School bus system

Torrevieja’s school buses are still free for the moment

Daniel Plaza, Torrevieja’s Councillor for Education and Sports, has responded to questions about the continuation of the city’s free school bus system, in light of the new €35 charge for the City’s Bus Pass, in reference to the upcoming school year which begins September 8 at various educational centres.

When asked about the status of free school transport, Plaza responded, “For now, the bus service remains free.” He wanted to emphasize that a change of policy is a fairly typical circumstance that often occurs in cities that experience rapid population growth. He added, “We are doing a viability study to establish whether we can maintain this service for free.”

Until now, the Department assumes the costs of such school journeys over three miles, but from this year, the routes will be computed differently, so some routes may become viewed as being of less than three miles from where a student lives, to their school. Each year it costs the City Council some €3,200,000 to offer this free service, but with an uptake in the service and more new schools being built, the cost of the service has risen to about 3.7 million euros. Plaza says “We are studying this situation and for now, on 8 September and the following days, we will maintain the free service. If we cannot keep this free, the school community will be the first to know.”

Keith Nicol