Tenerife Trams adds yet another milestone to their history on reaching 100 million passengers last 22nd January. In just seven and a half years the company has achieved this important result in occupancy rates demonstrating the competitiveness of the service and suitability of the route in the metropolitan area of the island.
Andres Muñoz de Dios, managing director of Metrotenerife, stressed the importance and value of the achievement of reaching 100 million passengers for the history of Tenerife Trams after only seven and half years in operation. He also gave a particular mention to the effort and commitment of all those at Metrotenerife to providing quality public transport through which they have earned the loyalty of 50,000 clients who use the tram daily.
100 million passengers in seven and half years
In June 2007, Metrotenerife launched Line 1 linking the cities of Santa Cruz and La Laguna, and two years later Line 2 La Cuesta – Tíncer was added.
The Tenerife tramway network consists of two lines covering a total layout of 15 kilometres with 27 stops. The company operates a fleet of 26 trams that have run an average of 450,000 kilometres each – a total of eleven and a half million kilometres covered in the company’s years in operation.
According to the latest survey carried out by Metrotenerife of their users, the profile of client type is as follows:
• Gender: 59% women, 41% men
• Age: 34% under 25, 35% 25-45, 8% 45-65
• Occupation: 19% students University of La Laguna, 15% other students, 13% unemployed, 25% employed
In addition, the survey indicates that the average journey by passenger is about 3.23 kilometres and between 6 and 7 stops. This shows that the terminus at La Trinidad in the centre of La Laguna, World Heritage site, is the most used with 120,000 passengers a month.
Furthermore, in the last twelve months the tram has carried some 12,800,000 passengers, with a working day average of 49,000, which is a 2.15% increase over 2013. Monday has been the busiest day of the week, with up to 53,000 passengers in 2014. The eve of Epiphany in 2010 was the busiest day ever with 64,360 passengers.
As regards awards, over the years, Metrotenerife has distinguished itself for its commitment to accessibility and was rewarded with the AENOR Universal Accessibility certificate in 2011 for all their services, the ONCE (Spanish Association for the Blind) White Stick prize (2011), the Canary Government Best Practices prize (2012) and was a finalist in the Telefonica Ability Awards 2014, amongst others.
The company’s endorsement of innovation and technologies has also made Metrotenerife a benchmark in the guided transport sector with the installation of a photovoltaic plant on the roof of the Workshops and Depot serving as an example and which supplies 16% of the company’s energy needs; the design and activation of an integral digital application for public transport travel, the Vía-Móvil app, used by 15% of their clients; the development of SIMOVE, a driving safety system to avoid speed-related accidents, etc.
The tramway network has consolidated its position among the public in the metropolitan area thanks to the competitiveness of the service, whilst contributing to caring for the environment by reducing, by some two million, the annual number of car journeys in the metropolitan area of the island, in the Santa Cruz and La Laguna municipalities.