During my recent winter escape holiday
on the island of Tenerife at the end of January 2015 I had the chance
to explore its small tram system, el Tranvía de Tenerife, and thus
do the necessary research for my forthcoming 'Metro & Tram Atlas
Spain' due to be released later this year.
All in all, the modest 2-line tram
system has a very French feel to it, not just because of the Alstom
Citadis trams used with their 5-colour scheme (I prefer the blue end
to the green one), but especially for the alignment chosen. The
routes are on reserved right-of-way throughout, and pretty well
integrated into the urban environment which with the arrival of the
tram certainly experienced an improvement. I was surprised that the
decision-makers at the time were strong enough to really reduce space
for cars, be it by taking away car lanes or parking spaces, in favour
of a reserved route even through the older parts of town where hardly
good alternatives for car traffic exist. So, all in all, travelling
on the tram is quite fluid, and traffic lights seem well-adjusted so
that there are no annoying waiting periods. There are, however,
numerous roundabouts which the trams pass through the middle, and
having done the entire route also twice driving in a car, I'm not
convinced about this solution. When trams pass through, cars
actually, or at least, get a red light, but this is somehow
contradictory to a roundabout philosophy (I observed, however, that
in Tenerife, many roundabouts are illogical, and that suddenly you
get a red light to allow pedestrians to cross or even worse, that
suddenly you get a 'give way' sign in the roundabout!). Anyway, I
would think that these roundabouts are too often the cause of
accidents between trams and cars, although I don't know what
Tenerife's record is and I did not experience any 'almost hit'
situation, in fact, I observed that the locals drive rather
cautiously and slowly.
Many track sections are covered by
lawn, even on the central section between La Paz and Weyler, which is
unusual, as in many other cities such sections would rather be paved
to allow emergency vehicles to use the reservation. Between Weyler
and Fundación, the tracks are embedded in the roadway, although very
limited access is allowed for vehicles. I think that grooved rail was
used on all sections when actually Vignol tracks are normally more
pleasant to ride on and some sections would certainly have allowed
that.
What is pretty fascinating about
Tenerife's first line is that on its 12.5 km route it rises from sea
level in the capital Santa Cruz up to some 550 m in La Laguna, the
old capital and university city of the isle. Thus from some points
you get an nice view of the harbour and Santa Cruz. This difference
in altitude also explains the somewhat detour the tram takes between
the two termini. In Santa Cruz, the two stops Weyler and Teatro
Guimerá serve the city centre proper, whereas the trams continue
down to the Intercambiador, which is a huge bus station.
Unfortunately, the tram is not directly integrated into the complex,
so transferring passengers need to walk a bit between buses and
trams. Before the big economic crisis, a train line was planned south
to Tenerife Sur airport and Los Cristianos, I guess the terminus for
that line would also be part of this hub.
So while L1 links the two centres of
what is an agglomeration with some 400,000 inhabitants, the layout of
the 3.5 km L2 is not really convincing. L1 runs about every 5 minutes
on weekdays, whereas L2 has a tram only every 10 minutes or so. It
really feels like a second-class annex, requiring a transfer to L1
for almost everybody. And these transfer options are not too
convenient, because they are also related to the least convincing
sections of the route alignment: both junctions were put below street
level – a good thing a such, because it avoids conflicts with cars
at two roundabouts – but these underpasses are not well built (a
bit like the flaws on Madrid's Metro Ligero): the Citadis, not too
good in curves anyway, have to crawl through them at minimum speed!
So passengers from the Tíncer end of this line who want to get into
Santa Cruz, need to crawl through one of these underpasses twice and
change trams at El Cardonal next to the tram depot. So, people who
would board L2 at San Jerónimo would probably be faster walking to
Taco station and get L1 there directly. And to add to the
inconvenience, the two stops shared by both lines have side platforms
instead of the otherwise prevalent island platforms (despite of these
being the majority, an announcement is heard at these: 'parada con
andén central'), so it is not surprising that L2 trams run half
empty compared to the well-patronised L1 trams.
The stops all have a standard design,
simple, but well done, each with two multilingual ticket machines and
an information panel with a map and tram frequencies. As said before,
most have island platforms, but some have side platforms. In the case
of Príncipes de España, the island platform is actually part of a
central Rambla (esplanade). The island platforms are generally
accessible via ramps at both ends. The platform height matches
exactly the tram floor. So, full accessibility has been achieved,
although the steepness of some stops, notably Conservatorio, may be a
challenge for wheelchair users. What I appreciate is that the name of the stop is written in big letters on flag-like panels, so they are easily identifiable even for car drivers and thus serve for orientation. The M-logo, however, is not so convincing.
With an average distance between stops
of more than 600 m on L1, I think there should be a couple of more
stops to give better coverage, notably between Puente Zurita and Cruz
del Señor (830 m) in a densely built-up area with a significant
gradient, an additional stop inside the big roundabout halfway
between these two stops is recommendable. And Las Mantecas stop
should really be relocated some 250 m further south just after the
ramp to give service to existing housing estates, whereas now it is
in the middle of nowhere on a steep gradient. If the area further up
towards Campus Guajara gets developed, an additional stop could be
added. Similarly, there could be an additional stop between San
Jerónimo and the terminus Tíncer (850 m) as the latter is up on a
steep hill and noone wants to climb up the hill to catch a tram.
The 26 (or so) Citadis trams are
standard Citadis vehicles, with an acceptable interior distribution
(especially enough space in the modules with doors), although the
single-leaf door at the front leads to some congestion especially as
everybody boarding needs to validate their ticket somehow (see
below). But I have never been happy with the Citadis' behaviour in
curves, luckily, except those described in the underpasses, there
aren't any that I would have classified as ridiculous or horrible, as
the overall alignment and track layout is quite satisfying, no
unnecessary turns or deviations from what is a rather
straight-forward route.
There have been several proposals for
extensions, notably from the La Laguna end to the northern (more
domestic) airport, from Tíncer southwest to La Gallega, the only
area available for urban expansion in Santa Cruz, and a second
cross-city route that would connect to L1 at Intercambiador, serving
the newer parts of the city before turning into the old centre,
intersection with L1 at Weyler and heading northeast along Méndez
Núñez street towards the north pier of the harbour. It will be
interesting to see how the later route will be laid out, as the
street in question, besides the Rambla, is one of only a few that
actually allow some fluid car traffic, so restricting access for cars
here too would be quite a brave decision. But certainly, the tram
route would be useful, as it would serve the new landmark Auditorio
and the Congress Center. Many areas of Santa Cruz will still be left
without tram service, impossible to implement as most streets are too
narrow and too steep, although a direct tram line from La Cuesta down
into the Santa Cruz centre along the historic route could be feasible
if desired.
Unfortunately, like so often in Spain,
the positive French influence did not affect the fare system and
integration with the local bus company TITSA, although there are
several fare options which allow transfer between tram and buses in
the metropolitan area (TITSA serves the entire island). Single fares
on the tram without transfer to buses are just 1.35 EUR, and a day
pass for the tram only is 4.50 EUR: although the ticket might suggest
'guagua' (Canarian Spanish for bus) + tranvía, it is only valid on
the tram! So, this ticket seems to be made for tram fans only, for
anybody else a multi-ride ticket (5 trips for 6 EUR) or a BonoVía (a
money value card sold at 15 or 25 EUR that deducts 1.05 EUR per tram
ride plus a small transfer fee if changing to a bus) is a better
deal. Even the day pass needs to be validated upon each boarding
(each time the machine stamps a car code on the reverse of the ticket
so inspectors would see immediately if you forgot to validate it).
Many of the locals, especially the younger ones, use their
smartphones which they hold against a QR code posted all through the
trams (Vía-Móvil system). TITSA operates urban buses with varying
headways, they do have a timetable booklet, but are unwilling to
produce a map it seems. When I asked why they didn't have one, the
lady at the Intercambiador counter answered that there were too many
lines to show on a map. I asked her how she thought that proper
cities like Paris or Madrid were able to produce bus maps?
Unfortunately, I have noticed repeatedly that when a company is in
charge of an entire region, they neglect the service they are
supposed to provide in the urban area. So, the local population would
probably be better served if there was a single transport operator
for trams and buses for the metropolitan area, and a different
company for regional buses serving the rest of the island.
LINKS
Metropolitano de Tenerife (Tram operator)
Tenerife Tram at UrbanRail.Net
