September has started on Ibiza with the free bus service for all people who have multi-journey cards. However, they must obtain the corresponding card to avoid paying the single ticket.
As explained by the island councilor of Transport, Javier Torres, travel is free, from yesterday until December 31st, for the users of the T-General and T-Plata cards (the latter already had a 50% discount), since the T-Dorada and T-Joven have been free since 2018. In this regard, he said that on Ibiza there are about 50,000 users who use these cards. Specifically there are 44,301 as of yesterday: 12,367 users of the T-Dorada, 9,466 of the T-Joven, 654 of the T-Plata and 21,814 of the T-General. To the latter, 300 new registrations have been added in the last week as a result of the announcement of the free bus pass. The forecast is a 30% increase of the number of people using this free bus pass, as already announced by Diario de Ibiza, which would mean that in the coming months there will be about 28,300 users of the T-General (6,500 more than now).
“It is a very important commitment for a service that is essential for mobility on the island. With this we want to achieve two objectives: to recover the demand lost due to the pandemic, although we already have 80% more users than last year, and to get new passengers, as well as consolidate the existing ones”, Torres stressed.
Free bus is an alternative to private vehicles
In his opinion, “there are real alternatives to the private vehicle“, so he encouraged residents to try the free bus service and thus avoid “circling for hours to find parking”. He also acknowledged that this summer there has been a “very significant lack” of drivers, although he stressed that the services have been practically the same as in 2019.
Also, the Consell has “a plan with the different companies that involves expanding the routes, especially for the winter, and focusing on residents. We have also talked about renewing the fleet,” said the Minister of Transport.
The implementation of this measure will involve an initial outlay of 760,000 euros for the Consell de Ibiza “plus what comes from the central government,” said the Minister, who added that “if we have to increase the amounts, it will be done”. It should be recalled that the State subsidizes 50% of the tickets, while in Mallorca and in the peninsula it pays the totality of the trips. Therefore, the maximum insular institution has asked the Govern to pay the difference.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.