From September if you are not a "third age person" i.e. pensioner or a retired person you will have to pay to use the Urban Bus Service in Torrevieja. You will have the option to buy a Bus Pass for €35 a year if you are registered on the Padron and under pension age.
To get the new card you will be required to go to the Municipal Department of Transport after the 16th August, with, I presume in the case of not having a DNI Cert, your Passport, Your Residents Certificate and, where applicable, a receipt from the Bank showing you have paid the €35. It is hoped to extend the use of the card in the future for entry to other municipal facilities like the Sports Centre, Museums etc.
Source: Diarioinformacion
From what pensioners on forums say they have been told they must pay! They need to pay the charge at a bank, keep the receipt to show they've paid when they go to the dept who arrange these passes & ihave been told t'll be refunded into their bank. Hmmm, bit of a carry on, that!!
UPDATE: From Friday's Diarioinformacion.
Friday 19th: Queues from 5.00am
Hours and hours of waiting to get the new Transport Card. Those registered on the Padron in Torrevieja queued yesterday from 5.00am at the doors of the consistory to try and complete the process which will give them access to the urban bus. More than the anger at the withdrawing of the service, which has been free since the 90s, was the anger in having to wait in interminable queues under the suffocating heat of the Vega in August.
As dawn broke around the Town Hall there were two groups of clearly different people. On one side were those who had arrived before 7.00am, who got one of the 100 tickets which were given out at 8.30am and which were gone in a few minutes. On the other side were those who, although having arrived before they began giving out the tickets were not successful in getting one, but opted to wait the whole morning for one of the tickets which were given out at 2.00pm so that they could complete the process that evening.
The service put in place for getting the new Tarjeta Ciudadano began last Wednesday morning but the numbers of interested people have overwhelmed those foreseen by the Council and since yesterday, Thursday, the hours of attendance were extended to the evening. The new card will come into effect from 1st Sept next and users milled around the doors of the offices to try to get the precious pass. Most of the crowd yesterday were people over 60yrs of age resident in the locality. Some stayed sitting on the stairs of the porch of the building others on chairs and the vast majority waited standing up, but everyone voiced their anger at a service which is clearly deficient
A woman of 80yrs who stayed sitting on the stairs said “at my age I have to do this in order to use the bus. Instead of Eduardo Dolón I am going to call him Eduardo Pain, for the pain that I am having to endure waiting on the ground at my age” said the old woman.
The complaints of the people who were waiting in the inside of the building were summed up those of the hundreds of people who queued in the street in roasting temperatures of 35degs which the thermometers were showing at 11.30 yesterday. 2 of people, who were from England, but living in La Mata for the last 10 years, asked why they couldn’t complete the process in La Mata. We are more angry at the shameful way this process is being handled than having to pay the €35 they said.
Of course there were people who showed their anger at the new transport cost. It seems that €35 is not a lot, but if you take into account that there are 6 people in my family, I have to pay €210 said another who waited in the sun.
Phrases like I feel deceived because this was hidden in the electoral campaign and “I am sure that the families of the politicians won’t have to que to get this card”, was the tone which was heard all day.
In October 2010 the PP councillors put forward the introduction of the new transport card as a question of necessity because about 30-40% of the 90,000 cards which were in use were being used fraudulently . According to the management many of them were obtained by persons who signed-on the Padron for this end and then signed off again as well as other who obtained duplicates of the cards and gave them to family and friends
The new transport card is equipped with a microchip which stores information with data relevant to the user like their DNI, an address or a photograph. Also it will serve for entry to other services which will be offered by the Town Hall like entry to cultural events and museums. It costs €35 annually and it is necessary to present your Torrevieja Residencia Certificate
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NOTE: Previously you just had to be on the Padron to get the free srvice but this says 'it is necessary to present your Torrevieja Residencia Certificate'.