The Councilor for Mobility of the Valencia City Council, Jesús Carbonell, stated this Thursday that Valencians “have taken to the streets to enjoy the Christmas atmosphere” and has pointed out that “the massive presence of people recommends cutting traffic during the scheduled hours.” of higher density”.
Carbonel has assured that everything is ready for next week to recover the passage of seven EMT lines (4, 11, 31, 32, 70, 16 and 26) through the Town Hall Square and its immediate surroundings, that today “the relevant tests have been carried out to guarantee correct operation and safety.”
After criticism from the opposition, which has asked to paralyze the remodeling of these lines due to the “chaos” due to the overcrowding of people in the center, Carbonell has pointed out that “what is happening these days is that, after the Christmas blackout for 8 years of Ribó’s government, Christmas has returned to Valencia and with it a massive influx to the city center”.
For Carbonell, “it is not reasonable to extrapolate specific situations of overcrowding such as Christmas, the Marathon or the Fallas to the usual circumstances of the city. It is simply political opportunism due to the nervousness that our actions over the last 6 months cause in the opposition. “.
According to the councilor, until 2020 there were eleven lines that circulated through the center, with 989 buses, and they carried out routes that dated “many years ago, from the very birth” of EMT Valencia, so they are widely contrasted routes.
With the remodeling proposed by the new government team, there will be nine lines that circulate through La Paz and six through San Vicente Street and Plaza del Ayuntamiento, so that 798 buses will circulate through La Paz Street and 550 through Plaza del Ayuntamiento. , when before 2020 there were 783 buses.
He has defended that the reorganization of the EMT lines through the center of the city covers the communication needs with the heart of Valencia and aims to directly connect with the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, the expansion of the service towards the Central Market and the recovery of ancient direct relations with the entire historic center.
In addition to expanding EMT’s area of ??influence, transfers and travel times are reduced, and the routes that differ and complement those offered by Metrovalencia are rebalanced, according to municipal sources.
“We are correcting serious errors,” said Carbonella, who considered that they could not leave residents “without useful and effective alternatives to reach destinations as desired as the center.”
Since June, the City Council has hired 93 drivers, which have made it possible to carry out 1,100 monthly services that had previously been stopped, with which the company has reached the record of 400,000 daily users.
In addition, the purchase of 57 electric and hybrid buses has recently been put out to tender; The largest budget in the history of EMT has been approved, a total of 151.8 million for the year 2024; and an investment item of 42.5 million has been approved to finalize the European Next Generation projects.
