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

• With investment to the tune of €21 million and 24 months of work, the last level crossing on the Metro network has finally been eliminated.
• The new track runs below ground for 543 m, including a new underground station with a single, 6 m wide central platform shared by both tracks.”
• With this change the residents of Urduliz have gained 6000 m2 of public space. Track layouts in Sopela and Plentzia are also being upgraded as a result of this work.
• The replacement shuttle bus service that has been running between Plentzia and Sopela over the 24 months of the work has ceased to run today.

Barik card users can now access discount fares on the whole network, and multi-validation is now possible on non personalised cards.

This inter-operability project was first introduced on Line 45 in February and has been gradually extended week by week, up to today.

CTB and Burgos Municipal Council this morning signed an agreement at the CTB headquarters for the development and implementation of a contactless card system on public transport in the city of Burgos. Under this agreement CTB will work with the municipal council to set up a system similar to the one currently operating in Bizkaia.

The Fare Integration Committee made up of representatives of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, Bilbao City Council, the Basque Government, rail operator RENFE, Metro Bilbao and CTB (the Bizkaia Transport Consortium) – has approved the incorporation of persons accompanying wheelchair users, the blind and children as specific passenger types and the delimitation of zones for all forms of public transport in Bizkaia.

Today marks the launch of an information campaign for these new, simplified tickets. They can be used for journeys on Metro Bilbao, Euskotren, the Bilbao tramway and (for users aged 26 and under registered as residents in Bizkaia) on Bizkaibus services.

On other matters, the General Board today approved a cooperation agreement with the municipal council of Urduliz under which the council is to receive €400,000 to urbanise the area of land that will become available once the Metro line through the municipality is transferred underground.