The EMT of Tarragona plans to start in Santa Tecla the biggest reorganization of bus lines of the last forty years, with an eye on its approval before summer and a launch in mid-September, once the school year has started. The update proposal was publicly presented on January 27 and since then the municipal company has been collecting contributions from the opposition groups and neighborhood entities.
The company, chaired by the deputy mayor Sonia Orts, is now working on the definitive version of the plan, which it wants to take to the plenary session in April or May. Before that there will be an internal meeting in which the mayor, Rubén Viñuales, will also participate, and then the document will go through the informative commission prior to the plenary debate.
"The initial idea was to do it in June, but we are neither in a hurry nor do we want to rush. The negotiation with the parties has been very constructive" - Sonia Orts, president of the EMT
Review of proposals before the plenary
Next week the EMT will address the proposals put forward by the parties to decide which ones can be incorporated into the plan. Orts maintains that prolonged meetings have already been held with all municipal groups and specifies that, in this phase, the work focuses on the network structure and not on the schedules.
"In this first phase, schedules are not addressed, but rather the technical plan for the reorganization of the lines that has been done together with the external company" - Sonia Orts, president of the EMT
The president of the municipal company assures that the contributions received do not alter the underlying design. "What they are asking for are adjustments, not structural changes," she pointed out. She also indicated that the only party that has not submitted proposals has been Vox.
Two main axes and changes in Sant Salvador and Llevant
The new reorganization will be based on two main axes, Battestini and San Benilde. The objective is that all neighborhoods and areas of the city have direct connection or with a single transfer with Joan XXIII Hospital and with the railway station.
The plan contemplates 17 lines, one less than currently, and will expand the network coverage from 211 to 218 kilometers. According to the EMT, nine out of ten residents of Tarragona have a stop less than five minutes' walk away.
One of the specific points of the new scheme affects Sant Salvador. The EMT will incorporate an extension of the night line and will extend the service to the upper area, in interblocks, with two buses at night instead of one. In that same neighborhood, the initial proposal involves reinforcing frequencies to reduce the waiting time from 30 to 18 minutes and increasing the number of expeditions from 55 to 81.
"We will provide service to the upper area, in interblocks. And we will do so by putting two buses into service during the nights. Now we have one" - Sonia Orts, president of the EMT
In Llevant, the EMT expects that line L 13 will reach the train station, when now it ends in the Passeig de les Palmeres. In addition, schedules of several lines will be adjusted to make them coincide with the opening and closing of the educational centers.
More fleet and an investment of 12 million
The municipal company plans to expand its fleet from 77 to 84 vehicles. Of that total, 80 will be in daily service and 4 will be reserved for emergencies. The execution of the plan, once approved, will not be immediate. The EMT estimates that it will need several months to deploy all the changes.
"We will need a few months to implement it" - Sonia Orts, president of the EMT
That deployment will include an informative campaign, placement of posters, update of the website and social networks, in addition to the operational work with the drivers to adapt the service to the new map of lines.
The reorganization comes accompanied by a fleet renewal plan. The EMT foresees a global investment of 12 million euros during this term to acquire 33 new buses, most of them hybrid. The company maintains that these vehicles will allow the withdrawal of the oldest and most polluting ones.
"Of course we would like to have more frequencies, reach all industrial estates and have more lines, but we work based on the resources we have. Therefore, we have a fleet renewal plan underway" - Sonia Orts, president of the EMT
The calendar with which the EMT is now working places the political approval of the plan before summer. If that support goes ahead in the Saló de Plens, the city will face after summer a fundamental change in its urban bus network, with special impact in neighborhoods like Sant Salvador and in the connection of Llevant with the station.