Launch of the shuttle service between the Illunbe car park and the Centre on Saturday
The summertime shuttle bus promoted by Dbus and the City of Donostia/San Sebastián through the Department of Mobility will start running on Saturday, 13 July. The service connects the free Illunbe car park with the Centre.
The shuttle service carries passengers from the free car park in Illunbe to the centre of San Sebastian, encouraging the use of public transport and reducing traffic in the city. In recent years, the service has been made available during the Christmas and summer periods, and has proven a great success with people visiting the city. Last year, for example, a total of 37,715 trips were made.
According to the Councillor for Mobility and Sustainable Transport, Olatz Yarza, “the shuttle bus has become established in recent years, providing visitors with an opportunity to get into the Centre quickly, conveniently, and sustainably”.
Yarza added that “the service has enabled us to increase the use of the Illunbe car park as a “park and ride” facility and deterrent in periods with the greatest influx of visitors. The initiative is an important addition to a set of measures to be implemented in the coming days to reduce the excessive traffic in the city at this time of year, lessening environmental and acoustic pollution for the benefit of the community.”
The shuttle service will run every 20 minutes, daily, from Saturday, 13 July to Sunday, 1 September and will continue to have two stops:
- Illunbe stop: departures from 11 am to 10.20 pm, every 20 minutes.
- Plaza Centenario stop: departures from 11.10 am to 10.30 pm, every 20 minutes.
New features
This year, to encourage people coming to Donostia by car during the summer season to use the facility, the Mobility Department of the City Council and the Department of Road Infrastructure of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa have agreed to provide information about the service on illuminated panels installed on the main roads into Donostia, inform of this service and guide vehicles to this car park.
Once in the city, drivers also receive information about the existence of this “Park and Ride” option on the screens of digital thermometers and vertical signs, along with the city’s other two deterrent car parks (Igara and Universities), which are also connected to the Centre by regular Dbus lines.
Unlike previous years, this service will charge the same rates as the city’s other regular lines, which are payable with all the tickets accepted by Dbus: cards such as Mugi, BAT and BARIK, currently with a 50% discount, the San Sebastian Card, QR and EMV digital tickets and occasional ticket.
Passengers paying for their tickets with the Transport Card can transfer free of charge to all neighbourhoods within the Dbus network. Visitors who do not have this card can purchase the new QR code ticket, which allows unlimited travel within the entire Dbus network for the next 30 minutes, 24 hours or 48 hours using the official Dbus app, available for iOS and Android.
100% electric bus
The vehicle that will make the trips from Illunbe to the center is a 12-metre 100% electric zero emissions bus. It is a MAN Lions City 12e model, which has been acquired as part of the extraordinary call for Tourism Sustainability in Destinations by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism financed by the European Next Generation Funds.
