On a day like today, December 30th, a century ago, Infante Fernando of Baviera and Cardinal Vidal i Barraquer inaugurated the Grand Subway between Catalunya square and Lesseps, now part of line 3. One hundred years later, the metro network reaches almost every neighborhood in Barcelona, with driverless trains crossing the Llobregat River to reach an airport that didn't even exist back then.
More than a million journeys are made daily on the Barcelona subway, a public transportation system that now enters its centennial year. Looking back at its history, the metro is filled with commemorative activities for the upcoming year, while also facing exciting challenges for the future. Laia Bonet, the first deputy mayor and president of Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB), believes that “the subway's successful history leads to the future expansion of Barcelona's mobility backbone with a broader network.”
In TMB, they already consider the hole in the central section of L9 to be overcome, which for too many years has been the pending project that stalled everything and prevented looking beyond. Now it is considered a procedure that sooner or later will end, and they focus their efforts on projecting and inspiring with a new horizon of expansions. The historical nostalgia of black and white photos and not so distant shoulder pads that the centennial celebration will bring becomes a perfect complement to boost a new growth of the subway, continuing a constant evolution that, except for the years of the Civil War and post-war period, has never stopped expanding as the neighborhoods of the Catalan capital, first, and then the metropolitan area, grew.
The new Clínic hospital and the Marina del Prat Vermell neighborhood are sufficient reasons to undertake the construction works
And that's how he wants to continue, responding to important urban developments in the coming years such as the construction of the new Clínic hospital on the grounds of the University of Barcelona, where the municipal boundaries of Barcelona, l'Hospitalet, and Esplugues intersect. The extension of the L3 subway line from Zona Universitària to the center of the latter city has a drafted construction project, but it must be adapted to accommodate the future healthcare center that was not part of the original plan. This also takes into account the patients of the Sant Joan de Déu maternity and pediatric hospital, who have been waiting for better public transportation up there for so many years.
The future plans shared by the Barcelona City Council and the Generalitat also include turning into reality projects that were not successful before and now make more sense, such as Pasqual Maragall's attempt to extend the metro to the Montjuïc mountain. The planned extension of Line 2 will not only serve to go to museums or the Palau Sant Jordi, but will also connect the two trade fair venues –Montjuïc and Gran Via–, and will allow the new neighborhood of Marina del Prat Vermell to be closer to the city center, in addition to providing a more direct route to El Prat airport, using the infrastructure of Line 9 which will connect to the new tunnel projected to Parc Logístic. It is the most ambitious project on the table, with a multimillion-dollar investment that remains to be seen where it will come from and requires updating previous studies, so it will still be a few years before it begins to materialize.
Line 2 will likely take over from the great project that has been in progress for two decades and has become a burden: the central section of Line 9, paralyzed since the economic crisis over ten years ago and limping ever since. The poor planning by the ERC government only made things worse, and the only active tunnel boring machine will be idle for a year at Mandri station waiting for a new head to replace the old one, which is damaged and unable to continue after spending almost a decade underground without advancing an inch. The project's managers intend to gradually open some stations after the tunnel is completed, although the entire project is not expected to be finished before 2030 at the earliest.
The tunnel boring machine of the central section of the L9 when it was drilling the ground before reaching the Mandri shaft
The extension of L4 from La Pau to La Sagrera is more imminent, with less than half a kilometer of tunnel left to finish. This extension will greatly improve the interconnection of different metro lines, as L4 will meet lines 1, 5, 9, and 10 at La Sagrera. Additionally, it will pass through the future high-speed rail station, where both Rodalies trains will stop and an intercity bus terminal will be set up.
All these large-scale projects are accompanied by other smaller but no less important ones. This includes the extension of Line 1 from Fondo to the center of Badalona, a crucial initiative to expand the metro network in that area of the metropolitan area. At the same time, it involves the construction of new depots and workshops that Line 1 has needed for years to complement the existing facilities. In this case, the extension will cover just under two kilometers.
Even smaller is the section to be covered between Trinitat Nova and Trinitat Vella on the L3. With less than a kilometer of tunnel, the two neighborhoods separated by the Meridiana will come together, connecting lines 1 and 3. This will act as a major interchange, reducing, for example, the time it takes to travel from Santa Coloma to Vall d'Hebron Hospital by half.
TMB aims to purchase 39 new trains to reduce the waiting time to three minutes on all lines
TMB's president aims to “win over 350,000 more daily passengers with all these actions,” with a significant focus on the metropolitan area to attract private vehicle users. In addition, Bonet hopes to achieve “frequencies of three minutes or less on all lines,” an interval that has been offered for years on lines 1 and 5 during peak hours, while on the rest of the conventional lines it ranges between three and four minutes, and on the automatic lines it is seven minutes.
To achieve this, it will be essential to incorporate a considerable number of new trains. At TMB's central offices, they already have draft specifications with the technical conditions to tender the purchase of 39 new trains, 22 of which will go to L9 when the central section opens and 17 more to the plan to improve service on the rest of the network. “Demand is growing, and we must adjust by increasing capacity,” acknowledges TMB's CEO, Xavier Flores, who also highlights a set of less visible but fundamental actions, such as improving technical aspects and modernizing infrastructure. “We need to address network improvements without forgetting that we must always be focused on maintenance,” he emphasizes. In both aspects, the understanding between the public operator and the Generalitat is crucial, as the latter is the administration responsible for the infrastructure.
The demand for the metro continues to grow. Every day, TMB's lines register more than a million journeys
One of the most relevant projects in this regard is the renovation of the signage on line 4, which is very old compared to the rest of the lines. Additionally, every summer passengers on some lines endure the closure of a section to renovate the tracks in order to reduce vibrations and facilitate maintenance work carried out every night, during the time between the last train and the first one.
Another aspect in which the company proudly excels in a century-old network is accessibility. Seven stations still prevent full accessibility, although by the end of the centenary, this number is expected to be reduced to three (Urquinaona, Sants square, and Verdaguer). Having almost all stations equipped with elevators and facilities for people with reduced mobility is a milestone that other metros with over a hundred years of history do not come close to considering. Although Barcelona aimed to celebrate its centenary with 100% accessibility, it will still take a few more years.
