Bus 116 disappears from Google Maps and with it the tourists from Park Güell

The large number of tourists who used bus line 116 to get to Park Güell has evaporated as if by magic.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
11 April 2024 Thursday 16:24
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Bus 116 disappears from Google Maps and with it the tourists from Park Güell

The large number of tourists who used bus line 116 to get to Park Güell has evaporated as if by magic. And the constant complaints from the neighborhood's residents have led the City Council to demand a curious solution: eliminate the references from Google Maps.

Bus 116 is designed as a neighborhood bus, with a capacity for 20 people. But its appearance on Google Maps as a recommended means of transport to go to Park Güell led to it being used daily by tourists. It thus lost its main function: to transport the residents of the neighborhood to areas that are difficult to access and to places with few transport connections. The large influx of visitors to the park designed by Gaudí made this service unusable for those who really need it.

Two months ago, Barcelona City Council, in response to neighborhood complaints, undertook to eliminate the references from the internet upon verifying that the measures adopted until then had not been successful in stopping the overcrowding of the 116 bus.

Removing this itinerary from the internet has led tourists to look for alternatives. The most common are bus lines 24 and V19, which end the route at the Carmel highway access. Another way to get there is by metro to Plaza Lesseps or with the D40 and H6 buses, which stop at Travessera de Dalt, where you have to take a ten-minute walk.