Menorcan public transport will gain another 215,000 passengers.

CitadelThe relaxed restrictions on car entry should be accompanied by a strengthening of public transport, which last year reached a record high in Menorca, surpassing 3 million passengers for the first time. However, the new bus concessions that the Consell will definitively approve this Monday do not include any significant changes to the route offering, beyond the previously announced creation of a direct line to the airport from Ciutadella.

"There are no substantial improvements, nor is the increase in users in recent years being sufficiently leveraged," concludes Councilor Esteve Barceló, of Més per Menorca. "It's like going back to the starting point of seven years ago," when the current concessions expired and the Consell, then in the hands of the left, began designing the public transport lines that would be incorporated in Menorca. The lack of new developments "demonstrates that there is too much inaction and that, as has occurred with the studies on tourist and vehicle carrying capacity, they end up setting limits that are so unambitious that they practically leave things as they are."

In fact, the study on maximum vehicle load capacity predicts a 7.1% increase in the number of public transport users with the new concessions. According to this projection, the number of passengers will increase from 3,010,585 in 2024 to the expected 3,225,270 starting in 2027. This is almost 215,000 more annual passengers than currently recorded.

In principle, the Consell hopes to put the new routes out to tender and award them before January 1, 2027, when the concessions are scheduled to enter service. The companies that win the contracts will manage public transport in Menorca for the next 10 years. But Más fears that national companies like Alsa will enter into tender and local companies will be unable to continue running the service.

Mobility Minister Juan Manuel Delgado has declined to provide details or comment on the matter until the project, including future bus concessions, is approved by the plenary session.