“Today we don’t fine you but you can’t bring it”

taketonews

Daniela (26 years old) is surprised, electric scooter in hand, by two Security guards getting off the train at the station clot of Barcelona around 9:30 a.m. this February 1, 2023day it starts the ban on these vehicles in public transport Barcelona metropolitan areaboth in their own trains or buses as in their respective facilities.

“I arrived yesterday from Burgos to work in Barcelona and I had no idea of the new regulation”, explains Daniela, who is questioned by the guards before she crosses the Clot station exit turnstile: “Today at the moment we do not fine you, but remember that for the next six months you can’t bring the scooter on the train.”

The guards, who prefer not to reveal their names, assure this newspaper that the announced fines of €200 have not started to apply from this first day of restriction, arising from the fact that the battery of one of these vehicles caught fire and hurt three people when driving between stations Sant Boi and Molí Nou of the Generalitat Railways (FGC).

“For now we only notice, but we are waiting to receive a new ‘block of sanctions’ soon”, they comment. In turn, they admit that, despite the difficulties what it means for them to control the access of scooters, “we take it as one more operation that we must comply with, like when the masks“.

Another security officer at the Clot station affirms that “we have barely seen scooters this morning”, and at that precise moment a boy appears at the exit turnstile of the train with a scooter in tow.

Is named calm downhave 24 years and uses the scooter to go to work “because the car in Barcelona is horrible”. Like Daniela, she is also unaware of the new ban. “Get out of here because if someone else catches you He sticks you 200 €!”, he is scolded by another security guard as he lets him go.

“Why bikes yes and scooters no?”

In Sants Station, a girl walks quietly with her electric scooter. She is called didi (24 years old) and says he found out about the new ban the day before, January 31.

“Is unfair: why bikes yes and scooters no? It is done by the explosion of a battery, but because of one we all have to smear”, cries didiwhich considers the scooter “necessary” to go to work after taking the train from his place of residence, the neighborhood of collblanc of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, to the Barcelona neighborhood of The Guinardó.

Despite the case of didia security guard saints admits that during the day he has not seen too many scooters: “It seems that people are respecting the new norm.”

The few scooters sighted in Sants, however, contrast with those that can be seen on the platforms of the train station in Catalunya Square this February 1st. Without going further, there (48 years old), who adds to the ignorance of the measure “until this very morning”, says he uses the scooter to go to work. “I live in Vilanova i la Geltrú and the truth is that being able to use the scooter since I got off the train is going very well for me,” says the user.

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Too mohammed (23 years old) carries a scooter on the platform of Plaza Catalunya. Comes from Blanes (Girona)where he lives, and with a visible limp, he tells that he uses the scooter to get around to and from the train since a “health problem“It doesn’t let you walk well.

During the next six months, accessing the Barcelona trains with an electric vehicle exposes you to fines of €200, according to the new regulation announced by the Metropolità Transport Authority (ATM).



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