20 minute waiting time, old vehicles that break down easily and few canopies. These are some of the inconveniences faced by the users of the urban bus line 41 Zaragoza suffer. neighbors of Montecanal They are affected mainly because it is the only bus that passes through the neighbourhood. Thus, Avi Los Sauces has launched a campaign to collect signatures, for Rosales del Canal and Arcosur have also joined.Neighboring neighborhoods also use the same service.
According to data provided by Zaragoza city council, in 2022 this line had a ratio of 2.10 passengers per kilometer, compared to the average of 4.13 in Zaragoza, one of the lowest in the entire bus network. Despite this, Residents of Montecanal demand reform: “We want the service to be like any other urban line and have a frequency of ten minutes, at least from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.,” demands Consuelo Andres, president of the Los Sauces de Montecanal Neighborhood Association. “For a line to be a deterrent to car use, it has to have a good frequency, it’s time to bet on it, health and climate require it,” he adds.
The association has so far collected around 2,000 signatures and aims to reach 5,000. This action has been taken after trying to solve the problem through other means. “We hate having to call 010, send complaints to the municipal website, go from office to office, write, interview each other, and everything remains the same,” he laments. The complaint of line 41 does not come from now on. For Montecanal residents, mobility improvements in the neighborhood have been a demand for a decade ahead, “More and more people live here and the bus frequency hasn’t changed in ten years,” assured the president of Los Sauces.
Now, the problem has been extended to the residents of Rosales del Canal. “Southern neighborhoods are growing, however we lack the public services that other parts of the city have and, being further away from the centre, we need public transport that brings us closer to our jobs or completing procedures. To do, for leisure or for personal reasons. Varied,” says Andres. Currently, the frequency of 41 is 15 minutes, but according to residents, this timing is not realistic., “While pacifying us on Avenida de la Illustración they put two lanes at 30 kmph and the bus takes about 20 minutes Because they haven’t updated the gearbox”, he says.
Add to this that the vehicles plying this route are old and break down easily, according to the affected people. “Sometimes we have to wait for more than half an hour as the buses break down. A few days back, I was in a bus which smelled of burning. They let us down and waited for the next one. And We have already burned four or five ”, reassures Andres, airing a global complaint to his neighbors who, who have the option of doing so, take the car so as not to risk being late for work or an appointment.
Long wait in the sun at Hernan Cortes
Another complaint about the operation of Line 41 by residents of Montecanal is that at the first stop on the route, located in Hernán Cortés in the direction of Paseo Teruel, they also suffer from fainting spells. As it is a narrow footpath, there is no umbrella and users waiting for 41 are in the sun for at least 15 minutes. “We ask that you may meet us at the last stop, on the opposite sidewalk, in the shade, Or that the beginning and end of the line can be put back there”, explains Andres.
Avi los Sauces thinks in the medium term, when the line will serve the new Quiron Clinic or the future Civil Guard barracks, facilities that will be added to the already frequented Montecanal Clinic or Zaragoza Camping. In what sense, Another improvement they are asking is to build a road for car traffic from Montecanal and Rosales to Valdefiero, On the canal, to extend lines 36 or 24 and serve campsites that do not have a direct line to go, for example, to Delicias station. “This will allow us to have an exit or communication towards the lynx”, explains the chairman.
According to Andres, this collection of signatures is known to the City Council and, at the moment, it is only stated that a study of all urban bus lines in Zaragoza has been carried out, but that there is no time to present it before the elections. Municipal sources have indicated that, at present, the specifications governing the future contract for the urban bus in Zaragoza are being drafted, in which scenarios of the new configuration of the network will be considered.
Similarly, another demand from Montecanal residents, pending evaluation, is the inclusion of new stops on the route. In any case, they remember from the Department of Public Services and Mobility that this line works as a shuttle. It was built in such a way as to quickly connect users to the city center and vice versa and they warn that if the concept is modified, travel times will increase, frequencies will drop.
