Staff Reporter
PALMA's municipal transport company (EMT), will be handing out 50'000 information leaflets in February to transport users in the city and surrounding districts. Traffic and Transport deputy, Alvaro Gijón reported yesterday that the leaflets eventually aim to inform some 200'000 public transport passengers about en route interchange points where travellers can disembark from one service and board another. The idea is that for the price of one journey, travellers can interchange onto other services where necessary, allowing a vehicle transfer time of 90 minutes. Citizens living in Palma at a registered address are entitled to apply to City Hall for The Card which provides access to discounted travel. It is only these card holders who will be entitled to the combined journey offer. Other details on the leaflet include the distance covered by each service, the times of arrival and departure of the buses, and the tariffs for 2004.
Over the next fortnight, confirmed the deputy, there will be four people handing out folded leaflets on all the bus service lines and there will be a high profile information campaign in local government offices. Gijón confirmed that the first round of leaflet distribution will be aimed primarily at regular municipal transport users but there will be a second distribution in March. At the same time, bus drivers will be obliged to carry listings of rights and obligation of travellers, detailing tariffs, prohibited articles and behaviour, by-laws in the event of accident and breakdown, recommendations for the search of lost property, and information on law infringements and penalties. In March, after distributing the first set of leaflets, the company will paste up plans in the city's bus shelters, showing the route covered by each numbered service. Such plans will be drawn up, especially bearing in mind those people who don't live in the city, conceded Gijón. The same month, another 50'000 information leaflets will be distributed. The City Council hopes that by the end of the first quarter of the year, travellers will have had time enough to study the information and accompanying guidelines. One of the recommendations included in the leaflet makes reference to mobile telephones and musical equipment.
It is advised that use should not be made of such devices during the journey as they are tantamount to being a distraction. The inference is that should any emergency situation arise, the passenger is ill-equipped to respond instantly.
Bus services to make travel easier