with the first rains in the municipality, so there were desperate people because they were left behind and flooded because they left the covered area with the logical intention of getting on.
All the seats were occupied, but no one was standing. Although the Titsa transparency portal does not make it very clear, on some buses there are stickers that inform that 47 people can travel seated and 18 standing, or 15 if there are two with reduced mobility. While 102, 108 or 122, among many others, regularly exceed the limit, that day 103 did not open its doors. Is it the driver who chooses how many people he takes? What happened that night? We have gone from worrying about not having a place to sit on long journeys due to traffic jams to protesting about not being able to get on.
Those who went towards the territory located beyond Icod de los Vinos, which I do not know to what extent is relevant for the company, found themselves with one hand in front and one behind. They did me the favor of taking me to the La Orotava interchange in a hurry to make the transfer there, but who knows how the people who had no one to call or digital skills to look for another alternative solved the big setback – in this case not there was-. In the Canary Islands, 15.6% of the population has basic digital skills, 33.8% have low and 1.5% none, according to data from the INE.
The experience of returning to Isla Baja from the capital on the last leg of the day is devastating. There are no direct lines. The best combo to get there is 108 and 363, but the hourly frequencies do not adjust to reality. If everything goes well, between each one you have to wait about twenty minutes; If the first is delayed, the second has no obligation to wait, even if a good part of the “passage” needs it. My linemate also told me that on one occasion a driver snapped at her: “If you wait, and if not, take the next one.” That day he had to stay an extra hour at the Icod station.
The right to quality public transport is closely linked to the right to freedom of movement, to education, to health, to work… to everything that anyone needs to do outside their home to be able to have a healthy life. It is unfortunate that there are not enough buses to pick up all the people who need them, and very dangerous when it happens in the evening. Many have no other way to get home and place their trust in Titsa. The Council must improve internal communication immediately and activate the reinforcement protocol when required. Passing by is not acceptable. If there are now more passengers, resources must be up to par. Let’s see if we can say it in the balance of the two hundred days.
