The strike in Portillo affects the bus service to Alhaurín de la Torre

The busb company a few days ago presented its new vehicles with platforms for the disabled

06 August 2008 
People with physical disabilities will soon have a better service on buses Portillo. In coming days, they will join the fleet of this company a total of 17 new units equipped with platforms for disabled people. The new vehicles, which were presented last Friday in Congress and an Exhibition in Malaga, are part of the Metropolitan Transportation Network, and logically users in Alhaurín de la Torre will benefit from these improvements, since some of these new buses will cover our routes with Malaga.

The coach company will incorporate 34 other vehicles with similar characteristics in the next 3 years, with a total investment of 10 million euro. The ramps of these vehicles are manual and are provided with a system to incline towards the side where the disabled person rises to facilitate this labour to them.

Also, the Provincial Transport Consortium area of Malaga introduced several improvements made by this entity in recent months, as with the hotline to Benalmadena, or the connection of Alhaurín de la Torre with the airport in coordination with the schedules of the network Cercanías.

A purpose of the consortium, whose network benefits Alhaurín de la Torre, its manager, Rafael Durban, stressed that there are already more than 60,000 non contact cards in circulation and that the sale remains "a very good pace" with 60 units sold daily . These cards allow payment of intercity buses from all consortia of Andalusia, as well as city buses in the Malagueña Transport Company (EMT) and the suburban railway Renfe. In whole, the Malaga consortium has already more than 10 million users a year.

Today, however, company employees CTSA-Portillo, the main intercity bus operator of the Costa del Sol region and the Guadalhorce, have started an indefinite strike. The nearly 600 workers have stopped making routes between the major towns in the province, and have affected some 50,000 users, but so far there is not any date for an end to the strike.

In Alhaurín de la Torre, the effects of the strike have been notorious. Hundreds of people have suffered serious delays in their journeys to Malaga or back to our city and have been forced to use other lines or even other companies to move. This stoppage according to trade union sources corresponds to the lack of agreement of the collective agreement with the company automóviles portillo.

 

However, CCO has expressed discomfort because the company intends to compel services by 35%. The union confirmed this morning that they have only been allowed to move four buses: Cártama, Algeciras, Rincón and Arroyo de la miel, but the municipal television, Torrevisión, have confirmed that during the day have travelled normally the units that cover the route to Alhaurín el Grande, so the journey to Alhaurín de la Torre is possible. Some users have said they have had to wait more than an hour at the bus stop of the Provincial Police Station in Malaga.

The town hall recommends that in the next days the route that covers the company Vázquez Olmedo should be used, who is not on strike. Use the bus of the townships, which passes through Torrealquería, Romeral, Santa Amalia, Mestanza, Peñón and Zapata, hence passes to the Urban Crossing, Churriana and carretera de Cádiz, a longer, but sure tour, and in service from half after seven in the morning. They can also use the bus service to the beach Torremolinos.

For more information about timetables and routes. www.vazquezolmedo.com, tel 952433523.