Integrating Intercity and Urban Railways in Barcelona

Integrating intercity and urban railways in

Barcelona

A. Lopez-Pita & F. Robuste

CENIT (Centerfor Transportation Innovation) Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain.

Abstract

~ailwa~traffic has been continuously growing in large cities in recent years, as part of the global mobility system of the city. In Barcelona, for example, commuter rail demand grew from 220,000 padday in 1993 to 305,000 padday in 1998, a 38% increase in 5 years. To accommodate this growth, several physical aspects have to improve to allow better quality of service: a clear and urgent action needed in Barcelona is remodeling the terminal stations in the city.

In 2004 a new rail infrastructure, the high speed train, will arrive and support an incremental traffic of 10 million padyear. Both commuter and high speed rail need a global vision and solution so that each type of service can reinforce its potential with their complementarity.

The paper presents the context of rail services and network in Barcelona (conventional rail and the connection with metro and public transport network), the methodology adopted for the solution (including topology and accessibility indicators, demand modeling and social costbenefit analysis), and the conclusions of the study that defines and makes it possible to implement the new network. The adopted solution, currently being implemented, will notably modify the configuration of urban trips in Barcelona city.

1 Introduction

The building of new railway infrastructure is, without a doubt, one of the activities which best characterises this mode of transport in major European countries and is a result of: Road developments carried out with the building of a motorway network, which exceeded 46,000 km in European Union countries last year, as opposed to 16,000 km in existence in 1970. Air traffic has also increased with a growth in the number of jet planes for journeys in the busiest corridors, increasing comfort and reducing travelling time. In effect, the railway bases the quality of its intercity services on routes built 150 years ago, since the total amount of new lines designed for high- speed trains do not exceed 2,700 km in length. The result of this different level of progress is reflected in the railway's market share in the area of inter-urban journeys of more than 250 km, which does not represent more than 10% at a European level. Increased mobility in the decade 2000-2010, which according to the W.T.O. will exceed 430 million for leisure trips alone (in contrast with the current figure of 370 million), will only increase existing capacity shortage problems in both the road and aviation sectors. Costs exclusively related to the latter mode of transport with respect to the saturation of airport and air route structures exceeded 5,300 million in 1999 approximately double those estimated at the beginning of the 90s. The construction of new railway infrastructure equipped for high performance levels is, therefore, a necessary objective and its physical

implementation poses, among other things, two major difficulties to overcome: 1) The necessary financial investment for its practical implementation. 2) The problem posed by the coexistence of different types of traffic with respect to speed and the number of stops effected at railway

approach lines to major cities. With regards to the first difficulty, the information in Table 1 is in itself sufficiently explicit.

Table 1: Construction cost levels for new railway lines.

Country Line I Cost per km I 1 (1 o6 dollars) France Valence - Marseille 14 Germany Koln - Frankfurt

I S~ain I Madrid - Barcelona I :: I

With respect to the second difficulty, the heterogeneity of services and performances on approaches to major cities in each country, two decades of

experience in European cities, especially in Lyon, Madrid and Seville, have shown it necessary to build new stations. The purpose of this document is to outline the problems with respect to approach lines to Barcelona, presented by the new Madrid-Barcelona railway line currently being constructed, and is planned to open for the year 2004; the criteria adopted to globally tackle the different segments of the railway market: local, regional and long distance trains; and finally to outline the solutions proposed.

2 Passenger railway services in the Barcelona area

The Barcelona railway network has gradually adapted over time to the city's urban development. The population growth at three points in the history of Barcelona's development is shown in Fig. 1. The first date, 1850, corresponds to the start-up of the first commercial railway service in Spain. The network currently in use, which today affects more than 4.2 million passengers in the Barcelona area, is formed by the lines displayed in Fig. 2.

Fig. 1 Demografic evolution of Barcelona (1 850-1970)

The network in fig. 2 is currently covered on a daily basis by 760 local trains,

150 regional service trains, 60 long distance trains and more than 150 freight trains. Services corresponding to passenger traffic affect the Sants station, which is the main center for transport mode interchange. In the approach to the Port of Barcelona, freight services also intercept the lines designated for passenger traffic (Fig. 3).

Station

Suburban services lines L~e~ionaland long distance

Fig. 2 Current state of the southern approaches to Sants station

Martorell et

St. Vice V Calders Station

Fig. 3 Territorial area of the Barcelona railway network to the Port of Barcelona

To synthesize these factors it can therefore be said that prior to analyzing the arrival of a new railway line in Barcelona, the existing railway services needed an urgent and major remodeling, in order to avoid the congestion shown in fig. 3. The existing jamming of services has been shown to cause major delays to freight trains, which had to cross lines where passenger trains were passing at average intervals of between 8 and 10 minutes.

3 A new railway line and a new track gauge

It is well known that the Spanish railway system uses a 1,688 mm track gauge, as opposed to the habitual 1,435 mm existing on other European rail networks.

The construction of new railway lines in Spain, suitable for running at 300 km/h, will be accompanied by the incorporation on the track of the so-called UIC gauge, so as to achieve total interoperability with the high-speed network being developed on the other side of the Pyrenees. This choice has consequently forced the introduction of a new approach line to Sants station, the main station in Barcelona at this moment. It is important to point out that, independently of the different track gauge problem, the arrival of the high- speed train in Barcelona would have required a new infrastructure on approach lines, in view of the impossibility of making local and regional services compatible with high speed ones on the same track. Based on past experience, it was decided to make a general proposal for the configuration of railway lines and services. The search for the best solution rested on three basic premises. 1") Local and regional services should have their own lines, so as to enable metro type services to be introduced, that is, at 3-minute intervals. 2") The high-speed services should have their own approach tracks, given that traffic in excess of 9 million passengerslyear is anticipated.

3") Freight services should not interfere with passenger lines, in order to ensure reliable services which comply with transport requirements. The outline in Fig. 4 gives a view of the adopted solution and one that complies with the aforementioned premises. This involves complying with quality commitments, in terms of frequency and punctuality, which are made necessary by a demand in excess of 300,000 local service passengers daily. It should be noted how the congestion which existed previously between passenger and freight traffic is eliminated, giving the latter direct access to the Port of Barcelona.

748 UI~ZTrar~spovt ad the E~wirorlmentin the 21st Cemu:v

...... SANTS ...... 1 ...... Local and .... A-- ...... '. f I regional lines ...... " / ,

\r ...... , ,

Passengers high-speed

lines

Port Freight line Barc Direct access to the Port

Fig. 4 Final alternative proposal for Sants station

4 Urban mobility via the railway

The view of Barcelona's urban city network in fig. 5 enables us to see how Sants station is located in the south zone, there currently being an underground railway line which runs across the city, coming to the surface in the zone known as La Sagrera.

From this perspective, it seemed advisable to give continuity to the railway system so that:

1") Long distance passenger services from the south and center of Spain, and arriving at Sants would continue as far as La Sagrera, where a second station would enable new accessibility to the high-speed line. The incorporation of an intermediate line between Sants and La Sagrera would make three access points to the high-speed network

possible. 2") Local train services already in existence could continue providing services between the south and the north of the city, taking advantage of the new La Sagrera station (not currently in existence). It was consequently necessary to build a new line under the city of

Barcelona which would run (Fig. 5) parallel to the existing one. For reasons beyond the scope of this document, the new tunnel was to be destined for local traffic and the existing tunnel (whose track gauge was changed by Renfe to the international gauge) for high-speed services.

New tunnel under calle Mallorca

...... ,......

(railway track , for high-speed services)

Fig. 5 Proposed railways links between south and north Barcelona

5 The Sants and La Sagrera terminal stations

Based on the previous considerations, the existing Sants station, together with the new La Sagrera station, was to form the functional base for the railway

system in Barcelona, making it possible to: a) Travel fiom the southern end of the city to the north by train. b) Have access to high-speed services at stations located closest to their origin or destination.

To make the system operative, all of Sants station's thirteen tracks would have to be remodelled, with an investment estimated at around 35 million euros. A similar, slightly higher figure would correspond to the investment necessary to build the new La Sagrera station. The final decision regarding the size of the latter station has not yet been made, the indicated figure

corresponding to the initially anticipated amount. This high-speed line would in any case continue in the direction of France, as shown in Fig. 6. \

Martorell Sant Cugat Station To France Papiol

Mollet

/ Direct access j r i to Barcelona

Airport

Fig. 6 Maximum alternatives for the arrival of high-speed trains in Barcelona

6 The high-speed connection with Barcelona airport

As is well known, the development of the high -speed network in Europe has given rise to the establishment of direct links with certain airports, thereby providing a more efficient transport system.

The new French stations of Roissy-Charles de Gaulle or Lyon - Saint Exupery can also be placed in this category. It should be remembered that the Paris airport has to handle more than 40 million passengers, and at Lyon around 5 to 6 million passengers. In the first place, it is hoped that the railway station will be the access or distribution point for passengers conling from or going to the airport from the rest of France or even other countries, such as Belgium. It should also be remembered that, during 2001, Air France will suspend flights between Paris and Brussels, directing its passengers towards the Thalys high-speed services, which will link both cities in less than 90 minutes. In this context, the feasibility of establishing a link passing through the airport is currently being analyzed, as shown in Fig. 6 (A, C, D, B), one which will allow its integration into the high- speed railway network, even though it would increase the journey time to Barcelona- Sants by approximately 10 minutes with respect to a direct link

7 Conclusions

The arrival of high-speed services in Barcelona has represented an excellent chance to draw up an overall plan for the urban and inter-urban railway system serving the city. The proposal was made with a view to setting out the criteria which have served as a basis for planning a solution which integrates all railway services, improves access to inter-urban services on the part of passengers and makes local services run more freely, factors that are a vital part of the daily transport system that Barcelona needs.