Rail transport in Catalonia

Last updated
  Catalonia
Estacio de Valldoreix 02 2018.jpg
An FGC 113 series at Valldoreix station
Operation
National railway FGC
Infrastructure company Ifercat and Adif
Major operators FGC, Renfe, Ouigo and Iryo
Statistics
Ridership 235.7 million (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2019) [1]
Freight6.8 million tons per year (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2019) [1]
System length
TotalTotal 1,865 km (1,159 mi), FGC 297 km (185 mi), [1] Renfe 1,568 km (974 mi) [2]
Features
No. stations 316 (110 served by FGC and 206 served by Renfe) [1]
Map
Rodalies barcelona 2013.svg
Suburban rail system of Barcelona as of 2023

Rail transport in Catalonia operates on three rail gauges and services are operated by a variety of public operators: [3]

Contents

Transport authorities

Catalan transport authorities map. ATM Catalunya.svg
Catalan transport authorities map.

Transport authorities are inter-administrative voluntary corporations responsible for coordinating the public transportation system. There are currently four transport authorities in Catalonia:

Rodalies de Barcelona

New Cornella station entrance Cornella de Llobregat Bridge.JPG
New Cornellà station entrance
112 FGC train stock FGC112.jpg
112 FGC train stock

Rodalies Barcelona Rodalies de Catalunya.svg FGC.svg is the principal element of Barcelona metropolitan area transport and in some municipalities of Girona and Tarragona.

There are 15 lines (R1-R2-R3-R4-R7-R10-S1-S2-S5-S55-S1-S8-S33-R5-R6) operated by:

Rodalies de Girona

Renfe Operadora RG1 line:

Rodalies de Lleida

FGC Lleida-La Pobla line:

Rodalies de Tarragona

Renfe Operadora Tarragona's lines:

The Generalitat de Catalunya is building a tramway system connecting several cities of the Camp de Tarragona, those being Reus, Tarragona, Vila-seca, Cambrils and Salou. This service, the Tramvia del Camp de Tarragona (also called TramCamp) will comprise around 46km of tracks and 47 stations, with a first part of 14km (between Cambrils, Salou and Vila-seca) being finished in 2026 and the Vila-seca - Tarragona and Vila-seca - Reus sections finishing in no longer than 10 years from the initial announcement in 2023. The whole system will be built in Standard-gauge railway and operated by Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya.

Mitjana distància and Regional Exprés

R1 train between Calella and Sant Pol de Mar Clp 20030521 447 Sant Pol de Mar.jpg
R1 train between Calella and Sant Pol de Mar
Portbou railway station EstacioPortbou.jpg
Portbou railway station

Mitjana distància or Regional Exprés: Those lines cover the four Catalan provinces. Lines are operated by:

Llarga distància

Estrella train RN319-3362.JPG
Estrella train
Talgo 350 - AVE Talgo 350.jpg
Talgo 350 - AVE
Trenhotel Salvador Dali EN11273MilanoCLE.jpg
Trenhotel Salvador Dalí
Euromed to Valencia Nord station Em03 1382 VLC nrd.jpg
Euromed to València Nord station
Alaris to Silla (Valencia). AL04490Silla.jpg
Alaris to Silla (València).
Arco Garcia Lorca to Alzira (Valencia). 697Alzira.jpg
Arco García Lorca to Alzira (València).

Llarga distància or Larga distancia (in Catalan or Castilian) Renfe Larga distancia.svg are Renfe lines that used other Renfe lines, mitjana distància or Rodalies, and connect Catalonia with other Spanish towns or European cities. Some of them are high speed lines. [7]

Alta Velocidad Española

High speed lines are operated by Renfe in a commercial branch called Alta Velocidad Española (AVE). Those lines run on new standard gauge railways.

102-014 stock to Montblanc station RN102014MonJPVL.JPG
102-014 stock to Montblanc station

Railway gauge

Canviador d'ample.jpg

Most of Catalan's railway gauge is broad gauge, as in other parts of Spain, and new railways are built in standard gauge to be able to connect with European railways; therefore, some stations exist where trains can change gauges. Currently, there are only two stations in Catalonia with that capability:

Metropolitan railways

Barcelona metro map Barcelona Metro Map.svg
Barcelona metro map

There are 11 metropolitan lines in Barcelona (L1-L2-L3-L4-L5-L6-L7-L8-L9-L10-L11) operated by:

Metro de Barcelona
NameColorTerminalTerminalOpenedFirst
service		OperatorKmStationsTime
(m)		Gauge
(mm)
L1 RedHospital de BellvitgeFondo19261926 Logometrobcn.svg TMB 20'730351674
L2 PurpleParal·lelBadalona Pompeu Fabra19951959 Logometrobcn.svg TMB 13'51724 1435
L3 GreenZona UniversitàriaTrinitat Nova19241924 Logometrobcn.svg TMB 18'526361435
L4 YellowTrinitat NovaLa Pau19731926 Logometrobcn.svg TMB 16'722361435
L5 BlueCornellà CentreVall d'Hebron19591959 Logometrobcn.svg TMB 16'623371435
L6 Navy bluePlaça CatalunyaReina Elisenda192918634 FGC logo (2019).svg FGC 5'29141435
L7 BrownPlaça CatalunyaAvinguda Tibidabo195418634 FGC logo (2019).svg FGC 4'637101435
L8 PinkPlaça EspanyaMolí Nou-C.C.20001912 FGC logo (2019).svg FGC 1211211000
L9 OrangeTerminal SudCan Zam2009-14- Logometrobcn.svg TMB 47'839 (51)-1435
L10 Light blueGorgPolígon Pratenc2009-14- Logometrobcn.svg TMB -32-1435
L11 Light greenTrinitat NovaCan Cuiàs20032003 Logometrobcn.svg TMB 2'1561435

Territory

Nowadays there are 32 comarcas (group of municipalities) with some kind of rail service; 14 of those have Rodalies Barcelona and/or FGC services. There are comarcas with medium- or long-distance stations and nine comarcas without rail service.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 https://www.idescat.cat/indicadors/?id=aec&n=15580&tema=trans&lang=es%7Ctitle=Ferrocarril. Transport de viatgers i mercaderies|publisher=Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya|date=12 May 2021|access-date=29 April 2023
  2. ↑ https://maldita.es/malditodato/20220421/mas-15500-km-vias-tren-red-ferroviaria-espana/%7Ctitle=Más de 15.500 kilómetros de vías de tren: así ha evolucionado la red ferroviaria|date=21 April 2022|access-date=29 April 2023
  3. ↑ Trenscat, Catalan trains web (in Catalan)
  4. ↑ Rodalies map
  5. ↑ Xarxa FGC Archived 2008-08-22 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ Mitjana Distància Renfe map
  7. ↑ Llarga distància Renfe (in Spanish)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.