It is a rarity that a marquee has been installed and even the name of the stop has been given when they have not even finished assembling the tracks on which the tram will run, but in an election year anything is possible. So the mayoress Ada Colau already has her photo in the works of the tram along Diagonal, one of the actions that the municipal government has flagged and which has taken almost eight years to achieve.
To be able to get on the tram and go from Glòries to Verdaguer in a journey of seven minutes, you will still have to wait a year, but the works that started in March 2022 are progressing at a good pace and there does not seem to be any turning back. If nothing goes wrong, after two years of works, in March 2024, the most abandoned part of the avenue that crosses the Catalan capital will end its transformation in a completely different place, with the tram in the middle, its corresponding cycle lane and more space for pedestrians.
It will be “an icon of 21st century Barcelona” according to Colau, although everything will depend on the result of the elections on May 28. If the commons keep the rod of mayor they will be able to complete the extension of Verdaguer to Francesc Macià and make the second phase a reality, which will give meaning and unity to Trambaix and Trambesòs once and for all. If, on the other hand, it is Xavier Trias who occupies the mayor’s office, he will not go beyond Verdaguer, as the Junts candidate made clear to the Círculo Ecuestre, overlooking the avenue in question, a few hours after the photo of Colau at the future Sicily station. “I don’t plan to continue it, this will stay with Verdaguer”, remarked Trias. In his opinion, the pending section can be covered with buses and there are other more important needs.
Regardless of what Colau, Trias or any of the other candidates for mayor say, the truth is that the action has the support and funding of the Generalitat through the Metropolitan Transport Authority (ATM), which is the ‘administration in charge of carrying out the tramway infrastructure works. Despite the clear positioning of Trias, the member of his electoral list who would deal with the urban area, former councilor Damià Calvet, was in charge of signing at the time the works that are now being executed and , in addition, he defended them on foot and on horseback.
The current holder of the Territory portfolio, the republican Juli Fernández, also made it clear yesterday during the construction site visit with Colau that the Generalitat is committed to the union of the tram regardless of who is in charge on the other side of the square Saint James “If we’re not all there, nothing happens; the good thing is that we are all there and then things happen that transform people’s lives”, celebrated Councilor Fernández, who did not even want to put himself on the stage in which a hypothetical mayor of Barcelona opposed the extension of the tramway and reiterated his “commitment to the project”.
The best demonstration of this is the recent award of the drafting of the executive project for the second phase of the connection, between Verdaguer and Francesc Macià, through the municipal company Bimsa. The temporary union of companies formed by the Meta Engineering, Zeta Ingenieros de Caminos and Master Plan consultancies won the competition valued at 680,677 euros and for a few weeks has been working on the definition of infrastructure and superstructure jobs, as well as redevelopment of the section of Diagonal between Passeig Sant Joan and Plaça Francesc Macià.
At the beginning of next year, it is expected that the engineers will have the project ready and then the works can be tendered, if the municipal government that comes out of the next elections considers it, since the City Council is in charge of the redevelopment works while the Generalitat, through the ATM, is in charge of the infrastructure as such. For the first months of 2024, it is expected that the work in progress of the first phase will have already finished and the two or three months of technical verification and circulation of the trains prior to putting them into service can then begin.
The intention is to “chain the works of the first phase with the second”, according to Colau, who considers it “a matter of common sense on the sidelines of electoral appointments” and which also includes previous work on the construction of a collector and other redevelopment works. Be that as it may, the tram union is not expected until 2026, by the way.
Before that, already in the first phase, an important technological innovation will be tested: the installation of the third lane in charge of feeding the trams without catenary. In this way, poles and cables are avoided on the Diagonal reformed with the tram, on par with other French cities that have the same system designed by Alstom and in this way guarantee a more open space.
The manufacturer with a plant in Santa Perpètua will also supply three new trains equipped with this system and adapt the entire Trambesòs fleet. In this way, they will be able to circulate fed by the classic pantograph in the section that already exists from Glòries to Badalona and Sant Adrià, and with the new technology of continuous feeding by ground from Glòries to Verdaguer. If it ends up being extended to Francesc Macià, this section will also use the same system and then it will be necessary to also adapt the Trambaix trains with the corresponding technology.
Apart from the tram tracks, the residents of Diagonal can now walk in some places on sidewalks that are much wider than before and which allow them to get an idea of ??the transformation of this section. The most advanced part, in charge of the construction companies responsible for the urbanization associated with the arrival of the tram, is the sea side of Diagonal, between Carrer Marina and Passeig Sant Joan. From almost three meters that some points had, it goes to 7.5 meters.
