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The 116 bus line of local public transport in Barcelona has been removed from Google Maps and Apple Maps, very popular smartphone map applications: an official reason was not given, but in all likelihood the municipality of Barcelona asked for it to avoid that the buses on the line become excessively full of tourists. Various local associations have been asking for this for some time. The line connects the city center with Parc Güell, a very popular park with numerous buildings and sculptures designed by the famous architect Antoni Gaudí. The park is the second most visited attraction in Barcelona, after the Sagrada Familia, the famous church also designed by Gaudí: line 116 was therefore almost always full of tourists, which made it difficult for the inhabitants of the neighborhoods it passed through to use it .
Crowding on the 116 was particularly problematic because the buses on that line are smaller than ordinary ones and have only 20 seats. They are the so-called neighborhood bus, the “neighborhood buses” that pass through the hilly peripheral areas of Barcelona or the narrow streets of the centre. There are thirty such lines in the city, designed essentially for the transport of local residents and particularly used by elderly people or people with mobility difficulties, for whom climbing the Barcelona hills on foot would be too tiring.
Barcelona is a city with more than 3 million inhabitants in its urban area. It is also one of the most visited cities in Europe: in 2023 it had 12 million tourists. In the last year their number has exceeded the levels before the Covid-19 pandemic, and the inhabitants have long considered this increase one of the city’s biggest problems: the large amount of tourists has in fact also contributed to the increase in house prices in the city. Residents of the neighborhoods of Gràcia and La Salut, connected by line 116, have long complained to the municipality about the situation.
The municipality had already tried to increase the frequency of trips, but without managing to reduce the crowding of vehicles. In some cases it happened that the older buses, which were actually rarely used, had to stop halfway up to unload some of the passengers, because they were unable to continue due to their weight.
The removal of the line from online maps wasn’t taken particularly seriously at first, but since it came into force last week it appears to have had the desired effect. Some local residents heard from the Spanish newspaper The newspaper they said that for a few days the bus has no longer been crowded with tourists, and can be taken again with peace of mind by the inhabitants of the neighborhoods. One of them, Cesca Sánchez, told The newspaper that before “it was more common to stay outside than to enter”.
In reality, the municipality has not officially said that it has requested the removal of the line from the online maps: it has only said that it is “working to improve mobility” in the neighborhoods involved and that it will communicate the details of the measures taken when they are fully operational and consolidated. However, a Google spokesperson confirmed to Guardian that a line can only be removed from Maps at the request of the local government.
Indeed, some residents fear that the decline in ridership on line 116 is only temporary, and that tourists will soon learn of its existence in other ways. At the moment, however, neither the Parc Güell website nor some popular tourist websites mention the line.
The reduction in crowding on line 116 does not appear to have caused an excessive increase in passengers on lines 24 and V19, which follow similar routes. These other lines are not neighborhood bus but normal buses, more spacious than the small vehicles on line 116.
– Read also: The future of the Sagrada Familia divides Barcelona