Yesterday afternoon the CTB (Bizkaia Transport Consortium) received an official visit from a Colombian delegation interested in learning first-hand about public transport in Bizkaia. The Secretaries of Planning at the offices of the mayors of Manizales, Montería, Cali and Pasto, who are visiting the Basque Country this week, wished to learn how matters of sustainable mobility and structured development of transport were handled here, and to find out more about the track record, development and funding of our Metro and railways.

Following a methodical process lasting two years, with the patent being valid throughout Spain for 20 years.

This achievement confirms the position of CTB (The “Bizkaia Transport Consortium”) as a pioneer in R&D&I and an innovative, cutting-edge organisation that works to make Bizkaia a more closely knit, cohesive territory via public transport.

The free “Barik NFC” app has now been used by 67,498 people for over 200,500 top-ups, with an average of 352 top-ups per day in its first year, 427 in 2017 so far and 537 in September.

This back-up control centre will be installed at the Ariz depot in Basauri, which will take over control of the operation of all systems on the network should a serious incident knock out the current control centre at Calle Navarra 2.

Work is already ongoing to adapt the Metro’s interlock systems, to the tune of a further €400,000, to ready them for use with the new back-up control centre.

The current control centre is also to be fitted with additional traffic management functions to upgrade its internal operation.

The main actions include refurbishing the track between Ibarbengoa and Larrabasterra at a cost of €2,194,794 and purchasing a new lathe to repair and optimise wheels at the maintenance sheds in Sopela at a cost of €1,149,500. In its meeting this morning the CTB also approved the early repayment of two loans using the remaining budget allocation from last year, and gave the go-ahead for the funding of improvements in the sewerage and water supply networks for the below-ground area in Urduliz.

The Artxanda funicular railway has obtained the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence for the second year running. This is the 7th edition of these recognitions, which are awarded on the basis of favourable reviews from users on the TripAdvisor website.

At the San Nicolás station today, CTB General Manager Manu Tejada announced the winners of the 4th “A Look at Public Transport in Bizkaia” photo contest. He thanked contestants for all the 352 entries submitted. The winning pictures were those of Iñaki Alonso in the category of “Our Public Transport], Manuela Gallardo in “My Life on Public Transport” and José Ignacio Olabarria in “Innovations and Improvements in Public Transport in Bizkaia”. The consolation prize went to Cristina Vañes.

The Bizkaia Transport Consortium (CTB) rates the first full, comparable month since the introduction of the new one-off multi-mode tickets on 8 March. The new system has proven to respond well to the demand from public transport users in Bizkaia.

The usual customer service points of Metro Bilbao, Euskotren, Bizkaibus, Bilbobus, Renfe and the CTB Customer Service Office (OAC) at San Mamés continue to offer information and advice on which tickets best suit users in each case.

In an event held at the municipal theatre in Barakaldo with the participation of Provincial Councillor for Sustainability and the Natural Environment Elena Unzueta, Head of Environmental Affairs at the Provincial Council fo Biuzkaia Unai Gangoiti, Head of Natural Heritage and Climate Change Affairs at the Basque Government Aitor Zulueta and Chairman of GAP Internacional Carlos Oppe, the pupils in question received diplomas acknowledging their involvement in Actívate+.

The jury for the programme also awarded the prizes for the best projects out of all those submitted by the 19 schools that took part in the scheme this year.

TAmong other points, the plan is to analyse possible shortcomings, overlaps and duplications in the various modes of transport and work towards the implementation of a far integration system.
The first meeting of this new institutional cooperation body also approved the setting up of new integrated customer service offices.

The General Council of the CTB has approved a tender for the supply of a new track car for catenary maintenance at a cost of €1,270,000 and for the adaptation of passenger doors on 24 Metro units, for the amount of €1,520,000