Velez Málaga's Financial Woes

[masterob]

Came across this while trawling the web, may be of passing interest:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22932518

[gerryh]

Had a look at the report but is it strictly accurate?
It was said the problem with the tram system was the recession and the operating costs were too high.
Wasn't it a case of the tram system had very few customers?
I only ever saw a tram with very few customers.
Cheers
Gerry

[Devils Advocate]

Very sad if that's true Rob...crying shame.

[anyroads]

Just another white elephant.

How these things were ever allowed, God only knows.

anyroads

[johnr]

It is sad but I was amazed to see the tram going through Torre Del Mar once with a driver at the 'front' and a driver at the 'back', reading a paper. I don't know if this was a one-off, or how it was done normally but I was lost for words!

[alisonb]

The tram was always going to struggle. They wanted something like 500k passengers per year, and there's only 70k people in Velez. Having built the (never opened) extension, they really should have given it a go. The existing tram terminus is half way to Torre anyway, and there is no parking, whereas the terminus extension by the bus station is surrounded by parking, and is right at the other side of Velez. We would certainly have used it to go to Torre if they had opened that part, but it really wasn't worth it with the original line.

[Colinm]

I remember in about 2008 they were talking about extending it from Torre del Mar towards Torre de Banagalbon, where it would meet up with Line 3 of the Malaga Metro system

[Free at Last]

As Alison says, one reason for the tram's lack of passengers relates to the fact that the second phase of track extending the line to the northern end of town was built then never opened. Another is that once the tram started running they continued to operate the local bus service along the same route, thus diluting the number of potential users. The tram did the journey to Torre in less than half the time the bus took, and still went via the hospital for those who needed to get there for appointments or visiting. Utter stupidity.

I also believe that if they had reduced the fare to €1 from €1.30 they would have attracted a lot more passengers, and surely the service costs the same to operate no matter how many people are on board, so 50 passengers paying €1 would have been better than 20 paying €1.30.

Now the Ayuntamiento are in the process of reorganising the local bus services for the third time in a year, I am not holding my breath for any improvements since they seem to be incapable of organising the proverbial in a brewery.

[Devils Advocate]

Are they going to rip up all of the rails too?...how much will that cost if they do?......as I said earlier a crying shame really

[Free at Last]

Are they going to rip up all of the rails too?...how much will that cost if they do?......as I said earlier a crying shame really

I haven't read anything in the local press yet about what they intend to do with the rails - probably just leave them to rust and get overgrown with weeds!

If the Ayuntamiento don't do anything some enterprising scallies will no doubt start doing it for them, digging up rails for scrap and nicking the cables!

[Devils Advocate]

Exactly what I was thinking F@L