Was this a bus journey or a guilt trip? I felt so disloyal and a little bit dirty as I clutched my new Tenmas multi ride bus ticket for use on those jolly green Titsa buses around Tenerife. Friends all leave you in the end, how fondly I remember sterling, pesatas, and those Zoom ice lollies with their three fruity flavours. But hey, I´m a modern man and not just ready to embrace change, I will even take it for a slap up dinner and declare my undying devotion if it does it´s intended job.
For those unfamiliar with the public bus (or Gua Gua) and tram network in Tenerife, they have for years had a floppy multi ride card called a Bono that gives the holder around 30% discount on journeys. It was like a Willy Wonka golden ticket for me on my journeys around the island, so I was a little apprehensive when I heard of the new fangled Tenmas, contact less travel card. Initial thoughts of chaining myself to the railings of the Titsa head office soon subsided and this morning I purchased my reusuable plastic Tenmas card for 2 euros at a kiosk near the Los Cristianos bus station and got the seller to put a 10 euro top up on it. These credits can be added at 447 outlets around the island in multiples of 5 euros up to 100 euros.
It´s also possible to get your photo added to your card, nudging the one off price to 5 euros, I felt it unfair to inflict my mush on the public so got a plain card. My 10 euro top up came with a 50 cents charge, I´m not sure if that is standard or fluctuates depending on how much you load up. The big push for the launch of the new cards was to get people to register at the on line site before the cut off date, 40,000 people quickly joined and this meant a free card was sent out to their homes. Now that period has passed, there is still a push to get people to register their card bought at one of the outlets around the island. Then special discounts and offers will be whizzing to you through cyber space, and you can top up online, and check your balance.
One of the down points of the card is that unlike the Bono, your transactions are not printed on your card by the drivers machine. Tenmas has to be swiped when getting on, and validated again when getting off, and if you only use it rarely, you may well not remember how much credit you have left. As you validate your card when getting off, the reader does show your balance (saldo) so you could scribble it down, creating a marriage of convenience between old tech pen and paper and your new plastic friend. Like the nearly departed Bono (still useable until August 2018) you can still use your last bit of credit and pay the driver the difference at the discount rate. As I understand it, if you don´t validate your card on the way off, you will get automatically charged to the lines final destination, presumably after a time limit or at the end of the day. Drivers are still real human beings with their cheery smiles and snazzy green and grey uniform, so they will be able to nurse us through teething problems. While we are on the subject, Titsa have just celebrated 40 years and committed to spending 17 million euros on 74 new buses for Tenerife. This could be the biggest revolution since they changed from their original red buses, I can feel a new era of random bus journeys calling out to me. My new plastic card is going to clock up some serious kms. Pop by again soon and I will be explaining how to split the atom.