According to the latest analysis by Sueña Torrevieja, the direct purchase of buses by the Torrevieja council will cause an extra cost of more than 13 million euro in 15 years.
The government team has proposed a formula in which the private company finances the buses by advancing the money to the Council to pay for the buses.
For many residents who used to be able to use the buses for free until the facility was withdrawn, will now join all of the other residents in having to fund the service to the tune of millions more than anticipated for a contract still waiting to be resolved, resulted in antiquated, polluting, and less safe buses than their modern counterparts circulating in the town.
The bus pictured, taken this week, was registered in March 2008, approaching 16 years of age, around the time the album Back to Black by Amy Winehouse climbed to number 1 in the UK.
Pablo Samper, the spokesperson for the opposition group, affirms that the implementation of the new urban transport service is the “never-ending story” in the Torrevieja Council. The government team has been lurching for almost 5 years with the purchase of buses for the urban transport service.
Samper explains that “the initial political decision was to provide the service indirectly through a private company, which would provide all the buses and infrastructure.”
Next, claiming that the cost was very high, “the idea of providing it through a mixed company, and later through a public company, was considered, in order to save general expenses, industrial profit and IVA.”
“On November 19, 2022, they opted for a mixed formula, consisting of providing the service through a private company, with the Council purchasing the buses directly and making all the investments in infrastructure, which would be financed in 2023 through the RTGG of the settlement of 2022 or taking out a loan for investments in 2022 or 2023, in order to lower ordinary expenses.”
Samper states that “the purchase of the buses by the Council began on April 20, 2022 and has been pending since October 14, 2022, to award the contract.”
On November 8, 2023, the company Solaris was informed that as soon as sufficient credit is enabled in the municipal Budget, the contract will be awarded.
On November 15, 2023, the government team has proposed the approval of a management project and a feasibility study, in which the private concessionaire company finances the buses by advancing the money to the Council to pay directly for the buses, therefore Samper concludes by stating that “the extra cost of this new financing of the buses would amount to 13.48 million euro, of which 6.34 million would be in interest, 3 million in general expenses, 1.39 million in industrial profit, and 2.75 million IVA.”
