GENOVA & FIRENZE

Flying back on an orange plane from Pisa tomorrow, I took the chance to make a quick stop in Genova (Genoa) to see their latest addition to the still very modest metro system. In Dec. 2012, the eastern terminus at Brignole railway station was opened.

This really gives the entire line a lot more sense, as it now links both major railway stations (which are also directly linked by many regional trains through a cross-city tunnel), so passengers coming from the region and suburbs on a Trenitalia train can easily hop on the metro and get into the city centre proper around De Ferrari or down to the port area. Unlike the Principe metro station, which is a bit isolated from the railway station (a direct access may be built along with the railway station's current modernisation scheme), Brignole metro station is fully integrated with the railway station, as it occupies the northernmost platform. Trains coming from De Ferrari leave the tunnel some 50 m before the side platforms start. The platform level is rather simple, though pleasant, while the vestibule that is directly connected to the pedestrian cross tunnels of the railway station has glass cladding on the columns with some archeological exhibits in the middle. I didn't take too many photos as an employee came up and told me that AMT does not allow photography...As the metro platforms are at the far end of the multi-track railway station it is quite a walk from the many buses that stop or terminate on the station square.

From the train, you can clearly see the provisions made for the intermediate Corvetto station, in fact the entire shell for this cavern station is there including platforms, but nothing fitted out. So they'll need to build an access shaft from the surface, let's hope this will be done soon as the station would be in quite a busy area (a huge roundabout with pedestrian underpasses...).

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From Pisa I took a daytrip to Firenze (Florence), just some 45 minutes on a Regionale Veloce, which runs nonstop between the two cities. Besides the usual tourist programme, I tried their tram line in service since 2010.

So far there is only one radial line, and no signs are visible (at least not in the city centre) that any of the other two planned lines are under construction three years after the start of service of the first line. This one serves the western suburbs and the neighbouring town of Scandicci. It runs about every 4 minutes! and was pretty busy at all times when I saw it. It is hard to imagine that the second line could share the same terminus next to the main railway station Firenze Santa Maria Novella, as they already use both tracks with just one line. 

The line is operated with Sirio trams, which look quite pleasant, but like Citadis trams, they have this rather annoying lateral kick whenever the track is slightly curved. Most of the track is on a dedicated right-of-way and on the section west of the river, trams run rather quickly without any delaying stops at intersections which are governed by traffic lights, but things are different east of the river. First, the trams run onstreet, then there are several traffic lights, until the trams reach a rather absurd S-curve between Porta al Prato and Cascine. Maybe someone can explain why they didn't build a straight alignment across the carpark there, instead of paving the park with concrete resulting in this double curve (with the above-indicated running characteristics of the Sirio trams)? Click here to view it on Google Maps to know what I mean!

The stops are all of a standard design, but for some unknown reasons, those closer to the city centre don't have a covered section, which would have been quite useful today as it was raining most of the day (and therefore my photographic ambitions were very low....). The tram line is fully integrated into the public transport system, which like in most Italian cities is rather cheap to ride.

LINKS

AMT Genova

GEST Firenze Tram Operator

Genova Metro & Firenze Tram at UrbanRail.Net

 

MILANO

I had two days in Milan (5-6 March) to update myself on the latest developments, the most exciting being, of course, the brand new M5. Since my last visit in 2009, however, two extensions to existing lines have opened, so I had to explore these, too:

- M3 from Maciachini to Comasina: this extension really felt like eternity to be completed, but eventually it opened in 2011. There is not much to say about it, as all the stations look exactly the same as the older ones on M3, which basically has a pleasant design, especially when I compare the stations to the older M1 and M2, the latter being in really a bad state and needing an urgent overhaul, some sort of modernisation whatever. M1 is actually better, as the materials used for the wall cladding were much more noble and are better preserved after many decades. Back to M3, what I need to critise again are the rather narrow platforms. At the last stop, interchange is available to the old interurban tram to Limbiate, but now that finally they decided to upgrade this line, the interchange should have been made a bit nicer. The other interchange at Affori FN is quite good, as the Ferrovia Nord station was actually moved north to the location of the metro station, so although the two systems don't share the same vestibule, it is only a short walk to what is a simple but pleasant railway station.

Rather a problem on M3, and also on the new section, is the noise coming from the trains on steel tracks. The new Meneghino trains are no exception either. This is often a problem with concrete trackbeds, but there are ways nowadays to reduce this noise level (see M5).

- M2 got a second branch also at its southern end, the one to Assago. The trains surface just after the Famagosta junction, run past the depot and on a long nonstop section to Assago Milanofiori Nord. I missed a bit of speed on this section, but was surprised how many people actually use it, as it doesn't really serve any residential neighbourhoods, just offices, shopping centres and the Forum, a major venue. Many people seem to use it for park&ride (despite the extra fare it requires!). The two stations in Assago are rather unspectacular, a bit of concrete and steel, but nothing to remember.

- The new M5 is largely identical, technologically, to Brescia's new metro and to the metro in Copenhagen, except that the trains are longer with an additional middle section. As of now, the line is pretty straight, the only significant curves are just north of Zara where the two single-track tunnels join into one. The stations were built to a standard design developed for this line, and I have to admit that I found it very pleasant, much better than I expected after I had seen some photos. The violet colour is, of course, omnipresent, not only on signs, but also in station furniture, though in a slightly different, more purple tone. Only the entrances from the street are a bit narrow, but the mezzanines are spacious, and although the platforms are not really much wider than in Brescia, I didn't feel this stark contrast between open space above and narrow space below as I did in Brescia. The trains run quite smoothly although a bit of fine-tuning may be useful as they tend to suddenly slow down once they have reached the maximum speed, when there should be a continuous speed curve from exiting one station and coming to a stop at the next. As the line is completely straight as of now, I cannot tell whether the track is well-laid in the curves, let's hope so, when the next section to Garibaldi opens later this year. The western extension to San Siro is very winding, so a good track will be essential. Stopping times at stations are reasonably short, no delays, at Zara it could even be a bit longer as everybody gets off and many people get on.

At present, there is only one interchange with another metro line, namely M3, and the solution found there is quite good. Fortunately, the road is wide enough, so M5 can cross over M3 on the level of the M3 mezzanine. Therefore the M5 tracks were separated to pass on either side of the M3 mezzanine, so the superwide M5 'platform+mezzanine' is a logical northern extension of the M3 mezzanine, so a transfer only requires one flight of stairs between the two lines and a short walk. Putting M5 below M3 would certainly have required the interruption of M3 for some time.

The next interchange will be at Garibaldi. In a Berlin fashion, the M2 station was once built with four platform edges in provision for a future line, but for some reason, M5 will not take advantage of this provision, instead its station will lie more or less perpendicularly to the M2 station. I still cannot comprehend, however, why the effort wasn't taken to use the empty trackbeds in the M2 station as it would have created a perfect transfer situation with cross-platform interchange. It would have required a bit more complicated single-track tunnels to funnel M5 trains into that station, but I guess it wouldn't have been impossible.

Although it was quite busy during afternoon rush-hour, I'm still not sure this line was really necessary or a first necessity, as the same road is served by two metrotranvia lines, i.e. a reserved tram right-of-way which is not operated at capacity. Passenger numbers will certainly increase also with the extension to Garibaldi, a very busy hub. But apart from the western extension to San Siro, a northern extension to Monza as initially proposed is definitely needed to give this line its full sense. 

 

Otherwise, well done, and if in Brescia it was difficult to take a good photo of the train, here it is impossible, as it is all underground. Maybe someone can get access to the depot and take a few, thanks...

LINKS

ATM

Milan at UrbanRail.Net

BERGAMO

On my way from the automatic metro in Brescia to the next in Milan I made a stopover in Bergamo, about halfway between the two, to see its light rail line opened in 2009. Anyway, the city itself is also worth a visit, with its lower and upper towns connected by a funicular.

The tram is not a typical modern urban tramway, but rather a regional service that makes use of an old railway alignment all along its way. Trams run every 15 minutes to Albino and they were even pretty busy on a late Monday morning. The line starts outside the railway station where the old valley railway used to start, too. The entire infrastructure is new, though, and double-track throughout. The stops, except Borgo Palazzo which lies in a trench and even has escalators, are rather simple with exposed-concrete shelters, and all of them were covered with graffiti. The line doesn't really travel through nice areas, mostly old industrial estates which made this valley prosperous in the 19th century. The trains run rather slow along the section within Bergamo, where there are more level crossings, but they really speed up on the outer section where there are fewer stops and fewer level crossings. All intersections are protected by traffic lights which switch to green automatically when the tram approaches, so this gives the impression of a very fast ride. Being all laid with Vignol tracks, the Sirio trams run quite smoothly.

One negative point I have to mention is the fact that the line doesn't really go into the city centre. As originally proposed, it would be easy to extend it right to Porta Nuova and possibly further up to provide interchange with the funicular that goes to the Città Alta, as Viale Papa Giovanni XXIII is wide enough to create a dedicated right-of-way. This would make the existing line even more attractive for passengers from those towns, but it would also attract new passengers on the urban section, making the entire system more cost-efficient. There have been other plans for a second, similar line and an urban east-west tram, but it seems that these projects have gotton stuck somewhere....

LINKS

TEB Bergamo 

Bergamo at UrbanRail.Net

 

BRESCIA

As winter has been long and grey back home and I felt that this might be one of the last chances in Europe to see a completely new metro system open (the next should be in Thessaloniki and maybe in 10-15 years in Dublin...), I made a quick decision and got an affordable flight ticket to Bergamo to visit Brescia's metro on its opening weekend. A good and bad decision.

 

The metro opened its doors for the general public on time, at 16 hours on Saturday 2 March 2013. Well, a few months after its scheduled opening, but once a definitive date had been announced a few weeks ago (still waiting for the final approvals, though), all was prepared for a big party. And it seemed that all of the city's 190,000 inhabitants plus those from the surrounding region came in to try the metro on its first two days when rides were free. So actually getting on the train was quite difficult, at some stations in the central area even getting into the stations, as these were blocked to avoid overcrowding. Service seemed to be more frequent on Saturday, while on Sunday trains ran every 10 minutes only, which is probably o.k. for a normal Sunday, but not today. Sometimes there were some disruptions, defective doors or other failures, which caused some delays, but all in all the metro seemed to prove it works, and probably it won't be put to the same test for a long time.

Considering that this is not really a big city which would normally have a metro, Brescia can now be proud of what they have achieved. Together with Rennes and Lausanne, it is among the smallest metro cities, and they all have driverless metros. The system chosen here is the same found in Copenhagen, where it has been working fine since 2000 (after many teething problems in its early years), and also in Milan where line M5 opened only some weeks ago (which I will visit on Wednesday). Compared to the VAL system in Rennes, or closer from here in Turin, the Ansaldo system has the big advantage that trains are 2.65 m wide which makes them much more spacious and thus much more pleasant to ride that the VAL trains just over 2 m wide. The Alstom system in Lausanne is similar in width. The Ansaldo trains run on normal steel rails, which are laid correctly, i.e. with the necessary superelevation in curves (not like the Canada Line in Vancouver!) and trains ride quite smoothly except for a few abrupt slowdowns, which may require some fine-tuning still. The biggest problem in operation seems to be the excessive station dwelling time. I don't know whether this was chosen on purpose for this busy weekend or whether this will be the standard. It was now around a full minute, when 20 seconds is normal in standard stations, and 30-40 seconds in very busy stations like interchanges. If this is different during normal operation please write a comment, thanks. At the two termini, trains switch to the departure track when they enter the station so they can leave immediately (in fact, with some delays accumulated at Sant'Eufemia they seemed to depart quicker in the reverse direction than they did in normal stations!).

 

The stations are huge and small at the same time. Although the trains runs deep beneath the city centre in a tube tunnel, all underground stations were built by cut-and-cover which results in large impressive spaces, especially those where several beams that hold the side walls were incorporated into the design and which have one of those side walls clad in black metal sheets. But basically in all underground stations the actual platform area feels too small and narrow, most so at Vittoria which, right in the heart of city, will become the busiest station on the system. Being so small, there are no benches to sit down while you wait. And being laid out for 3-car trains only, the stations are quite short anyway (about 50 m). Unlike in Turin, there is no art whatsoever exposed anywhere, so the stations look a bit austere. So at the end of the day I thought, the stations are o.k. (I expect the M5 stations in Milan to be rather dull, but who knows, may be surprised), and some are very impressive when you enter the main hall, but they could have been more exciting – so Naples has no reason to fear that they will lose their number 1 position in Italian metro design.

 

The Brescia Metro doesn't actually have a colour to give it some identity, maybe it's blue, but that's not properly defined. Outside some stations in the central area, there is already a logo post in blue, and the logo as such is also blue. Inside the stations, the name is written in blue letters on the white walls. Anyway, I don't like their logo, and I think it was a bad decision not to use the standard metro logo used everywhere else in Italy, i.e. the white M on a red square, which, like the German U on a blue background, is known by everyone, while this is a local logo that not even visitors from Italy will recognise as a metro entrance. Unfortunately, smaller cities tend to be different for the sake of it.

Despite a delay of several months in opening the metro, the areas around most stations were not finished now, maybe due to winter time, and as mentioned before, the logo post was rather an exception at Stazione FS, Vittoria and Ospedale (maybe some more station). The metro station at Stazione FS (Railway Station) is actually not at the railway station, but some 100-200 m further east and as of now, you have to guess where it is as inside the railway station there is no hint, and once outside you can't really see it as it is hidden behind a high and ugly building. Vittoria station is close to the main shopping street and all the major squares in the city centre, so that's really the most central stop. San Faustino is at the northern fringes of the older part of the city. Apparently there were early plans for another station at Gramsci between Stazione FS and Vittoria, probably quite useful, as the stretch between the two is rather long, and this would have taken some burdon off Vittoria.

 

 

 

I'm sure that this metro will be well-used as it runs through quite densely built-up areas, except for the southern stretch from Poliambulanza to the terminus, which cuts through some undeveloped land but there may be some construction following soon. In fact, a new housing estate has already been built around Sanpolino station, the only elevated station in a residential area. The terminus Sant'Eufemia-Buffalora is also elevated but surrounded by commercial and industrial sites. Between Poliambulanza and San Polo Parco, the trains run at grade, with the first station lying below grade, though, and accessible at both ends, while the latter actually lies at grade and is accessible from the sides, so to get to the other platform, passengers need to take an underpass, embedded into a still-to-be-covered-with-plants kind of amphitheatre. Only Poliambulanza and the two elevated stations at the end of the line have island platforms. This is mostly determined by the two-track tube tunnel which like on line 14 in Paris require side platforms. Like in Paris, the track area is roofed over inside the stations, which together with the platform screen doors helps to reduce noise inside the stations. Most stations have skylights which allow daylight to fall into the stations.

On the trains, there are acoustic and visual announcements. Accoustically, the next station is announced twice [prossima fermata – Vittoria; treno in arrivo a – Vittoria … if I recall correctly]. For doors closing there is a permanent, rather excessive peep while the doors are open (which is too long anyway) and then a bit quicker when they close. When they are almost closed, the lady says 'porte in chiusa' (doors closing). On the platforms, mostly the waiting time for the next three trains is shown, which is rather excessive, the next two would be enough and would fit on one display; with three, the display switches all the time, and passengers may be shocked if at their first look they see '20 min', when the next train is actually in '10 min'. No-one except a photographing metro enthusiast is interested in the third train coming... to know when the second is arriving may be good to know in case the first to pass is completely full, so it helps to decide whether to squeeze in or let it go and wait for the next one. The third one may reveal that service is running very irregularly. On the platforms, the entering trains is also announced accoustically. Other information is rather scarce. They put up an ugly line map including all buses and the forthcoming changes to the bus map. But that's about it. There are no station area maps, now a standard on metro systems. There are ticket machines which have five languages, but as usual, badly translated – Spanish and German speaking visitors have to know French! to understand their versions as 'trip' is translated as 'voyage'... The different ticket options are not explained in any of the different language versions, so you need to guess what '24 ore' means if you don't speak Italian. And a '24 ore' ticket is only 3.40 EUR, so a German visitor may not even believe that 'ore' means 'Stunden' with this low fare! So, the customer information part has room for improvement. Otherwise, signage is o.k. Maybe the pictograms are not clear enough as at one station people asked me whether there was a lift also in this station, and I said, it is right there, but they didn't see it – the problem is that although stations are very transparent and also the lift houses on the surface, the lift doors on the platform are not made of glass but of aluminium – I don't know why, but generally all lifts in public places nowadays are transparent for safety reasons. People will probably use the lifts a lot, because in many stations there are no escalators, especially those at low depth, but like in Copenhagen, the stairs seem too steep. The very deep stations generally have escalators from the platforms to the lower mezzanine, and from there to the upper mezzanine, but not from there to the surface, which is often still a steep flight of stairs. Interestingly, Vittoria, the busiest station on the line, has no escalators from the platform to the mezzanine, although their are two sets of stairs, the same is true for San Faustino, so this may lead to overcrowding on stairwells. The advantage of escalators is also that they separate up and down passenger flows.

It is pretty difficult to get a good shot of the train as it is either hidden behind platform screen doors or a small-mesh fence.

 

The initial plans included a western branch south of the railway station. I don't know what the situation of this project is now, it may depend on the success of the initial line. In the tunnel I couldn't spot any visible sign for an already built junction. Logically, it would have to diverge south of Bresciadue station.

 

LINKS

 

Brescia Metro at UrbanRail.Net

 

Brescia Metro (Official Site)

 

 

MURCIA

While staying in Alicante, I took a day trip to Murcia, only an hour and a half on an old diesel train they painted in Cercanías colours... (there are also several long-distance and regional services linking the two cities).

 

Murcia started some years ago with a short trial line, which was then extended into a full-length tram line that links the northern districts to the city centre. The line has the feel of a typical new French tram system, including the Alstom Citadis trams purchased from the excessive Madrid fleet and now repainted in a light but strong green. Also the stops feature the same colour which makes them very visible on the streets. The tram runs every 10 minutes, which is high-frequency when compared to Alicante. The mostly single-track branch to UCAM-Jerónimos is served only every 20 minutes (it is partly prepared for a second track in case the area around the immediate stops gets developed, the road layout for which can already be distinguished). As I was there during holiday season, and the northern end of the western leg loops around the University campus, deserted during my visit, I cannot tell how busy the line gets with students on normal lecture days. The rest was fairly busy, especially on the eastern leg, as close to the northeastern terminus Estadio Nueva Condomina there is probably one of Southern Spain's largest shopping malls.

 

The problem with Murcia's tram line is that it doesn't really penetrate into the city centre, but its most central stop, Plaza Circular, is at the northern fringes of the central area and almost a 30-minute walk from the railway station which lies on the southern side.

 

Like in Alicante, there is no railfan-friendly ticket, instead individual tickets have to be purchased each time before boarding, either a 1,05 EUR zone 1 ticket for the stops closer to the centre, or 1.40 EUR for both zones. For trips only in the outer zone, also 1.40 EUR are payable! 14 trips are available at 10 EUR for more intensive exploration. It seems that there are no combined tickets for tram and buses!

Tranvia de Murcia

Murcia at UrbanRail.Net

ALICANTE

I've spent the last days of the year 2012 in Alicante, a city I hadn't been to since the early 1980s, so as far as urban rail is concerned it was a first-time visit anyway, as my interest in this form of transport was not as developed back then and also, Alicante didn't have any urban rail system in those days. After almost a week here, I have to say that Alicante is not really among my favourite Spanish cities, but it has fantastic beaches nearby, some of which are also easily accessible by tram/train. Unfortunately there are no tourist or railfan-friendly day passes, so you need to buy a new tickets for each ride (you're not even supposed to get off and jump on the next one after taking a photo...). But fares are rather cheap for European standards, 1.40 for a single ride in zone A which takes in all L3 and L4, with a 10-ride ticket even cheaper. A same-day return to Benidorm is 6.15. Although officially a bilingual city like the entire Comunitat Valenciana, station names within Alicante city are predominately shown in Spanish only, whereas in other parts they may also be in Valencian (Catalan). Renfe, the national rail operator, along with ADIF, the rail infrastructure company, however, now use 'Alacant' for their station.

 

The present urban rail system is still rather undeveloped, and it is actually a border case, not sure whether it is really urban, although lines L3 and L4 connect outlying parts of Alicante city and El Campello, which is part of the continuously built-up area, with the city centre. Those areas are separated from the city proper by the Serra Grossa mountain. The 30-minute headway on these two lines doesn't make them too attractive, and at least the area of Playa San Juan served by L4 is also accessible by bus, probably more frequently and faster. The system is complemented by L1, which is more of an interurban tram-train that also runs every 30 minutes to reach Benidorm, 45 km northeast on a very scenic coastal trip. At Benidorm, a diesel train continues hourly as L9 to Dénia, also a very panoramic journey. L1 does not stop at all stops on the inner section which are served by the local L3 instead. The stops most frequently served are La Isleta and Lucentum with six trams an hour. The L1/L3 runs directly along the beach between Costa Blanca and Les Llances stops, so that's a good area for photos and for swimming, too. And then there is still line 4L, a shuttle connecting the main route at Sangueta (located in the middle of nowhere) to Puerta del Mar, right by the harbour promenade. This shuttle also operates every 30 minutes and despite its number links with L1 trains, not L4. It is barely used and will therefore be discontinued soon. A typical case for Alicante's bad planning! Despite the single-track line between Sangueta and Puerta del Mar it would no doubt be possible to operate this shuttle every 15 minutes, even without a second tram, and this would make it much more attractive for local rides, but a wait of 20 minutes or so to connect with L4 is a bit too much! Also, the intermediate stop La Marina, the old railway's original terminus, is not accessible from the beach promenade.

While the initial idea to convert an old narrow-gauge coastal railway into a tram-train was quite good, and L1 seems to be pretty busy (despite the location of Benidorm station far away from the beaches and a rather exhausting climb up the hill from the town centre!), anything else seems to lack a proper public transport concept. Although there are shared tickets between TRAM and buses, the two don't really appear to be integrated properly. If you happen to see a bus map somewhere, it doesn't even show the underground TRAM stops. Building a route underground through the city centre was possibly based rather on 1960s concepts to reserve the surface for vehicle traffic and an excuse to build large underground car parks along with the two underground stations in the centre, Luceros and Mercado. In my opinion, a surface route would have been enough here and it would have helped to actually bring the tram into people's mind, make it visible. But they keep it well hidden, as the entrances to those important stations don't even have a logo to show their location. Until you actually stand in front of them, you don't see them and in two cases at Luceros, you are never quite sure, whether this is an access to the car park or to the station! When you stand in front of the market hall, you can't really see the underground station, as it is one block up and has no signs indicating its existence, just your intuition or the help of a local. Metro logos are not only good for passengers, but also a useful point of orientation for car drivers or pedestrians, therefore in some cities they are actually hung over the road intersection to be visible from some distance. There is a nice logo pole at Puerta del Mar, so why don't they put them also at the other stations, even the surface ones?

 

When I first entered Luceros station, I wasn't quite sure whether this wasn't the car park anyway, as the vestibule features a no-design design, bare plastered walls painted in a vague beige/grey lead your way to a large mezzanine ready to take large amounts of passengers but always quite deserted when I was there. Once you get down to the platform it is a pleasant large and well-lit space with an island platform, with trains reversing in the cul-de-sac already built beyond the station in provision for an extension to the railway station. This extension will probably take many more years as it has to be done together with the new railway station, which is being built in stages, and as they are currently even delayed with building temporary platforms there to bring high-speed trains to Alicante in 2014 or so, it will take at least 5-10 years until the entire station complex is finished, if it is ever finished.

Mercado station lies even deeper than Luceros, and despite its black walls in the mezzanine and platform level has an interesting feel. There is just one thing which I simply cannot understand: if this is the station which serves large parts of the city centre including the Old Town, why did it not deserve escaltors from the mezzanine to street level? Instead the stairs are actually rather steep to climb. Luceros, however, has up and down escalators at two of the four entrances. The third underground station, MARQ is a bit east of the city centre and features a big hole at its eastern access so daylight falls into the station while the western exit requires three flights of escalators to reach the surface. Right after MARQ trains come to the surface and climb onto a viaduct that spans over a large roundabout. This is followed by a grade-separated junction where L2 will diverge (see below).

When the old line was first electrified in 2003, it ran single-track from Puerta del Mar to La Isleta. With the first new section into the city centre, about half the section between Sangueta and La Isleta became double-track, but now with three lines operating every 30 minutes in each direction, this has become a major bottleneck. Instead of doubling only the single-track section with a new tunnel under the Serra Grossa mountain nearby, they chose to build a longer double-track tunnel which will hopefully be completed soon, as digging seems to be finished, but no funds are available to lay the tracks. And given the current financial constraints, it is not quite sure whether there will be more trams once it is operational. My innocent mind makes me wonder anyway, why they didn't dig a tunnel from La Goteta on L2 towards La Isleta?? Probably because it would make the lack of long-term planning even more evident... The original route had nice views, but with most now in tunnels anyway, this advantage is gone, too.

All the surface stops are well-equipped, with maps, almost too huge timetables and electronic next-train indicators (showing the time of predicted departure rather than the minutes remaining). From what I have observed, punctuality was quite good.

 

L2 has probably become the most ridiculous public transport issue in Spain. There are other tough cases, like the now-closed tram in a small town called Vélez-Málaga, the still not opened tram in Jaén or the hardly useful 'metro' in Palma de Mallorca. Like Valencia, Alicante lies in the Comunitat Valenciana, one of Spain's autonomous regions. The regional government is responsible for the construction of metros and trams, and so far, both in Valencia and Alicante, the region-owned company FGV also operates them. Probably because of the many strikes they have at FGV (I also caught some over Christmas!) they wanted to find a private operator for L2, but thought that this would be for cheap. So they couldn't find one! Not even the typical ones like Transdev, Keolis and the likes that participate in all European tenders. So the line is fully built like a modern French tram line, even traffic lights seem to be switched on, trams have done their test runs, but still after two years of completion, it is not in service. This is a real SHAME! How incompetent can a government be! If they received a single eurocent from EU sources to build it, the politicians themselves should be forced to pay all the money back from their private pockets! And L2 would finally make the system worthwhile as it runs through densely populated areas and serves the University too! FGV says they could start service immediately if they were told to do so.

But even when L2 is finally in service, many parts of the city will still lack tram service, notably the western areas. The first proposal that comes to my mind is to extend the soon-to-be-closed branch to Puerta del Mar along the esplanade around the central city to the railway station, where it would intersect with the trunk route and what they call Cercanías. Instead of continuing with an underground route further west as had been proposed, I would bring the trams back to the surface and create several branches. It has been suggested to extend L1 all the way to the airport and possible even to Elche, so this would create a 100 km long regional tram-train route. But unless the country recovers quickly from this financial bottleneck and more capable politicians come into power, we will hardly see much progress in Alicante in the next decade, I'm afraid.

Besides urban rail, a lot of money has also been invested in recent years in this part of Spain in new railway and road infrastructure. I'm not anti-motorway, but from what I could observe driving around the region of Alicante for three days, a lot of money was wasted in dual-carriageways to rather small towns and an excessive number of roundabouts where besides the main road the only exits show 'camí' (camino = farmer's access to fields...). Like with the urban railways, all these motorway-like roads seem to lack an overall concept resulting in a badly-signed labyrinth of roads with confusing road numbers (I reported a few errors even to Google Maps), but that's a different story.

The high-speed rail line from Madrid (which is in service as far as Albacete) is almost completed all the way to Alicante, but the city's terminus is not. The branch to Murcia, which diverges some 15 km before Alicante is also mostly built and roughly follows the old railway line, just like a link between Valencia and Alicante. In these two cases I thought that it would easily have been enough to finally upgrade the old lines. It seems that through the wealthy early 2000s (or presumably wealthy) Spain always went for the big solution, while prior to that and until now nothing much has been done to keep the old lines in good shape. In the case of Alicante, it has never occured to anyone, it seems, to build a short curve of 1-2 km at San Gabriel, where trains that run from Alicante to Murcia have to reverse. While this is probably not so bad for local trains which have a station stop there anyway, long-distance trains like the Talgo from Montpelier to Cartagena thus reverse once at Alicante Terminal station and a few minutes later again at San Gabriel. I wonder if someone remembers what they did in the old days, when the old Murcia terminal in Alicante was still open and many more trains went from Valencia towards Andalusia along this route? I also wonder whether this is the only case in Europe where a long-distance train needs to change direction without actually serving a station?

Tram Alicante

Alicante at UrbanRail.Net

VALENCIA

Although I frequently visit Spain, I had not been back to Valencia since the year 2000 when I was preparing my first book 'Metros in Spain'. With the metro construction boom having spread from Madrid to other Spanish cities during the early 2000s, there was enough to catch up with since my last visit.

  

Although the Metro is operated by FGV and the local buses by EMT, there are also good ticket options for tourists that allow unlimited rides in zones A and B (including the airport which otherwise requires a special fare!). Zone B reaches Torrent and Rafelbunyol, and large parts of the northern L1 branches. These tourist cards are only sold at tourist offices and the likes, for 1, 2 or 3 days (I had a 3-day, i.e. 72-hour ticket for 25 EUR, which includes the typical discounts in museums etc.). There is also a normal daypass for transport only, but just for zone A, which covers Valencia city and the closest municipalities like Mislata, Burjassot and Alboraya.

The problem with the Valencia network is that it is not a system planned from scratch but rather the result of many often short-sighted decisions, although what has been created since the mid-1980s is quite considerable and useful, but not ideal. But this is true for many cities in the world.

Line 1 still has the disadvantage that it somehow misses the city centre. The north-south route was built in the 1980s to connect to previously existing regional narrow-gauge lines to create a cross-city line. While this was a very good idea, it is difficult to understand, why it wasn't built via Estació del Nord (Xàtiva metro station), which is located near the City Hall and not too far from the main shopping area (Colón metro station). Maybe Renfe didn't allow them to enter their terrain, although later a tunnel was built to connect this first underground route with the new east-west route, a tunnel via Bailén that does run beneath Renfe (now ADIF) terrain. So passengers who wish to take Line 1 need to walk a bit more. The problem was later partly solved by using the abovementioned linking tunnel, designed only as a service tunnel, by regular trains to Torrent (L5 southern leg). Originally Line 1 was labelled as lines 1 & 2, a separate number for each of the northern branches. No idea, why this was discontinued, as service patterns are quite regular as far as the southern termini are concerned (I can't remember now which is which, would have to look into a timetable), so two numbers would actually help and not mess up the overall network structure.

The east-west line (L3/L5) was added in the 1990s, first by bringing the old Rafelbunyol line underground into the city centre, later by extending it west and adding a new branch in the east. The designations L3 and L5, the latter with two western branches, one of which is shared with L3 and the other with L1, is a bit confusing, so for the Torrent – Marítim-Serrería service a separate line number would be justified to clear things up. On the other hand, the line numbers are purely theoretical as neither the next-train indicators nor the annoucements on trains actually use them, they use just the destination. So it appears that they don't really believe in their line numbers either. Imagine the case that you want to tell someone how to get from the airport to your home in the east of the city: is it easier to say 'Take a train that says Marítim-Serrería' or 'take an L5 train' (easily translatable into any language)?? There is no accoustic warning on the train at Alameda, Colón or Empalme like 'This train goes to Marítim-Serrería. Change here for Rafelbunyol.' With Colón and Xàtiva, L3 has two stations in the city centre proper.

 

Lines L1, L3 and L5 are no full-scale metro lines, although the service in the city centre is similar to one, but once outside the tunnels, there are a few level crossings, although many have been eliminated in recent years, and most of those remaining are next to stations. The overall feel is thus similar to the Stadtbahn systems of Frankfurt or Hannover. All three lines run every 15 minutes on urban stretches, with double the frequency during peak hours. From Marítim-Serrería, L5 runs alternatingly to Aeroport and Torrent. The outer stretches on L1 are single-track and only served every 30 minutes, the section south of Torrent every 45 minutes. L3 is also single-track beyond Alboraya-Peris Aragó, but has passing loops at almost all stops.

 

Line 4 is also the result of the 1980s rebuilding of the old rail infrastructure. It runs basically along old narrow-gauge routes which were converted into a tram line and thus made much more urban. The line was later extended northeast to serve new neighbourhoods and is pretty busy running every 10 minutes. While good as a northern tangential line, L4 pretends to go to the centre but stops short of it by several hundreds of metres, too (700 m to the Cathedral). Strangely, the sort of loop it takes to reach the former railway station Pont de Fusta was built fully double-track (i.e. actually 4-track) when a single-track real loop would just have done the same job. The actual tram stop is about 100 m north of the old station and westbound trams first take the long loop near the old station building before actually reaching the tram stop (with some traffic lights on the way...). A much more ideal solution (and still recommendable today) would be to add a single-track loop across the old river bed with a stop next to Torres de Serrano (where L2 is supposed to get a deep-level underground station).

The short tram line also labelled L5 between Marítim-Serrería and Neptú is another product of accidental planning. As high-level surface platforms were rejected in this part of Valencia, the line was split into a high-floor light rail line L5 and a low-floor tram line L5, another very unconventional and confusing way of naming lines! Apart from that, I did not understand why the terminus Neptú was built about 300 m short of where it should end, and that's near the beach. Public transport users therefore have to walk through an empty area used as a car park to get to the beach promenade! Yet another accidental line is L6. Its northern part was to become the northern section of the planned north-south line L2, for which a tram tunnel is to be built through the heart of the Old Town, but as construction was halted due to the lack of funds, L6 was established to give the finished section some sense. It's probably useful for people from those areas wishing to go to the Politechnical University or to the beach, but to get to the city centre, a bus will be much quicker. There are proposals to extend L6 one day into a circular line.

 

The abovementioned L2 is mostly finished, tough without catenary, on its southern surface section. The underground section from Alacant (future railway station) was started but no construction is taking place nowadays. Also the deep-level station at Mercat Central in the heart of the city seems to be built as a shell (and with an underground car park above it, of course, what else?....), but the tube tunnel to link the northern and the southern sections has not been started yet. In the current financial situation it is also unclear whether the new railway station along with a north-south railway tunnel will ever be built or whether the temporary high-speed rail station called 'Valencia Joaquín Sorolla' will become permanent. This station is about halfway between (ex-Jesús) J. Sorolla (L1/L5) and Bailén (L5) stations, some 600 m south of the old and still in use Estació del Nord. In the final layout, Bailén (L5) and Alacant (L2) would be connected via the new railway station, which would be located between the present two railway stations, under and integrated into the Parc Central.

The Valencia metro stations mostly have pleasant designs, the older ones on L1 are quite uniform except for a different colour along the tiled ribbon along the lower part of the walls, but compared to my last visit, when they appeared rather dim, they now feature improved lighting and new signage which makes them much more pleasant. Depending on each stage of expansion, the underground stations on L3/L5 feature special designs, the most outstanding being Alameda (by Santiago Calatrava, once a Valencia hero, now critised for moving to Switzerland for tax reasons!) and Avinguda del Cid. The later built stations on the eastern L5 are rather uniform with white panelling, while the stations on the western extension towards the airport feature a typical modern design with mostly stainless steel and glass (in fact I was positively surprised as the plans for this extension were modified so often, from fully surface to fully underground!). The newest underground stations, those on a section put underground in 2011 in Benimàmet, are very nice with decorated glass panels covering the cut-and-cover walls, stylish furniture, and with similar entrance pavillons on the surface – good examples that pleasant stations don't need to be expensive.

 

The fact that the airport extension was a bit improvised can also be seen in the location of the current airport terminus which is a 2-track stub that did not really allow a further extension. Therefore L5 will diverge just past Rosas station and continue on the surface, mostly single-track to Riba-roja: like the section between Faitanar and Rosas, this section follows the old Renfe line. It was rebuilt for the Metro, is about 95% finished, but as the Valencian regional government didn't pay its bills, the construction companies left, which shows how serious and hopeless the situation is in Valencia. This city and region really deserves better, but in the end they voted for those incompetent politicians.

Punctuality is similar to that provided by Renfe, i.e. they to allow extra time to get to the station. The next-train indicators, which show the estimated time of departure rather than the minutes remaining, usually update their times only a few minutes before the train arrives, which is a bit strange, when the main objective of such a system is to calculate the time from the current position of the train, but here I had the impression that the scheduled time is shown until the train is some 2-3 stations before the station in question and only then the delay is added to the announced time, resulting in permanent frustration of waiting passengers.

Valencia is officially a bilingual city, with Spanish and Valencian (Catalan), but the use of each language on the metro is not very clear, not even within Valencia city itself (although most are in Valencian), and less so in municipalities in the outskirts. And what's worse, in many cases even place names are simply spelt wrongly, although there are quite clear rules in both languages on where accents have to be written, they are often omitted or wrong, for example all signs inside the new Benimàmet station lack the compulsary à, the same is true on many signs at Àngel Guimerà (the last à missing). 'Marítim-Serrería' is a bit confusing to me, as the first is clearly Catalan spelling, while the second part is Spanish with the accent! But this reflects the general mix of languages in Valencia without clear guidelines like those found in Barcelona, and probably for most local people this is not a major issue. But a company like FGV should have a language consultant!

Metro Valencia FGV)

Valencia at UrbanRail.Net