Municipal plan to alleviate visitor congestion in Park Güell and its surroundings. The deputy mayor of Urban Planning and also the councilor responsible for the Gràcia district, the socialist Laia Bonet, announced this Friday that the venue will no longer sell tickets at the box office, that tickets can only be purchased online and in advance. Around 4.4 million people visit this park every year, and of all of them around fifteen percent purchase their tickets at the box office. The measure will come into operation on July 1, after an international information campaign.
Deputy Mayor Bonet also explained that the City Council will also triple the area where private traffic for people who are not from the neighborhood is restricted by installing a bollard on Pare Jacint Alegre Street, at the height of Escorial Street. In addition, the stop located on Rambla Mercedes, which will be within the expanded restricted area, will be moved to the corner of Verge de la Salut and Escorial streets. In addition, the one on the Carmel highway will increase its number of spaces, going from four to twelve.
The City Council will also reinforce the bus lines that visitors to this great green space usually use on weekends. We are talking about 116, the 24 and the V19. Bonet added that the 116 already has a new vehicle, that the 24 will have another one on Saturdays and Sundays and that the V19 will incorporate one more on Saturdays and another two on Sundays. In addition, during all the summer months there will be another five buses available that will be distributed based on needs.
This is actually an old problem. For years, many residents on this side of the city have complained about the crush caused by the abundance of tourists on buses in the area. What happens is that precisely these days a tourist season begins that is already presumed historic.
The also president of Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) assured that they will not eliminate more bus lines from the services of Google Maps, which they had 116 deleted because this neighborhood bus was saturated with tourists on the way to the park, but that they prefer to reinforce the rest of lines instead of hiding their service to citizens. “When you delete information you delete it for everyone. The 116 is an exceptional measure. We are talking about a neighborhood bus, designed to provide a neighborhood service.”
And in her appearance before the media, asked by a foreign correspondent if tourists were still well received in Barcelona, the deputy mayor assured that yes, that there would be more to go, that the only thing they are doing is managing the situation in order to that harmony reigns and everyone is happy. “Tourists are welcome, we have always said that, but we want to ensure that we can all function normally, those of us who live here and those who come to visit us.”
