More buses on the roads. | Patricia Lozano

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The Balearic government is making a further commitment to public transport in Mallorca by increasing bus service frequency and the number of routes. Starting this Friday, ten new routes will be launched and there will be 66 more buses on the roads. One hundred and sixty new drivers have been recruited.

Train frequencies are to also be increased. At rush hours, the Palma-Manacor and Palma-Sa Pobla lines will have a train every 40 minutes instead of every hour. Along the Inca-Marratxí-Palma corridor, there will be a train every 10 minutes; at present it is every 20 minutes.

The government is encouraging the public to use public transport and to apply for the Intermodal card. A transport promotion plan for the card includes a free top-up of five euros.

Some five million passengers a year use the railway, while ten million use the buses. The government has further plans, notes the transport minister, Josep Marí, but it needs to wait for the current situation with fuel to normalise. The rise in the price of electricity and fuel has affected the ministry's costs. In the case of the railway, the budget for half a year was used for the first three months of the year.

The government has recognised that its plan will involve greater electricity consumption. In this regard, the future photovoltaic park planned for Santa Maria will offer savings of around 30%.