As I had lived in Barcelona for 12
years (1989-2001) and come back to this city many times since, I have
never really "explored" its system as I would in other
cities where I might be visiting maybe just once in a lifetime. So
while on other occasions I mostly came to catch up with old friends
and see new or refurbished stations, this time I stayed for several
days to do some real work for my forthcoming "Metro & Tram
Atlas Spain" due for release later this year. For some
impressions gathered at the end of 2012, click here.
Barcelona is probably the most exciting
city in Spain for urban rail enthusiasts because it offers such a
variety of different modes, including several funicular railways and
aerial cable cars. In the Metro field, I decided to ride on all lines
because there is always something new to discover. Many stations have
been refurbished in recent years, some in a sober way, some very
pleasantly. I was quite surprised when a saw the colourful design of
Bellvitge station on L1, for example. I also like the bright
panelling at Joanic or Alfons X on L4 or Sants Estació on L3,
especially when compared to the cheap panelling used in earlier
refurbishments like at Urquinaona (L1 & L4) or Lesseps (L3). At
the latter, however, I was surprised to find a huge new entrance
built in provision for the now mothballed section of L9, although the
stairs down to the narrow platforms are still a bottleneck. Most
stations have meanwhile been retrofitted with lifts, which must have
been quite a challenge, not only due to the depth of some stations,
but due to narrow platforms and fare gates that require multiple
lifts.
What I still don't like in many
stations in Barcelona, however, is the often ugly wall behind the
tracks in those stations with a middle supporting wall, a problem
Barcelona shares with cities like Vienna. Budapest's refurbished M2
showed clearly what a difference it makes! Another more technical
problem in Barcelona is the lack of ventilation in the stations while
all trains are air-conditioned and therefore discharge the heat in
the stations creating a kind of oven, while inside the train it is
like a fridge! Just the new L9/L10 is an exception, while especially
the stations in the city centre can get unbearable, and not only in
the summer.
Being a Mediterranean city with life
continuing late into the night even on weekdays, I find it strange
that the Metro closes at midnight. I think it should at least run
until 1 a.m. During my 12-year stay in Barcelona it used to close at
23:00! Now it runs all night on Saturdays.
This time I also took a ride out to
L11, the cute line of the system, with semi-automatic 2-car trains
shuttling deep below ground. When I was there some 10 years ago, it
was still operated manually, but now four of the five stations have
platform screen doors, and the trains run driverless, although not
completely. For a reason I do not quite understand, the driver on
board takes over in ATO mode between Casa de l'Aigua and Trinitat
Nova, where L11 terminates on the opposite side of L4 sharing the
same island platform. I wouldn't see a reason why platform screen
doors could not be added here, too. Anyway, this way the train looks
a bit less spooky with an attendant on board. The line was fairly
used during late morning hours, so it seems to provide the right
level of service it was supposed to provide. Due to the tight
schedule on L4 and with only one track available here to reverse
(drivers skip one train to be able to walk from end to end!),
connections are not guaranteed and often it may be frustrating to see
an L4 train leave just when L11 arrives. Although I had done it
before, I was quite surprised that from the L4/L11 platform you need
to go down some 4-5! levels to reach the L3 platform, which in return
was not very busy.
I took a full day to explore the FGC
lines departing from Plaça Catalunya towards the Vallès area and
found it sad that the term "Metro del Vallès" is hardly
visible nowadays. It was a catchy brand (and I was told that locals
and students of the Universitat Autònoma actually use it!) and quite
adequate as lines S1 and S2, reinforced by S5 and S55 run as often as
every 6 minutes to Sant Cugat, where they split. Along the line there
are many old station buildings giving nice photo motifs. There are
many new trains from CAF with a rather posh interior, but
unfortunately, once again, what look like ergonomic seats, did not
fit my back bones! Instead I get into my shoulder blades what other
people may use as a head rest! When will those designers ever learn
that there is no ergonomic seat for everyone? Otherwise FGC seems to
be a very good railway operating company, all stations are in good
condition, and it is always fascinating watching trains arrive at and
leave from Pl. Catalunya, a 5-track terminal station. In Terrassa I
had a look where the future underground stations will be located, but
I'll have to wait for next time to see them from the inside.
FGC's other terminal at Plaça Espanya
is similarly busy, but a bit more chaotic! This is due to many
tourists getting a train there to Montserrat and the rather confusing
line numbering on that bundle of lines departing from here. What is
shown on metro maps as L8 hardly exists as such, because all trains
except a few peak expresses stop at all stations up to Molí Nou
anyway, so the L8 rather denotes that this is zone 1 of the overall
fare system. Previously, most regional services used to skip some of
the inner stations, but now all trains serve all stations, probably
because due to the dense intervals they can't really save time. But a
simplification of the line numbering is urgently required here!
Actually L'Hospitalet station has four tracks which would allow
overtaking, but maybe the platforms are to short to accommodate
double trainsets on the outer tracks.
On the ADIF/Renfe network I was
positively surprised to find a nicely refurbished and much enlarged
access to Passeig de Gràcia underground station, also improving
transfers to L3. Rodalies trains now run either in old typical
red/white Cercanías livery or in the new local Rodalies variant in
orange/white, often in mixed trainsets. Although the newer Civia
rolling stock has at least a centre doors matching the platform
height, I find it rather pathetic how you have to climb into the
train at the other doors, even worse than on the older trains. With
Alstom's Coradia Nordic in Stockholm or the many Stadler Flirt trains
having been around for many years for similar platform heights, I
guess that even CAF would be able to produce something similar, as
they have always kept up with the latest trends and often in the end
came up with better products than their competitors.
Barcelona's tram system has not changed
much in recent years, it still consists of two isolated networks, and
with the central portion of Avinguda Diagonal recently having been
restyled with bicycle lanes, there is little hope that anything will
happen in the foreseeable future.
The Trambaix is, however, quite
well used, with a tram every 4 minutes on its inner section shared by
three lines. The negative point here is the existence of some
single-track sections, notably the end of T2, which give the
impression of a rather slow journey. The Trambesòs is a bit weird in
that T5 and T6 run infrequently approx. every 20 minutes and
constrained by a single-track section east of Glòries where they
terminate, but without a reversing facility they have to change
direction on the tracks more frequently served by line T4, which
itself terminates somewhere where a tram should not terminate.... So,
an extension into the city centre of these lines is urgently needed,
and the single-track bottleneck needs to be eliminated somehow,
because it does not make sense to have a grade-separated section
following over three stations (a kind of tunnel with daylight coming
in from the northern side where a motorway runs in a trench) if after
that trams are halted because of a late-running tram in the opposite
direction. So I was not surprised to see the tram I took from Besòs
to Glòries almost empty, and the covered stations largely deserted! A nice feature of Barcelona's Citadis trams is their generous width, 2.65m instead of the more typical 2.40m!
As for the fare system, Barcelona
probably has the best of all Spanish cities. Just single tickets are
issued by individual operators without any transfer options, but
anything above that starting from 10-ride tickets is fully integrated
included Metro, buses, FGC trains and also Renfe Rodalia, allowing
several transfers with one fare. Besides day passes available for the
already very large zone 1, easy-to-use day passes are also available
for up to six zones reaching far into the hinterland. To explore all
FGC routes from Pl. Catalunya, or from Pl. Espanya to Martorell, a
3-zone day pass is enough. Targeted at tourists, but available to
anyone from any metro ticket machine, passes for zone 1 are also
available for multiple days. Strangely, both Renfe and FGC use a
slightly different fare zone system for their own exclusive tickets
which is a bit confusing when looking at their own maps! If you
travel to Barcelona on an AVE or other long-distance train, you may
be eligible for a free onward ticket on Rodalies trains (there was an
announcement on my train from Valencia about this), check with Renfe
staff.
My next visit to Barcelona will
hopefully be in early 2016 (February?), when L9 from Zona
Universitària to the Airport is currently scheduled to open. Some
stations along this section promise to be quite interesting in
design, notably Fira.
LINKS
TMB (Metro and buses)
FGC (Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya)
Barcelona at UrbanRail.Net
