Taxi service ‘saved’ for Finestrat and Alfas

THE 25 taxi drivers based at L’Alfas del Pi and Finestrat have rejected a proposal for the creation of an integrated joint area running to the coast.

This should prove good news for residents in those areas and beyond. Had the proposals been accepted the assertion was that most taxi drivers would opt to move from the two inland areas, shifting their start rank to the more lucrative Albir area.

“No driver is going to be working on Polop if you can download to the coast,” said the presidents of the groups of L’Alfas, Javier Mora, and Finestrat, Germain Guardiola.

For them, far from improving the service, they said it “will get worse in rural towns because, for example, if someone in Bolulla now calls a taxi, he has one in ten minutes as it goes from Callosa, if the taxi is in Alfaz it will take at least, twenty minutes to get to him. “

Moreover, the argument that a saving would be made by merging the areas, the taxi drivers say that only a 5% reduction would occur, as opposed to the 20% claimed by supporters of the merger.

On prices, the taxi drivers from Finestrat L’Alfas also stressed that the current mileage rate charged by them is €0.82 per kilometre, and below the €1.01 from other areas such as Alicante or Valencia.

For now at least, inland users of the Marina Baixa’s taxi service can breathe a sigh of relief.

By Paul Deed