markcurran.co.uk: Bilbao Bus Strike

Bilbobus

The Bilbao urban bus network is operated by ALSA (Spain's largest bus and coach operator and sister company to National Express under Mobico ownership) under the brand Bilbobus, I believe under contract to the regional Basque Government rather than the municipality.

The majority of the Bilbobus fleet is made up of rigid hybrid Mercedes Citaro buses of varying lengths.

Industrial Dispute

There is an on-going industrial dispute ("strike") between the employees and ALSA since the beginning of 2024. Action appears to have sporadic up to 9th April and then became daily. It appears this is due to the lack of a pay rise for three years (in other places reported as a below CPI pay offer) exacerbated by alleged other failings by ALSA in their employee relations. ALSA note that the value of their contract does not allow for any pay rise; in turn the trade union have very much identified the two politicians they feel are to blame for the current situation. The length and scale of the dispute is resulting in a lot of propaganda appearing on buses and bus stops.

Strike propaganda covering route displays and accessibility information.

There have apparently been issues with deliberate vandalism rendering buses unusable. I suspect that buses have been used as barricades to prevent access to depots and in the course of that they get hand written messages added to them,

It's very clear which politicians are apparently responsible: this image inside a Bilbobus vehicle.

And again! The pink poster on the left is a detailed explanation of the rationale of the industrial action.

Another poster added to a bus....

And another....

Servicios Minimos

The industrial action is taking place every weekday: at weekends the full normal timetabled service is operating. This does not mean there are no buses on weekdays: a minimum service level is operating. It appears to be unilaterally imposed by the Basque government, but as that comes from World Socialist Web Site, I'd take that with a pinch of salt To their credit Bilbobus have posted basic timetables on every bus stop, and the revised service seems to be largely correctly reflected in their timetables and real time section of their app, although I'm told it's not always 100% accurate.

One iteration of the minimum service timetable.

A later iteration of the minimum service timetable (June 2024) which shows more services and routes operating. Presumably the finances of the individual drivers or trades unions are being stretched with such a long industrial dispute so more are returning to work, as well as the increased minimum service levels.

Servicios Minimos windscreen display.

Minimum Service on route 7.

Bilbao is a very popular tourist destination, but the open top Bus Turistico has also fallen victim to the industrial action.

Response

As noted above it appears that the provincial Basque Government have some ability to impose minimum service levels, and have raised it over time. It would be great to know the legislative framework behind that.

The inter-urban/commuter hinterland Bizkaibus are making stops at more suburban Bilbao bis stops. These don't appear on any [obvious] timetables or real time information (as Bizkaibus and Bilbobus see to be completely separate systems).

Bizkaibus, a substantial inter-urban network centered on Bilbao, operated by a variety of contracted bus operators in an even wider variety of vehicles. This Irizar i4 carries a tiny Avanza name on the front.

There is also some on-line news posts in the English language press in Spain about whether the Basque Government can - and apparently will - remove ALSA's contract to operate Bilbobus. At the time of writing I can't find the link, but this is a common government response rather than to address the underlying problem (in the UK see: Operator of Last Resort).

In the absence of any solutions...

....here's some more Bilbobus images...and I'll add that ordinarily Bilbobus is a fantastic operation wth dense coverage of this hilly city and supported by a two line Metro, one tram line, a cable car, Bizkaibus, inter-urban rail networks of Euskotren and RENFE and a large coach station.