In recent months, passenger complaints about Palma's EMT bus service have increased. The buses are packed. Passengers are left at stops. Frequencies are longer. And free travel for residents has meant more passengers.
There is a view that things have worsened since the change of administration in June. But Andrés Rodríguez, president of the EMT works council, says there is an inherited situation. "There is a problem with the repair of buses due to expired contracts. Garages are full with repairs, to which have to be added inspections for air conditioners, the cleaning of filters, etc."
Over the summer, around 80 buses were being worked on every day. This impacted the service. As well as fewer buses, there have been more passengers, so the situation has been "dramatic".
Francesc Dalmau was the PSOE councillor for mobility until the change in administration to the Partido Popular. In his opinion the EMT service is nothing like what it was. "Frequencies have worsened. They've gone from 20 to 30 minutes. And there are more people at the stops. There is an inability to manage here."
"There have always been technical problems, but the important thing is that these do not have external consequences. There are sensitive lines with many passengers for which frequencies cannot be cut, such as Son Espases Hospital. It is essential to manage the day to day but also look to investment, such as the 28 million that the national ministry of transport gave us for new buses and Bicipalma."
Dalmau's successor, Antonio Deudero of the PP, says that at most there should be around 30 vehicles under repair. However, there have been up to 100. He believes that EMT projects were paralysed in order to start asking for European aid. When he went on a tour of EMT depots, he found that only one of the twelve charging points for electric buses was working. "And these have less autonomy than diesel buses, which can operate for up to 16 hours. An electric one lasts nine."
He says that repair contracts expired in 2022. New ones are now in place for three more years. He points out that for EMT to provide a good service, there need to be between 180 and 190 vehicles operating per day. "But in mid-June there were barely 150. This was due to a lack of management (by the previous administration). In just over 100 days we have reversed the situation. Over the past week we had 171 buses available and 18 in reserve."