Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

The blue and red routes operated by the Bus Turístic service are running again, a year after they were brought to a halt by Covid-19. During that time, the different administrations and bodies involved in managing these buses have been rethinking the service to introduce improvements, which will gradually be applied in the coming months.

Notable improvements in the new proposal for the Bus Turístic service include new points of interest in the neighbourhoods of Sant Antoni, Poblenou and the area around Pl. Glòries. The goal of the City Council is to ease the pressure of tourism around Pl. Catalunya and the historical part of the city centre. Information staff will also be on hand in the street to encourage people to visit spots where there is less pressure from tourism and where the buses stop, offering information on activities relating to sport, culture, science and the creative industries, the tourist practices with the greatest social, economic and environmental return.

Improvements will also be introduced to the service to ensure optimum efficiency. In this respect, an agreement has been reached to reduce the frequency of buses and therefore guarantee higher occupancy, while the pricing system will modified so that the one or two-day passes are not for natural days, but rather 24 hours or 48 hours from the point they are first used.

In terms of the efficiency of the routes, operators are opting for improvements to foster the use of public transport and the intermodality of visits, with routes taking in Sants, La Sagrega, Diagonal – Zona Universitària and the Estació del Nord. New vehicle acquisitions and replacements will also opt for vehicles which pollute less.

Full information on the Bus Turístic service can be found at www.barcelonabusturistic.cat.