The Governing Council today approved the proposal of the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Housing to proceed with the transfer between the seven island councils of the 47.5 million euros that the Government of Spain has granted to the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands to finance regular public transport for travelers. For the second consecutive year, the General State Administration has increased this item allocated to the islands by 20 million, since originally this subsidy is 27.5 million euros.
To this item granted by the State, we must add another 10 million euros of own funds contributed by the regional Executive through the General Directorate of Transport and which have already been distributed among the councils, so that a total of 57.5 million euros will finally be transferred this year.
With this item of state and regional funds, the operability of the public road passenger transport system of the Archipelago is guaranteed, since the councils will then distribute these aid among the different operators that operate on each island. These urban or interurban collective passenger transport companies, both in buses and trams, may use this subsidy to finance operating expenses or to guarantee the bonuses established for students, retirees and other benefited groups.
The Executive will now proceed to transfer that amount to the Cabildos because these institutions are the ones that have delegated powers in regular land transport. The number of beneficiary operators is 14 throughout the Archipelago, being per island: two in Lanzarote, one in Fuerteventura, six in Gran Canaria, one in La Palma, one in El Hierro, one in La Gomera, two in Tenerife. And the amount per island is as follows:
- Lanzarote: 2,471,250 euros
- Fuerteventura: 2,490,500 euros
- Gran Canaria: 19,473,000 euros
- El Hierro: 1,011,500 euros
- Tenerife: 18,428,000 euros
- La Gomera: 1,204,000 euros
- La Palma: 2,421,750 euros
For the justification of these funds, the Ministry launches an order by which the Cabildos must justify a series of indicators, such as kilometers traveled, places offered, travelers per line, rates per title, audit of their financial statements, number of vehicles, average age of the fleet, investments in mobility and policies to reduce the ecological impact, in addition to several quality indicators such as number of stops with shelter, with SAE system or customer satisfaction surveys.
