The city of Murcia has received the seven tram-buses that will serve it. They have come to the Latbus depot on Avenida El Palmar, which is near to four double chargers that can charge eight electric vehicles at once.
The Mayor of Murcia, José Ballesta, said at a news conference that this mode of travel, which has been in the works for more than five years, will finally be available on Tuesday, December 9th.
José Francisco Muñoz, the councillor for Mobility, Economic Management, and Contracting, said that the tram-bus would be free for the first three months, until March 7th.
During the first three months of operation, you won’t need to show your travel pass to ride these vehicles. From March on, they will be fully incorporated into the new public transport model, which was put out to tender for 731 million euros at the end of November. This model will work with the future single transit card.
The new model will bring together all of Murcia’s transportation options, including city parking lots, under the “Mub” brand. The new graphic identity for public transport in Murcia is already on the seven tram-buses.
Expeditions
People in Murcia will be able to get on the new bus starting next Tuesday. The first excursions will leave Arrixaca Hospital at 6:45 a.m. and Circular Park at 7:00 a.m. Every 15 minutes, the buses will run on the same routes as the existing Line 26C. The last rides will leave from both places at 10:30 p.m.
There will be 138 excursions every day, which will add up to more than 15,000 places.
This Wednesday, Mayor Ballesta and the Councillor for Mobility, along with the local media, checked it out to see how it works and to talk about the track testing that were done.
Stops: There will be stops at the Carmen station and the Arrixaca parking lot to make it easier to switch modes of transportation.
Cars leaving Plaza Circular will stop at Santa Isabel, Alameda de Colón, La Innovadora, Vereda, Cruce de La Alberca, Gasolinera, Arrixaca, and the Health Sciences campus.
The stops will be made at Pabellón Docente, Arrixaca, Dúplex – Desvío, Cruce de La Alberca, La Vereda, Colonia de San Esteban, Estación del Carmen, Alameda de Colón, Glorieta de Ramos, and Santa Isabel, and then they will go back to Plaza Circular.
Features
The tram-buses will connect the city of Murcia, the Virgen de la Arrixaca University Hospital, the Health Sciences campus of the University of Murcia, and the suburb of El Palmar.
They will connect El Palmar and Alameda de Colón in 18 minutes and Plaza Circular and the Health Sciences campus in 26 minutes, for example.
The cars are 18 metres long and can hold 120 people. Drivers must use a breathalyser and get a score of 0.0 to start the trips.
The cars are easy to get into because they include both mechanical and manual ramps, two slots for wheelchairs and strollers, and priority seating for seniors, pregnant women, and people with moderate mobility disabilities.
They also have four doors for getting in and out, and the floor is low, almost at the level of the stops, so you won’t need to use the ramps very often. All of the seats have chargers for mobile phones.
The Chinese company YuTong makes the tram-buses, which are all electric and can travel more than 500 kilometres in a day, which is more than enough to cover the average daily distance of 260 kilometres that these vehicles would traverse.
Author: Derek Appleton
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