No. 32 - Its Gran Canaria Magazine

74
By Míchel Jorge Millares
REPORT I REPORTAJE EDICIÓN 32
Getting around the island by bus
50 years ago an exciting adventure began. A
story of pirate vehicles and strikes, of an island
hitherto unable to develop because of a public
transport system that was so awful it was
calamitous. Today, however, this company is a
benchmark in the Canary Islands and in Spain,
offering routes that connect all the towns on
the island and providing a high quality service
for tourists who travel to other parts of the island
outside the tourist resorts.
But let’s take a step back into the past, because
there is an interesting story to tell.
The situation of the public transport company
was at breaking point, due to a strike that
was dragging on despite occurring in times of
dictatorship when a strike could lead to very
harsh repressive measures.
The workers, however, were left with no
choice. The company that fulfilled the Public
Passenger Service, called Aicasa, was gradually
crumbling because its old-fashioned Daimler
vehicles - bought in England at scrap prices
- travelled almost empty on the main roads,
with hardly any passengers. These were the
orange-coloured 'guaguas', the local name
for buses. But their deplorable condition, constant
breakdowns and the poor state of the
roads only exacerbated the inconvenience for
passengers, added to which was their timetable
which severely limited the mobility of passengers
who needed to get around. So, how
did the islanders solve the need to travel between
the towns and villages? They created
the so-called 'pirate' cars.
Foto: Global.com
This is a strange term to describe public transport
on the island, and hard to understand for
people from outside who were rather shocked
to see the islands were territories where quite
extraordinary things went on, highly original
goings on that were quite normal in the day
to day lives of the islanders. Public transport is
indeed one of those realities that differentiate
Gran Canaria from mainland Spain, as its orography
means the roads are simply some of the
most amazing mountain passes in Europe.
In those days the vehicles were little more
piles of than junk, a burden on communications,
which gave rise to an unsustainable situation
that was the seed of competition in the
form of the 'pirate' cars, a popular description
which (according to writer Pancho Guerra),
meant "Bus Tourism. It was like a small vehicle
for hire, which charged fares at the same
time as the official vehicles, the so-called regular
timetable buses". And he also describes
the quite unique term 'guagua' as a "bus or
urban minibus. (Guagua is a general name in
the Canary Islands and America for bus; it is
also used in Alicante too. It is perhaps so called
because of its cheap cost or ticket price, since
the expression "de guagua" means almost free
or completely free). The interurban service was
known as "coche de horas" (regular timetable
bus)".
Foto: Fedac
This competition led to the demise of Aicasa,
which in turn meant the local administrations
were forced to intervene. They came up with
an idea that at the time sounded rather far
fetched, but which over time proved to be the
right decision. The island was split into two
areas, for two separate operators. Aicasa became
a limited company (Salcai) in the southeast,
while the pirate buses became Utinsa
and covered the northwest region.
A young and enthusiastic group set to work on
building a new company, in a very short period
of time, which would grow rapidly thanks
to the boom in tourism. Salcai solved a chronic
problem of passenger transport on the island,
which was hindering its development, through
a company model in which the workers would
be its owners, and who had a utopian goal in
those times of dictatorial Spain of creating stable
and well-paid jobs and, at the same time,
to be a profitable company that could distribute
dividends and increase the share value of
those leaving the company.
The company also saw to its own technological
development to improve the quality of service
and work. All this facilitated its great success.
It eventually managed to merge the two
companies Utinsa and Salcai into one, Global,
whose network of routes today is an invitation
to discover and enjoy every corner of Gran Canaria.
Coche guagua. Foto: Fedac