The Minister of Mobility and Housing, Josep Marí; the island director of the General State Administration in Ibiza and Formentera, Enrique Sánchez Navarrete, and the Councillor of Innovation, Transparency, Participation and Transport of the Ibiza Council, Javier Torres, today assessed the launch of the free service on the island’s bus network.
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From the Sant Antoni bus station, Minister Marí and the government delegate recalled that the Balearic Islands are the autonomous community that has obtained the most funding from the state to make public transport free of charge. They also stressed that Ibiza, Formentera and Menorca are the only regions in the country, along with the Canary Islands, where the percentage of state subsidies has risen from 30% to 50%.
Marí pointed out that the government has negotiated with the state to increase the initially planned subsidies, and that thanks to these negotiations and the sensitivity shown by the state government to the insular situation, free public transport can now be celebrated.
The Minister also stressed that this measure, which will benefit the citizens of the Balearic Islands, has been achieved thanks to the collaboration and commitment of the State, the Government of the Balearic Islands and the island councils. He added that thanks to this involvement of the different institutions, the citizens of Ibiza, Menorca and Formentera will travel free by bus from today until 31 December, which will have a positive impact on the economy of thousands of families on the islands.
In addition, the Minister of Mobility and Housing recalled that the Government of the Balearic Islands will advance direct aid to the island councils of Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera to partially compensate for the loss of income resulting from the application of these discounts to fares during these four months.
The Ministry of Finance and External Relations will provide the necessary funds to finance this measure, which will benefit the more than 356,000 transport card and season ticket holders currently registered on the Balearic Islands, more than 80,000 of them on the islands of Ibiza, Formentera and Menorca.
During the ceremony, the councillor for Innovation, Transparency, Participation and Transport of the Ibiza Council, Javier Torres, stressed that “with the free bus service, which we have calculated will cost us a minimum of 760,000 euros, we want to contribute to reducing the economic costs to the residents of Eivissa and encourage the use of public transport, badly affected firstly by the pandemic of covid-19 and then by the rise in fuel prices due to the current crisis of the Ukrainian War.