On the 6th of October an ordinary assembly was held in the Mancomunidad de Municipios del Almanzora, where several mayors expressed to the president of the organisation the discomfort of the local residents due to the cut in regular public transport services in the province of Almeria, which directly affects villages in the area.
The reasons for the cutbacks were due to the health situation, but now that everything seems to be gradually returning to normal, a vital service for inland municipalities needs to be re-established.
One of the affected municipalities is Líjar, «this is a line that ran from Monday to Friday, in the morning (around 6am, arriving in Almería at 8am) and returning in the afternoon (around 3pm, arriving in Líjar at 5pm); in other words, the five days of the week where students, residents going to the capital for medical consultations and others have been affected. A good transport service that has been in our municipalities for many years», says Sergio Sánchez, mayor of the municipality.
This line is detrimental to many municipalities in our mountains such as Cóbdar, Albanchez, Líjar, Chercos, Alcudia, Benitagla and Benizalón,» continues the mayor. At the moment, and since the pandemic began, we only have buses on two days (Tuesdays and Thursdays), which means that it is impossible to use a good transport service because it does not coincide with the needs that each neighbour may have.
The majority of public transport users are elderly people or university students, people who even use the service to move from one town to another. That’s why we must fight not to lose the frequencies we have had for a long time, which is a way to fight against depopulation».
«We will also make our demands known to whoever it may concern, from the Filabres Norte Consortium, which is made up of seven small municipalities in the Filabres mountains (Senés, Tahal, Benizalón, Benitagla, Alcudia de Monteagud, Chercos and Líjar),» said Sánchez when asked by La Comarca Noticias.
Commitment to return the transport service when Almeria is at Level 0
For the above reason and due to the importance of public transport for the residents of the Almanzora region, last Friday the president of the Mancomunidad Antonio Ramón Salas, went to the city of Almeria to meet with the Territorial Delegate of Development, Infrastructure, Planning, Culture and Heritage in Almeria, Eloisa Cabrera.
In the meeting described as «very satisfactory» by the president of the association, the Delegate assured that «when the province of Almeria is at level 0 risk of COVID-19 – as are almost all the other provinces of Andalusia – all regular public transport services will be restored as they were before the pandemic».