Rail transport in Barcelona
The main text was uploaded 29 January 2000.
The table of routes at the end was uploaded December 2003.
1 Operators, track-gauges, electrification: Three railways provide passenger trains in and around the huge Spanish Catalonian city of Barcelona: Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Españoles (RENFE, the Spanish national railways system), Ferrocarrils Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC, the Catalonian provincial government railways) and Transport Metropolità Barcelona (TMB, Barcelona city transport). RENFE lines are all Spanish broad-gauge (1668mm) and electrified at 3000V dc; FGC have both standard (1435mm 1300V dc overhead) and metre-gauge (mostly electric, 1200V dc overhead) lines; and TMB’s metro lines are standard-gauge (1200V dc overhead or third-rail) except for Line 1 which is broad-gauge (1674mm 1500V dc third-rail).
2 Tickets, maps, timetables: As well as season-tickets for longer periods, one-day and three-day local rover tickets are available. In January 2000 the one-day ticket (Targeta metropolitana dia or T-Dia) allowed travel out as far as Les Planes, Avinguda Tibidabo or Cornellà-Riera on the two FGC lines, plus all TMB metro lines and buses, and all RENFE local trains within the inner zone (excluding the airport). A ten-journey ticket valid for any mode within the inner zone is also useful, and can be used by more than one person. The Quail Map Company’s inexpensive Barcelona Transport Maps (ISBN 0 900609 36 2, price 75p + 27p postage) is recommended, showing both RENFE and FGC railways, plus metro track layout, plus tram routes in 1898 and 1955. Significant changes including metro extensions have however taken place since it was first published in 1985. An enlargement of the Barcelona area appears in the Ball European Railway Atlas on page 16. A diagrammatic map of FGC, TMB and local RENFE lines within the city is at http://www.fgc.catalunya.net/uk/planol/mapa_grande.gif, and is available in convenient A7-sized folded-paper form at main FGC stations. Because RENFE does not make its national timetable readily available on paper other than as individual line leaflets, its website (http://www.renfe.es) giving full timetable details is of more than usual interest for planning journeys. The other railways are at http://www.fgc.catalunya.net and http://www.tmb.net.
3 RENFE main line through the city-centre: Sants - Passeig de Gracia (- França -) Clot Aragó - Montcada: Almost all Barcelona’s RENFE services now use Estació de Sants, a vast modern underground through station on the main line from Zaragoza in the west and Válencia in the south-west running across the city north-eastwards to Port-Bou and the French border. Sants is not unlike Birmingham New Street, but it has no open-air sections at each end, no platform-level buildings and all its trains are electric. By contrast, the Estació de França, once known as Barcelona Término, is a splendid classic terminus, reminiscent of London St.Pancras, recently restored with a plaque marking a royal visit to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Spain’s first railway (Barcelona - Mataró) on 28 October 1848. Platform roads (vias) are numbered up to 15, but tracks 1 and 2 appear to be outside the magnificent train-shed, and although overhead wires are still in place, tracks 7/8 and 9/10 are covered over, by concrete in the case of 7/8. Beyond the station-throat parts of the approach tracks have been encased in a concrete box, but junctions, in effect a triangle, still provide connections west towards Passeig de Gracia and Barcelona Sants and east towards Barcelona Clot Aragó. However, the huge Estació de França, on its short branch off the main line, sees a mere 15 trains leave in 24 hours, according to the departure sheet in January 2000.
4 RENFE: Sants - Plaça Catalunya - Arc de Triomf - Montcada Bifurcació: East of Sants a second RENFE route, also mostly underground, runs parallel to the main line mostly on its coastal side but crossing over to its inland side north through Montcada Bifurcació. Sants - Montcada Bifurcació - La Tour de Carol and Sants - Montcada Bifurcació - Manresa - Lleida trains run this way. Montcada Bifurcació also has a connection from the Passeig de Gracia route, much used by freight but not normally by passenger trains, though at one time a timetabled Sants - Passeig de Gracia - La Tour de Carol train ran this way once a day in each direction. Extra trains have also been known to use the connection.
5 RENFE suburban routes: To the west of Sants, RENFE have a pair of alternative suburban (Cercanías in Castilian; Rodalies in Catalan) routes via the coast (Sants - Sitges - Sant Vincenç de Calders) and inland (Sants - Martorell - Sant Vincenç de Calders). In addition, Sants - Aeroport is a separate single line on the north side of the Sitges line to a flyover just west of El Prat de Llobregat station and thence by a short branch south to Barcelona’s Prat airport. To the east of Clot Aragó alternative routes diverge via the coast (Sants - Clot Aragó - Sant Adrià de Besòs - Blanes - Girona) and inland (Sants - Clot Aragó - Montcada - Granollers - Girona). The two coastal routes seem once to have been linked by a line along the docks between El Prat and Barceloneta, but this has closed as a through route and disappeared. The former suburban Barcelona Término Cercanías next door to the main-line Término/Estació de França had tracks out to Sant Adrià de Besòs on the coastal route to Girona, but this local terminus has also completely vanished and its site is occupied by a new road which also serves the Olympic village.
6 RENFE freight avoiding line: (Martorell -) Castellbisbal - Mollet Sant Fost (- Granollers): This electrified line through the north of the city avoids the underground section through Sants and was presumably built since 1977, for it does not appear on a map of that date. Though it may once have carried a through Port-Bou - Zaragoza passenger train that did not call at Barcelona, it is now almost entirely freight-only. A new RENFE Cercanías passenger service leaves the Sants - Montcada Bifurcacio - Manresa line and uses an electrified single-track east-to-west connection (Montcada i Reixac-Santa Maria - Cerdanyola Universitat) to run a short distance on to the avoiding line and terminate at Cerdanyola Universitat, built some time ago but only recently opened to serve the university, which also has an FGC standard-gauge station.
7 FGC standard-gauge: Barcelona Plaça Catalunya - Gràcia - Sarrià - Les Planes - Sant Cugat - Bellaterra - Universitat Autónoma - Sant Quirze - Sabadell-Rambla: All FGC standard-gauge routes are double-track and worked by modern electric units. The system starts underground at Plaça Catalunya station and runs north to Gràcia, where an underground flying junction gives access to the Gràcia - Avenguda Tibidabo branch, all of which is below the surface. After the short Sarrià - Reina Elisenda branch diverges west, the main line continues mostly on the surface through Les Planes to Sant Cugat, where it splits to serve Terrassa and Sabadell (both of which are also served by RENFE stations on the broad-gauge Sants - Montcada - Manresa - Lleida line). Universitat Autónoma in 1991 was the terminus of its own branch from Bellaterra (shown in Ball at 16B2), but it is now on the through route and the original line between Bellaterra and Sant Quirze has been closed and lifted. The previous terminus of the Sant Cugat - Terrassa branch was above ground, the original site being alongside a road, or perhaps now replaced by it. It is possible that the situation at Sabadell was similar. The present terminal stations at both Sabadell-Rambla and Terrassa-Rambla are underground, the former having a rather cramped arrangement of a single track with two platform faces.
8 FGC metre-gauge: Barcelona Plaça Espanya - Sant Boi de Llobregat - Martorell-Enllaç - Monistrol - Manresa-Alta - Manresa-Baixador: This line also starts at an underground terminus, running westwards for some distance in tunnel before emerging and being joined by an unelectrified freight branch from the harbour area (Barcelona Port - Sant Boi de Llobregat), diverted in recent years from a course further east. While the metre-gauge passenger trains are mainly electric units, the substantial freight operations use diesel locomotives. The line then heads north to Martorell-Vila, circling round the east side of the town and crossing the RENFE’s Sants - Martorell - Sant Vicenç de Calders route before reaching Martorell-Enllaç FGC station, which has the main depot and workshops. In Catalan Enllaç means junction (the equivalent Castilian Spanish word is Empalme), and indeed the station here has two junctions. Immediately to the south of the platforms, the short Martorell-Central - Martorell-Enllaç branch converges from the south. Martorell-Central is only marginally more central than Enllaç, and Martorell-Vila is actually nearer the town centre. Closed to passengers some time ago, Martorell-Central was a single platform served by a terminal track now lifted, but the branch remains open to freight, serving at least one industrial site via mixed-gauge trackage, joint with RENFE, and it appears to have FGC/RENFE exchange sidings.
9 At the north end of Martorell-Enllaç the FGC route splits. The Martorell-Enllaç - Igualada branch heads west, still diesel-worked in January 1998, but since electrified. The main line continues north. The spectacular mountains at Montserrat lie between the two routes, but the monastery and tourist sites are served from Montserrat Aeri station by a cable-car, and higher up the mountain by a funicular. A rack line once climbed the mountain, but closed in 1957. Crossing the RENFE Sants - Montcada - Manresa - Lleida broad-gauge line south of Manresa, the FGC makes a triangular junction with its diesel-worked Manresa - Sallent freight branch before arriving at Manresa-Alta station. A short tunnel follows, beyond whose mouth was the junction for another freight branch (Manresa - Sarrià), closed before 1998 and now lifted except for the junction points and a short stub of track. A road underbridge immediately north of the junction has also been removed. Finally, high above the street, the FGC reaches its normally-unstaffed terminus, Manresa-Baixador (Catalan baixador = halt), with two terminal platforms, one rarely used.
10 TMB metro: The metro system is almost totally underground, with much recent construction and modern equipment. It is heavily used, and noteworthy for the lengthy passages at its interchange stations, unfriendly to disabled persons. On the broad-gauge third-rail Línia 1 just west of Plaça de Sants is a short section of route in the open, with a closed station (Bordeta), one open to passengers (Mercat Nou) and a small depot, all visible from the RENFE main line to the west which is alongside. The standard-gauge metro lines have either third-rail or overhead current collection, the latter apparently from a rigid rail rather than the usual catenary suspension. The most recent section of metro is Línia 2, from Paral.lel (where platforms are in a tunnel adjacent to those of Línia 3 and the tracks are connected) to La Pau (interchange with Línia 4) via the centre of the city.
11 Trams: Only one classic tram route remains and that is rather a special one, the Tramvia Blau, essentially a ‘heritage line’ with a high fare and no other tickets valid on it. Standard-gauge and double-track throughout, with single-line stubs at each terminus, it runs from Avinguda Tibidabo FGC station uphill on Avinguda Tibidabo to the bottom station of the Tibidabo funicular. The depot, which looks modern, is a short distance along a side street near the top of the route. Off-season, in January 2000, the tram was running Saturdays, Sundays and holidays only. In May 1997 an experimental single-track section of modern standard-gauge tramway (BLN 808.0387) was laid along Avinguda Diagonal, and various manufacturers’ trams have been tested on it. It was visibly out of use in January 2000, and obstructed by parked cars, but the city intends it to be the precursor of a more extensive system running west-east - though the provincial government would rather invest in the FGC.
12 Funiculars and cable-cars: Barcelona is hilly, with several funicular lines (Paral.lel - Park Montjuic; Funicular Vallvidrera Superior; Funicular Tibidabo). In January 2000 the Tibidabo funicular was closed, presumably for annual maintenance. Some cable-car routes also start in the Montjuic area, the most significant being the one running across the harbour to two tall steel structures similar to the Blackpool Tower. Riding on this in February 1991 was rather unnerving, since not only did it swing rather alarmingly over the harbour - of which it offers fine views - but the car and the supporting towers seemed to be in poor condition and heavily rusted. At one point the conductor opened the door in mid-air and helped to guide the car into the docking-station at the intermediate tower. More reassuringly, in January 2000 the intermediate tower had been visibly refurbished and extensive work was under way on the far one.
Route numbers at end-2003
Metro (within city)