Convulsions continue in the sector Transporting passengers by bus. After years of caring for the fiancée Renewal of privilegesMost of which expired decades ago, and in which large companies manage the state’s lines, and a failed attempt by the Ministry of Transportation to make communities acquire part of the lines with a smaller number of passengers, its owner, Oscar PuenteDozens of… Small and medium bus companies are on the warpath For the tender that was just announced, which The activity will be more focused, It will not change the system which the Minister himself has insisted is not in line with the current needs of bus transport and which they condemn will only lead to They always benefit“, that is, for companies with large concessions that operate these lines exclusively, specifically busThe true giant of this sector.
The origin of this latest conflict goes back to the announcement – last Saturday afternoon – by the Transport Authority which it published in the Official Journal of the European Union “Future tenders” for state bus line concessions. According to the latest events, the ministry announced a tender 31 out of 34 runners Which They will keep “all stops”, As a result of the refusal of local communities to take over about 83% of their concession maps would have been deleted from the state maps. For this, Puente offered to distribute 25 million to them – plus another 15 million from ticket sales – but the majority of regional governments rejected the offer. In response, Puente confirmed this You won’t miss a single stop, They will continue to work on the same lines that have existed hitherto and for which the central government will remain responsible.
Thinking about the role of the obligation to maintain all endowments is exactly what sparked protests Dozens of bus companies grouped together in Deribus, One of the employers’ associations in the sector, different from kovbosswhich brings together large companies, Alsa and AvanzaState Lines franchisees for decades. Moreover, there is Another stressor The Ministry should renew the privileges as soon as possible Access international routes in coastal navigation This is what Spain must allow under European Union law and which it still prohibits until now. According to the European Commission, the only factor that can prevent the arrival of the international route that seems so imminent is the one who wants to work Flex bus From Germany to Madrid, with stops in Spain in Barcelona, Zaragoza and Guadalajara – there is an existing franchise, which does not exist now.
“It’s a sarcasm that represents a Makeup reissue of the current model“, criticizes Deribus, about the bidding process that will lead to the emergence of a “system Expensive, inefficient and unfair This leaves SMEs out of the sector.” The ministry defends that it “will allow prices to be reduced and services improved.”
“They announced the Map of Fear. Fear of taking the market away from the company that has been dominating it for years Derbus adds, in a veiled reference to Alsa, which other sources in the sector call the only company that can acquire the bus lines, as the ministry once again put them out for tender, “with an iron fist and fear of competition and loss of privileges.” It’s about everyone Contracts, excluding Castro-Urdiales-Bilbao, Madrid-Valencia and Madrid-Zaragoza-Barcelona lines.which has already been announced in the Official Journal of the European Union in 2022, although its privileges have not yet been updated.
CNMC ordered more parts; Puente focuses the sector more
Part of the bus sector criticizes that ministry Keeps bus routes as they areAlthough Ineco – its engineering consulting firm – has made it clear inefficient And that the bridge itself was, until recently, advocating for lighter bridges to be made of Faster and more attractive bus journeys For passengers. But he also raises his voice because of the only novelty that arises at this moment from the tender announced by the Ministry, which consists of Greater concentration of roads, He sees first-hand the expulsion of small businesses that could compete for shorter routes but for whom it would be infeasible to choose entire lanes.
The Ministry announced that “The new map will simplify the network, going from 75 nodes to 34 nodes. This is what sector A considers An obstacle for small companies to enter the market Avanza or Alsa in particular, are the ones that enjoy the privileges at the moment. They also recall that this concentration of routes conflicts with the application made in 2022 by the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC), to expand the number of contracts, Divide it into batches. This is something that transportation not only does not do now, but on the contrary, it divides them in half.
Therefore, sources in the sector warn against this It would not be “humanly possible” for them to be profitablesince they are reproducing a system that is no longer a system already, leading Avanza to ask the government, for the first time Subsidies Operation on some lines. Depending on the sector, of the 34 corridors, there are only two truly profitable lines, those linking Madrid to Toledo and Madrid to Bilbao.
On the other hand, sources warn that with this bidding model, Nothing will change from the current situationBecause either the big companies compete and give it away – and they are the only ones who can have the power to take over entire lanes – or they don’t, and then the system will continue without renewal and the state’s bus lines will continue to be in the hands of these same big companies.
Two unknown specifications
For now, transport has published an announcement in the Official Journal of the European Union, but the sector is waiting to see what happens Details of each document To renew the 31 privileges. This is where we will see if they are cleared or not Anonymous It relates to the low profitability that the bus has left for franchise companies for years and with Puente’s plans to offer direct and semi-direct services on the lines that will eventually maintain all the stations as a means of accelerating them.
The franchise companies themselves – Alsa and Avanza – have been alerting the Ministry to this for years Most lines are no longer profitableEspecially since the high-speed train is doubling its routes, in less time, and at a lower price, at least so far. If so-called “cross-subsidization” has worked so far, where part of the profitable line is used to cover another, less profitable part, then this system no longer works. An example of this is the Badajoz-Madrid-Valencia line, in which the benefits of the Madrid-Valencia section offset the losses of Badajoz-Madrid, something that no longer happens, as Avanza’s general manager pointed out to this newspaper last September. Valentin AlonsoWhich claimed, for the first time in history, the Ministry of Transportation Consider the possibility of granting subsidies For concessionary companies, which amounted to between 100 and 400 million annually, so as not to stop operating the lines.
The first unknown in this sector is If this aid would somehow appear in the spec Of new franchises, since they will be the same franchises that exist now and are no longer practically profitable. In recent years, according to collection figures collected by the Ministry itself, the revenues of “Alsa” and “Samar” have increased coinciding with Eid al-Fitr. Summer program grants for youthWhich reduced bus tickets by 90% for Spaniards and residents between the ages of 18 and 30, funded by the transportation budget. If in 2019 the ALSA group was 215.4 million, in 2023 it was 252 and in 2024, 300.8. Samar’s collection rose from 25.1 million to 29.6 and 36.8 million, while Avanza’s collection fell – from 40.4 million in 2019 to 26.4 and 24.3 in 2023 and 2024 – the company whose franchises largely coincide with the high-speed train.
In this regard, Deribus goes one step further Suspicion of “non-transparent support promise” As compensation to the large companies that agree to bid for these new awards, even though they know that, on paper, they are not profitable for them.
The second unknown is whether the ministry will detail the specifications and schedules or their number Direct or semi-direct services between two cities What franchisees should do every day, so they don’t stop at every stop. According to industry sources, this is already an established practice, and they are concerned that it is too detailed in the tender documents.
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