Detalle noticia

From left to right, Juanjo Suárez, manager of Conda, Luis Martínez and Jesús Suescún, from the Transportation Directorate of the Government of Navarra, and Julio Ceña, technician of INDRA.

The Pamplona / Iruña-Soria bus line renews the fleet of buses that cover the route and reduces the ticket price by 6%, after the award of the service concession for the next 10 years by the Department of Territorial Cohesion. The vehicles debut the NBUS image, which corresponds to the interurban bus services co-financed by the Government of Navarra.

This Pamplona-Soria line will be the first line to come into operation within the Comprehensive Interurban Road Passenger Transport Plan (PITNA).

The General Directorate of Transportation has awarded this service concession to Compañía Navarra de Autobuses, S.A. (CONDA) for a period of 10 years and an estimated contract value of approximately 10 million euros. The rate to be paid by the user will be €0.071756/km (VAT excluded), which represents a 6% reduction on the current price.

The service is scheduled to start up during the month of November 2019 and will connect Pamplona, ​​the Zona Media and the Ribera Navarra with Soria, where you can connect with services to other destinations, including Madrid.

The three new buses that will provide the service will debut the corporate image of NBUS, the name with which the Government of Navarra will unify all lines that are the responsibility of the Interurban Bus Transport Service.

During these days, technical tests are being carried out for the start of the service. The online and on-board ticket sales, occupancy control, voiceovers for people with visual disabilities, destination information signage and vehicle position control on the route have been successfully completed.

Five itineraries through four communities

The Pamplona-Soria service will have five routes that will connect both cities. The first itinerary connects Pamplona with Soria daily by road with stops in several locations: Tafalla, Alfaro (La Rioja), Corella, Cintruénigo, Fitero, Valverde (La Rioja), Ágreda (Soria) and Matalebreras (Soria). The outward journey leaves from Pamplona at 11:00 a.m. and arrives in Soria at 1:49 p.m. The return leaves Soria at 3:00 p.m. and ends in the Navarran capital at 5:56 p.m.

The Pamplona-Tafalla-Tudela-Soria itinerary operates daily with two outward journeys, departing from Pamplona at 01:00 and 14:15, and two return journeys, departing from Soria at 04:00 and 18:00 hours.

The third itinerary, also with daily frequency, departs from Pamplona towards Soria and includes a single stop in Cintruénigo. The departure from Pamplona is set at 8:15 a.m., with arrival at 10:30 a.m., and the return from Soria leaves at 1:20 p.m. and ends at 3:35 p.m. in the Navarran capital.

The Pamplona-Tudela-Cintruénigo-Soria route has a daily frequency, departing from Pamplona at 4:15 p.m. and arriving at 7:00 p.m.; Conversely, departure is scheduled at 10:30 p.m. with arrival in the Navarran capital at 01:15.

The fifth itinerary operates on working Fridays and Sundays and connects Pamplona-Tafalla-TudelaCintruénigo-Soria with departure from Pamplona at 10:00 and 18:15 and arrival in Soria at 12:53 and 21:08, while the journeys from Soria depart at 11:15 and 19:15 and arrive in Pamplona at 14:12 and 22:12 hours.

Safer, more accessible and comfortable buses

The new vehicles will be painted entirely in white and red and labeled with the Navarra shield and the name of the NBUS model, which will allow visualizing and publicizing which bus services are the responsibility of and are financed, where appropriate, by the Regional Administration.

All the new buses that will be used in the NBUS service are equipped with a space for people with reduced mobility who use wheelchairs (PMRSR). In addition, the specifications of technical and administrative requirements of the new concessions incorporate another series of requirements to increase the integral quality of the service.

In the case of the three buses that will make up the Pamplona-Soria line, they will have security systems such as the detection, warning of driver fatigue and distraction or a warning of involuntary lane change/departure, among others, in addition to the innovative on-board security camera system "Drivecam", as well as comfort elements for the traveler such as an on-board free entertainment system for the traveler through an individual screen in each seat, or Wi-Fi network, among others.

The new buses attached to the concession are equipped with Euro VI engines, the technology with the highest environmental requirements today and which guarantees minimum levels of polluting emissions. Improvements in this line also include free customer service telephone or reimbursement of a percentage of the ticket when there is a delay in arrival due to a cause attributable to the company or due to breakdown.

The NBUS image will also be used on the new information website of the Interurban Transport of Navarra (https://nbus.navarra.es), which will centralize all the information on the bus lines dependent on the Regional Administration.

Renovation of passenger lines

The new Pamplona-Soria service (NAV-001) has its origin in the previous concession of permanent regular public transport of passengers for general use between both cities (VNA-019), which during 2017 was used by 110,560 passengers, of which 85,735 passengers used the highway services and the rest, 24,825 passengers used the road services.

This concession will be the first to come into operation within the Comprehensive Interurban Road Passenger Transport Plan (PITNA). The plan responds to the mobility needs of users in conditions of quality, safety, accessibility, respect for the environment and economic efficiency.

The plan redesigns the transport network from a regional vision with trunk, radial and on-demand services that will connect practically 100% of population centers with their regional reference location (health, educational services...), which in turn will connect with Pamplona.

In this way, the 37 current concessions have been integrated into 10 so that the non-deficit concessions contribute profitability to the system, allowing the economic contribution of the Regional Administration to be lower.

The concession for the Pamplona-Soria services will be followed by the rest of the routes: Pamplona-Tafalla; Pamplona-Tudela-Zaragoza; Pamplona-Irún; Pamplona-Estella-Logroño; Pamplona-Alsasua-Vitoria; Pamplona-San Sebastián; Pamplona-Eastern Pyrenees; Pamplona-Western Pyrenees; and interurban services in the Pamplona Region.