On Monday, 82 buses from the Palma EMT fleet were off the road because of failures of one form or another. Some were easily fixed, but others were not.
The new councillor for mobility, Antoni Deudero, says that part of the problem lies with the fact that new buses for sustainable mobility aren't supported by the necessary training for mechanics. "They have only been trained for diesel and gas buses, but we now have electric and hydrogen buses and they need different training."
He adds that the new vehicles are under guarantee, arrangements for which depend on the manufacturer on the mainland. With regard to the five hydrogen buses that were recently purchased, these are not in service because the Lloseta plant isn't producing the necessary hydrogen and it would have to be brought from the mainland by ship. As for electric buses, Deudero notes that there is only one charging point.
The president of the EMT works committee, Andrés Rodríguez, says that drivers are refusing to take some buses out because they are in "a terrible condition". He explains: "It's impossible to fix the new buses, because they are under warranty and only mechanics from the dealership can do this. If a belt breaks, our mechanics could fix it in 15 minutes, but the vehicle would lose the warranty."
Drivers are meanwhile complaining that there are buses on the road without air conditioning because of faults. Rodríguez says: "Inside the buses temperatures of up to 47 degrees are being reached. This is a pressure cooker. We are surrounded by glass like a greenhouse." On Monday, a driver reported that a passenger had fainted because of the heat.
According to recent EMT information, there are 160 gas buses, twelve electric and five hydrogen. In 2015, when the PSOE-Més-Podemos coalition took over at the town hall, the fleet comprised 175 buses, the majority of them more than 15 years old. A fleet renewal process was undertaken, with the main commitment having been to natural gas buses.