FROM mid-June Valencia will have a public transport system running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it was announced this week, but residents’ associations say the changes aren’t enough.
Valencia’s mayor, Joan Ribó, announced on Thursday that from 15 June, the night-time network of the Municipal Transport Company (EMT) will be doubled, with 23 daytime lines extending their service during the night, including the busiest lines: the C3 and 99.
At Thursday’s presentation of the redesign of the EMT, Ribó said that Valencia would have a “non-stop” network 24 hours a day, seven days a week, “which will provide an alternative transport option that is more accessible and easier to understand, since citizens will be able to move around at night with the same network they use during the day”.
The EMT will also extend its night-time coverage to neighbourhoods and towns in València and the metropolitan area, including: Benimaclet, Campanar, Castellar-Oliveral, Forn de Alcedo, El Saler, El Palmar, El Perellonet, Casas de Bàrcena, Poble Nou, Borbotó, Carpesa and Benifaraig.
Ribó was accompanied by Councillor for Sustainable Mobility and President of the EMT, Giuseppe Grezzi, and its managing director, Marta Serrano. Ribó explained: “These changes are aimed at improving and satisfying the general public, who are asking us for a top quality service, and which will play an important role for people who work at night, for example in the tourism or cleaning sectors, and also for those who want to travel to have dinner out or spend some time in a different neighbourhood from their own”.
From the current 11 lines, there will now be 23 running throughout the city at night, and from the approximately 59,000 journeys currently made on the night-time network, more than 158,000 are estimated to be made, according to Ribó, who added: “with this commitment to night-time mobility, the city council is offering a safe, quality mobility option, reaching areas which until now have had no night-time public transport service.
“Public transport plays a key role in promoting less polluting collective mobility that allows us to free the streets of our neighbourhoods from fumes. Our goal is for València to be an emission-neutral city by 2030 and all our efforts are aimed at that goal. At the city council we will continue to make policies to make people’s lives friendlier and simpler and also to make the city and the planet more sustainable. And this new night network, which also generates work (some 30 jobs) is another step forward to achieving this”,
The Valencian Federation of Neighbours Associations said that night-time services are something they have been calling for, for decades, however, Tania Cortés, spokesperson for the federation’s commission on mobility, believes that the changes are insufficient, that there should be more trains and with greater frequency. Talking to Cadena Ser Radio she said that having carried out a consultation with EMT users, the company should have used that information when making changes.
The Valencia Report 