The Arrecife City Council has reported that the municipal bus service has increased the number of users after the increase in lines, as well as the vehicles that cover the routes, in addition to reporting that new drivers have been hired.
The capital's Consistory assures that, from January to October of this year, a total of 211,990 passengers have used Arrecife's municipal transport, in a year in which a new line has been put into service, Radial 10, which covers the center of Arrecife. In addition, they add that the route of line 1 has been reinforced with another vehicle that runs through the neighborhoods of Argana Alta, Altavista, Titerroy and Valterra.
Arrecife recalls that the Radial 10 line, which began operating on May 31, was used in June by a total of 979 citizens, which has been increasing until the month of October, "which shows the figure of 1,899 people who have boarded this new line at some point during that month."
Now the three lines that operate in Arrecife's municipal transport all have a stop at the Lanzarote General Hospital. Radial 10, they recall, connects the El Reducto area, departing from the Interchange, and runs through the city center to the Emergency stop at the General Hospital.
Likewise, the City Council reports that since May 10 “line 1 has been reinforced with another vehicle” which they point out has meant “a significant increase in the number of passengers using the service”, going from 8,393 in the month of May “to 11,109 in the month of October”. This line, the Consistory recalls, operates “from 6:25 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., from Monday to Saturday, and from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Sundays and holidays, and the reinforcement of the fleet has meant increasing the frequency of stops every 20 minutes.”
From the Arrecife City Council, they assure that the commissioning of Radial 10 and the reinforcement of Line 1 “has meant a giant step in improving and covering urban public transport in the capital.” Today, they add, “Arrecife has 5 buses in service daily, two for Line 1, another two for Line 2, and a fifth car that runs the Radial 10 route.”
The City Council adds that it has also made an effort “to put into operation at least nine different rates to facilitate access to public transport, apart from the normal rate there are rates for retirees, normal, youth and student passes, for the disabled and their companions, social services and promotion.”
On the other hand, regarding the annual passenger statistics, Arrecife assures that in 2019, the pre-pandemic year, “the buses were used by 468,501 passengers”, reducing to 244,463 last year, with a notable decrease since the declaration of the state of alarm in the month of March, or to “the current 211,990 so far this year, a figure that will exceed that of 2020 considering that the monthly average of travelers in Arrecife on its three lines is about 20,000 people.”
“We have managed to speed up the service and increase the frequency of bus stops,” says the head of the Transportation area, Ángela Hernández, who acknowledges that despite the City Council's efforts “it is still too early to reach the records that public transport had before Covid-19.”
During this period from May to October, the Arrecife City Council, through the Transportation area, “has taken three new drivers from the job bank”, which has allowed the entire service to be improved, while “the maintenance of the cars and the repair of the existing mobile fleet have been contracted.”
