User:Metroxed/Bilbobus

Bilbobus is the name of the metropolitan bus services of the city of Bilbao, in the Basque Country. Bilbobus manages all bus services within the city of Bilbao and it is operated by BioBide, a commercial brand managed jointly by PESA and ALSA, a subsidiary of the British National Express Group. There are 28 main lines plus 8 minor lines serving the city. Buses are required to carry red colour schemes and white lettering.

Bilbobus is part of a wider network of transport within the city of Bilbao and the province of Biscay, which includes the Metro Bilbao subway network, the Euskotren Tranbia tram network and the commuter-rail services offered by Euskotren Trena and Renfe.

History
The Bilbobus brand was created in 1988 by the Bilbao City Hall to unify all the metropolitan bus services that operated within the city, that at the time were operated by Transportes Colectivos S.A. TCSA and that included normal services provided by regular red-coloured buses and special blue-coloured minibus services that has features as allowing clients to enter and exit the bus at will. TCSA had a long tradition in operating the transport systems of the city, being the company that operated the first tramway line Bilbao-Santurtzi that opened in 1896, and thus was the only operator of Bilbobus from 1988 to 2008, when it was transferred to French multinational Veolia. Since 2012, it is operated by BioBide, a commercial brand owned by Transportes PESA, a Basque transport company, and ALSA, a Spaish subsidiary of British National Express Group.