David the Taxi Man

David the Taxi Man

David the Taxi Man

David the Taxi Man

David the Taxi Man

Summer beach buses for inland villages

CAMPO DE GIBRALTAR As from next Saturday, 29, and until September 1, residents of San Pablo de Buceite, Jimena de la Frontera, San Martín del Tesorillo and Castellar will be able to come and go - on weekends - from the beach at Torreguadiaro during the day. The Transport Consortium of the Campo de Gibraltar has also approved a repeat of last year's successful 'night owl' service covering routes between La Línea - Algeciras and Algeciras - Tarifa, which starts at 21.45 and ends at 8.00 in the morning; the service is available now and ends on September 8. We will be offering a comprehensive schedule for these and other bus lines as soon as we can decipher the consortium's website schedules... watch this space!

Biggest ever hash haul caught at port

(Photo: Guardia Civil)

ALGECIRAS The Guardia Civil detachment at the Port of Algeciras on Monday uncovered almost 33 tons of hash hidden inside a truck supposedly transporting fruit that was coming into Spain from Tangier. This is the largest haul ever taken on land and is almost double the total taken in the whole of last year. The illicit drug was hidden behind a screen behind two pallets of melons, which is what the lorry's manifest said it was transporting. On another matter (and in another article) importers of perishable goods, meeting at the Reina Cristina Hotel, are asking for less or lighter inspections at the Customs shed.

Mayors of all parties get together about A-377 road

Committee to take matter to Sevilla · Roads in area in bad state

GAUCÍN The mayors of ten municipalities and a variety of political colours got together this morning in Gaucín to decide on what next to do about the A-377 road between Gaucín and Manilva (as we reported here). The remaining ten mayors of the twenty expected, most of whom had already signed the agreement at the previous meeting, offered their apologies for not being able to assist. Thus, the mayors of Casares, Gaucín Algatocín, Benarrabá, Cortes la Frontera, Jimera de Libar, Benadalid, Genaguacil, Jubrique and Pujerra, created a COMING SOON:

Another reason Spain is in the mess it's in: How much do its official cars cost?

The red one may not be official

Methods of purchase and finance need to change

MADRID Spain has some 5,000 official cars used by politicians for their official jobs. These do not include work vehicles and daily transport services for government agencies, but they are semi-official figures (there is an apparent reluctance among most agencies to issue the real numbers), which bely the up to 22,500 bandied about on the Internet. In any case, this puts one official car for every 9,438 inhabitants. However, with the latest number for the country's active residents in 2012 at 17,417,300, we get the figure of only 3,483 working people paying for each of these vehicles.COMING SOON: SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION>>>

New Tesorillo - La Línea bus service

Starts on Monday · Three buses daily Mon to Fri

SAN MARTÍN DEL TESORILLO Travellers from the village and Secadero will be delighted that a new bus line has been established with La Línea, something they have been after for some time. Starting on Monday, September 17,  with the following schedule: SOON YOU WILL BE UNABLE TO SEE THE INFORMATION OFFERED HERE UNLESS YOU SUBSCRIBE >>>

The Night Owl Bus for Campo summer nights

CAMPO DE GIBRALTAR We told you just the other day that the Campo's Public Transport Consortium was establishing a night time bus schedule for the safety of our Yoof. Now it has a name: Búho Bus, running under the (Spanish) slogan 'This summer, don't take the car out at night. I'LL TAKE YOU!' You can see the full schedule if you click on the image. Information on fares for this service, which runs from June 15 (Tonight!) to September 15, is below.>>>

Weekend nights bus service for the coastal area during the summer

Algeciras Bay

CAMPO DE GIBRALTAR The Public Transport Consortium for the Campo announced that it would be setting up a bus line that joins up La Línea, San Roque, Algeciras and Tarifa on weekend nights, beginning on June 15 and ending on September 15. This according to Dolres Hillmer, Councillor for Youth at La Línea, who heard the news at a meeting of her colleagues called by the consortium. Although the exact schedule has not yet been finalised, the idea is to transport youth safely on Friday and Saturday nights. The service will also have a guard aboard every bus. However, there is no news of any similar service for the towns further inland, Jimena and Castellar, or whether Los Barrios is included in the line. (Prospero comment: The two inland municipalities have has much youth, proportionately, as anywhere else. Are their lives any less valuable?)

Clampdown on foreign registered vehicles

Gibraltar-registered vehicles are not exempt
SPAIN Drivers will have noticed that the Guardia Civil Traffic Unit are stopping them more frequently. They should know that the local Guardia Civil are well aware of all the foreign registered vehicles in their area; they know how long a person has been living in the area, and whether or not they have foreign-plated car at the door. Below, you will find a summary of what the law says -and a few suggestions- about a foreign registered car, most of which the GC have until now not been bothered with much. Until now. We keep hearing about cars being towed away or confiscated at the roadside because they are now clamping down on these illegal vehicles. The law is not specific about Gibraltar-plated cars, but it must be assumed that their owners living on this side of the border  are covered by the same law.>>>

Chaos at new access to the Algarve

(Photo: diariodecadiz.es)

PORTUGAL / Algarve The new toll road that accesses the Algarve after crossing the border into Portugal on the Guadian River is in chaos. The reason is that the international bridge requires payment of a toll as from last weekend - but there is very little clarity about how to pay it, with a confusion of methods and prices: foreign registered cars get options ranging from short stay, rental of special card for longer stays and the Via Verde for permanent stays. But the machine that issues the tickets had broken down, just to complicate matters. The A-22 toll bridge has been very controversial since it was first planned but protests from the Portuguese tourism industry, various workers' and farmers' organizations and regular citizens have been widely ignored. The first to suffer under the new tolls are the small restaurants and businesses in Monte Gordo, Altura, Tavila and others nearby, where Spanish tourists from Huelva used to flock for their Sunday family lunches. The tiny information office was overwhelmed by people, mainly Spanish, asking how to get to where they were going.

Bus company staff calls off indefinite strike for 21st

ALGECIRAS (Agencies) The unions representing personnel of the Grupo Ruiz bus company have called off a strike they had planned for Monday next. The reason behind the decision is that the company has ordered payment of wages for October, and a second payment for the extra wages of July. The strike would have affected not only the public transport in Algeciras, Los Barrios and La Línea but also transport at factories, schools and other special services.

Transport strike called for November 21

ALGECIRAS (Agencies) The staff at CTM-Grupo Ruiz, which runs the public transport service in Algeciras, has announced that it will be on Monday, November 21. The reason given by the union representative is that they have not been paid for two wage periods, the extra-ordinary of July and the ordinary for October. Mobilization is scheduled to begin next week, and, if they have not been paid by the 21st, there will be a call for an 'indefinite' strike to begin after that. Both strikes affect public bus transport in Algeciras, Los Barrios and La Línea.

Gibraltar restructures bus service

GIBRALTAR (GibChronicle)  The Gibraltar Government on Thursday announced a major overhaul of the bus routes to reflect feedback from nearly 600 passengers surveyed during the peak month of August. Among the key changes will be the introduction of a bus card entitling passengers to free travel on all routes except the ones linking the border to town, which will continue to cost £1. Anyone – including non residents - will be entitled to apply for the cards, which will cost £5 and carry photo ID of each individual passenger, making them non transferable. But the card – to be known as the Gibraltar Bus Company Club Card - will take a week to be issued on application, meaning day trippers and short-term visitors to the Rock will have to pay to use the buses.>>>

European Commission approves new Mediterranean Railway Corridor

An approximation, no details

SPAIN (Agencies) The Campo de Gibraltar came alight yesterday when the European Commission announced its decision on the future design of what is being called the Railway Corridor (though it involves more than just railways). The new design, which will probably end up being called the Mediterranean Corridor by the media, is scheduled to link Algeciras with the East coast of Spain and on to the rest of Europe, for which plans are also in the making. According to one Costa del Sol paper, the redesign does nothing for them as it bypasses the coast, which has disappointed the mayors there, who had hoped to use European finance to link up their towns, particularly Marbella and Estepona by rail. But the plan approved yesterday by the EC starts in>>>

Government backs Mediterranean rail route linking Algeciras with Barcelona

ALGECIRAS / BARCELONA / SPAIN (Agencies) Reiterating the government's commitment to the EU's Mediterranean Corridor rail route, Public Works Minister José Blanco met with representatives from the regional governments of Valencia, Catalonia, Andalusia and Murcia this week, promising to begin the tendering process for construction of key sections of the high-speed link within two months. The Corridor will link North Africa and southern Spain with central Europe. The Mediterranean Railway Corridor has been on the drawing board for decades, and will eventually link North Africa and southern Spain with central Europe along Spain's Mediterranean coast via a standard European rail gauge. (See CampoPulse items here and here)>>>

European Commission backs Algeciras-Madrid connection to TEN-T

(Map: Bay of Algeciras Port Authority)

ALGECIRAS (Agencies) The European Commission announced yesterday that is will back a rail connection that connects Algeciras to the TransEuropean Railway Network (TEN-T) via Madrid, up through Zaragoza to Tarragona and on to the French frontier at La Junquera. The new plan (the 3rd, at least) coincides with what the Campo de Gibraltar has been saying for years. From this viewpoint, a rail connection with the rest of Europe is seen as essential for the development of the area. The Commission's new plan comes in a report it issued called Un presupuesto para Europa 2020 and is now in the hands of the European Parliament and Council, as well as several committees. This means that the subject has yet to be approved, so nothing is written in granite as yet. Nevertheless,>>>