Can Sunyer cut a forty-five minute journey to nine
Scattered housing that a fixed line could only serve by winding through it. The on-demand service reaches any pickup in seven to nine minutes — and three quarters of requests come through the app.
- Live since
- 1 February
- Setting
- Can Sunyer, Castellví de Rosanes
- Service area
- Almost 5 km², 37 stops
- Hours
- Mon–Fri, 07:00–13:00 and 17:00–19:00
- Fleet
- One vehicle, adapted for reduced mobility
- Booking
- Clic.cat app, web and phone
Results
Down from the 30–45 minutes the old winding line took.
Three quarters of requests arrive through the app — including from elderly residents.
More stops for Sant Andreu de la Barca, and occupancy above the old fixed line from day one.
The challenge
A route that had to visit everywhere served nobody quickly
Can Sunyer is the largest neighbourhood of Castellví de Rosanes — 600 of the village’s 1,900 residents — and it is cut off from the rest of the municipality. The only way there is a mountain road, part of it unpaved: roughly 45 minutes. What Can Sunyer does border is Sant Andreu de la Barca, the neighbouring town where residents do their daily business.
Only one regular bus line served the area, at low frequency, and the vehicle had to make many turns and long detours to reach its destination. Wait and travel times were so long that most people naturally used a private car instead.
What we deployed
Direct trips instead of a route through everywhere
- 01One adapted vehicle
Fully equipped for passengers with reduced mobility, serving almost 5 km².
- 0237 stops
Can Sunyer linked to Sant Andreu de la Barca and Plaça del Bosc.
- 03Booked in Clic.cat
Catalonia's shared on-demand platform — Shotl's second operation on it, after Alta Segarra.
- 04Residents briefed first
Informative sessions for residents and new users the week before launch.
Three administrations, one service
The service is a joint commitment of the city councils of Sant Andreu de la Barca and Castellví de Rosanes with the Generalitat de Catalunya, operated by Soler i Sauret — who brought the model here after running it in neighbouring Vallirana.
A concern before launch was that older residents would not adopt app booking. Up to 75% of requests now arrive through the app, and the phone line stays open for everyone else.
How the assignment rules workOn site
Each boarding and drop-off named on the driver tablet, stop by stop. 
Booked in Clic.cat — Catalonia’s shared on-demand platform — or by phone for anyone who prefers it. 
One vehicle, adapted for reduced mobility, signed for the Can Sunyer – Sant Andreu de la Barca link.
Joan SolerCEO, Soler i Sauret“On-demand transport has overcome an important challenge for the low-ridership fixed lines we had in towns and neighbourhoods with little supply and scattered housing.”
“Now people wait less time, and the travelling time is much shorter too.”
“We have a back-up phone line during service hours, so anyone affected by the digital divide can use a telephone and book a trip using that channel.”
“Stops are closer to users, and not having fixed schedules makes it easy to get to town at almost any time.”
“The wait is now seven to nine minutes. Before, you had to wait for the bus to complete the whole route — half an hour or forty-five minutes.”
“We have gained more stops for Sant Andreu de la Barca, and we are getting people to use public transport rather than private vehicles.”
“This is the result of the commitment of three administrations — a group that has proved we do better when we work together.”
“At first we were worried that elderly people would not have access to the app.”
“But there have been up to 75% of trip requests made via app, which proves that citizens, including the elderly, have had no problems managing it.”
Similar challenges
The problem isn’t specific to Can Sunyer
What made Can Sunyer hard was not distance alone. It was a neighbourhood cut off from its own municipality, closer to the next town than to its town hall, and a single line that had to wind through everywhere and so served nobody quickly.
Scattered neighbourhoods on the edge of a municipality, separated by a hill, a motorway or a river, share that pattern. Where it holds, so does the model: direct trips on request instead of a route through every street, stops within a short walk, and booking in an app most riders adopt.
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SpainWaits fell from 75–90 minutes to 13, and cost per passenger dropped 29.5%.