The Metropolitan Transport Authority (ATM) has presented all the joint actions undertaken during the pandemic with the public administrators and public transport operators in order to ensure safe public transport provision at all times .

ATM’s managing director Pere Torres has reviewed the various initiatives carried out during the crisis generated by COVID-19, especially those linked to safety such as data on the economic impact it has had in the last year, with the perspective of a necessary gradual recovery of demand.

Likewise, he stressed the importance of working together to ensure demand is spread throughout the day to avoid crowding. Not only for health and safety reasons but also to optimise the efficiency of public resources and travel comfort.

City councillor Rosa Alarcón, who also chairs TMB, noted how people are regaining their confidence in public transport, as shown by the fact that this March the trend in transport use was reversed, with public transport once again exceeding private transport.

She also added: “That is good news because public transport will help us to resolve three crises at once: the environmental crisis we had before the pandemic, the health crisis and the economic one, because it facilitates sustainable mobility and helps create jobs”.

The presentation was also attended by Joan Maria Bigas, AMB director of Mobility, Transport and Sustainability; Aurora Carbonell, AMTU chair; Catalan government minister Damià Calvet, and also the senior representatives of the main public transport operators: FGC chair, Ricard Font; the director of Rodalies de Catalunya, Mayte Castillo; the director-general of TRAM, Humberto López, and FECAV chair, José María Chavarría.

What public transport workers and users say

“A safe journey”, the slogan which has featured in various communication actions, also accompanied the presentation of the latest campaign, a collection of the personal experiences of public transport workers and users since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The workers explain in first person what the hardest moments were like and the efforts they make every day to ensure public transport is safe. For their part, the users talk about the impressions travelling by public transport have on them.

The campaign consists of around 20 brief testimonials and a series of podcasts, “Històries del transport públic”, (Stories of public transport), the same as those in the campaign. In all, 10 episodes lasting between 3 and 5 minutes each.

All this material can be seen on the website femunviatgesegur.atm.cat.

If you visit this new site, you can also check out various indicators and resources relating to safe management of public transport including the Barcelona Area Public Transport Covid Report.

This report covers all the actions that ATM has coordinated with the public authorities responsible for transport and the operators to tackle the pandemic, with the emphasis on ensuring the health of workers, users and the general public.

The campaign “A safe journey” is part of a plan of actions that the public transport system wants to undertake throughout the year to restore confidence in the different means of transport and give a fresh impetus to efficient, sustainable mobility committed to the environment.