The Área Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB) and the Local Council of Cerdanyola del Vallès have unveiled the new urban bus service for the municipality. From 9 April this year, the AMB will take on ownership and management of the service for which the Local Council has been responsible until now, and merge it with the Bus Metropolità service. This change, which also brings a significant improvement to the service, represents another step in the process to transfer urban bus services within the second metropolitan ring of Barcelona over to the AMB, in accordance with Spanish Law 31/2010 on the Área Metropolitana de Barcelona.

The new urban service in Cerdanyola del Vallès operated by Moventis begins today, Thursday 9 April, and consists of five lines. Between them, they cover the entire urban area and the various districts of the municipality. In addition, the service will also cover Bellaterra, the Parque del Alba, the education centres of Flor de Maig and Institución Montserrat Montero, and Can Cerdà.

The unveiling event that took place yesterday, 8 April, was attended by the Vice-President for Mobility, Transport and Sustainability of the AMB and Mayor of Cerdanyola, Carlos Cordón, the municipal Councillor for Mobility, Conchi Martínez, and the Head of Mobility, Transport and Sustainability of the AMB, Joan Maria Bigas.

“Today we celebrate the launch of this new urban bus service, which represents a qualitative leap forward in mobility for Cerdanyola and, by extension, the second metropolitan ring of Barcelona. The teamwork between AMB and the Local Council of Cerdanyola is a clear reflection of the improvements that we all wanted to see regarding the urban bus service in our municipality”, said Carlos Cordón. “The only thing left now is for the Regional Government to also take the necessary step that we’re all waiting to see: getting to work on improving the intercity lines, like the e3. These lines have some major flaws in our city, preventing us from achieving the excellence in public transport mobility that Cerdanyola in particular and the second metropolitan ring of Barcelona in general need”, he added.

The Local Councillor for Mobility, Conchi Martínez, stressed that “the handover of management to AMB allows us to make a qualitative leap forward in urban transport, with more lines, better coverage and a clear commitment to sustainability”. She went on to add that “this is a strategic step that improves connectivity for Cerdanyola and positions us as a benchmark in more efficient and accessible mobility that is fully integrated into the metropolitan environment”.

Five urban bus lines and a name change: CV1, CV2, CV3, CV4 and CV5

The lines have been renamed so the service can be identified more easily. The urban lines SU1, SU2 and SU3 will now be called CV1, CV2 and CV3. Furthermore, AMB has created two new lines in the urban bus network of Cerdanyola: CV4 and CV5.

All five lines come with improvements:

Lines CV1 and CV3 maintain the current routes of lines SU1 and SU3 but expand the service at weekends, on public holidays and weekdays in August, times at which there had been no service until now.

Line CV2 includes several noteworthy improvements:

It improves coverage in Bellaterra with two separate routes: on the one hand, service will continue to the upper parts of Bellaterra via Camí Antic de Sant Cugat and, on the other hand, service is provided to the area of Carretera de Bellaterra and Avenida Bartomeu, which connects to the FGC train station in Bellaterra, the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the city centre of Cerdanyola.

The route is adapted to the centre of Cerdanyola and a new service is offered that connects the districts of Carretera de Barcelona and La Farigola.

It significantly expands the existing service from 3 buses per day on line SU2 to 17 buses per day.

The service is also expanded to include weekends, public holidays and weekdays in August.

The new CV4 line complements the CV2 line and creates a new connection between the districts of La Farigola and Carretera de Barcelona with the centre of Cerdanyola. Furthermore, the current number of buses running per day to the districts of Montflorit and Can Cerdà from the centre of Cerdanyola is doubled from three to five. This new line will run on weekdays.

The new CV5 line:

This replaces the existing PA line (Parc de l’Alba) and expands regional coverage.

It connects the FGC train station in Bellaterra, the Vila Universitària and the UAB faculty buildings with the Cerdanyola-Universitat station and Parc de l’Alba, and extends its route to Plaza de Europa and the Parc Tecnològic del Vallès. This enables links with other urban lines in Cerdanyola and with intercity lines (A4 and B7) that connect with the centre of Cerdanyola del Vallès, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Rubí and Barcelona. This line runs every 30 minutes and the number of buses per day is also increased by four to a total of 26.

Expansion of the fleet, improvements to bus stops and the AMB Mobilitat app

Based on six vehicles until now, the service will be expanded to include a total of 10 buses. This is a significant fleet expansion and allows the number of buses per day to be increased, thereby boosting capacity to carry more passengers. 10 vehicles have been provisionally included to run the service in the first few months (7 midibuses and 3 microbuses). However, the new vehicles that will eventually continue the service into the future will be brought in over the course of the year, of which seven are fully electric and the other three are hybrid.

To coincide with the launch of this new service, AMB has also installed new bus stops throughout the municipality to match those used in all other municipalities across the metropolitan area of Barcelona. Furthermore, the transfer of responsibility has enabled the information at bus stops to be improved: the timetables, panels and information maps have been completely renewed and new screens will soon be installed to provide users with bus information in real time.

Furthermore, information on the new urban bus service in Cerdanyola is already available, in real time, on the free AMB Mobilitat app that enables users to plan their public transport and bicycle journeys.