(17/03/2011)  Zaragoza

The city of Zaragoza, the fifth largest city in Spain in terms of population (666,000), will open its first phase of the modern tramway network on 19 April. The whole line, which forms a north-south axis, will have a total length of 12.8 kilometres, the complete route being on the surface and with 25 stops. The average distance between stops will be about 500 metres.

The first of the two phases into which the Zaragoza Tramway is divided includes the section between Valdespartera and the Gran Vía and will have thirteen stations. It will run along the following streets: Gran Vía, Fernando el Católico, Isabel la Católica, Vía Ibérica, Volver a Empezar, Paseo de los Olvidados and La Ventana Indiscreta. Work on this phase began in September 2009.

Phase 2 covers the route between Gran Vía and Parque Goya, with twelve more stations. The tramway will run along Avenida de la Academia General Militar, Majas de Goya, Avenida del Poeta Luciano Gracia, Gómez Avellaneda y Coso, Plaza de España María Zambrano, Avenida de Ranillas, Puente de Santiago, César Augusto and Paseo Independencia. In this second section, which crosses the historic old town, the line covers a section where power will be supplied through the ACR (Quick Charge Battery) system installed on trams manufactured by CAF for Zaragoza, the Urbos 3 model.

Work on this second phase will begin in late 2011 and will last approximately 24 months, so that the full 12.8 km of the line will be operational by mid-2013.

The new tramway has been built with a 1,435 mm track gauge and electrified at 750 volts. The route will mostly have a double track running on a reserved line although in the Valdespartera areas, in the first phase, and in Actur (on the route in the second phase), the line runs along one-way parallel streets.

The anticipated service timetable for the new tramway will be from 5.00 am to 23.45 pm, with a minimum tram frequency of five minutes at peak times. Travel time is about 30 minutes on the longest possible route.

Urbos 3 Trams

The fleet will consist of 21 trams with integral low floors, manufactured by CAF and corresponding to the Urbos 3 model, with Giugiario design. They are 32 metres long with a 2.65 m gauge and an integral low floor, although their length can be extended to 42 metres with the addition of two intermediate modules. All units will have quick charge batteries (ACR) installed to move without catenary. They have a passenger capacity of 206 and have 52 seats. Access is via six doors, four double ones and two single ones.

The Urbos 3 has two driving cabs, one at each end and separated by a partition from the rest of the passenger area.

Rolling stock will be maintained in two sheds, one located in Valdespartera and the other, to be built during the second phase of the work, in the northern area of Actur, connected to the main line through an exclusive branch line.

Jaén

The Jaén Tramway will run along the south-north axis of the city, which has just over 120,000 inhabitants, and will serve facilities of great interest from the first half of this year, such as the University, hospitals (Hospital Princesa de España), the Los Olivares Industrial and Business Park and the future City of Justice. Its route is 4.7 kilometres long and has ten stops, six in the city centre (Centro, Plaza de las batallas, Los Perfumes, Intermodal, García-Triviño and Acelerada-el Valle) and four in the interurban section (Universidad, Neurotramatológico, Polígono Olivares and Vaciacostales).

All the stops, with 32 metre long platforms and shelters, are separated by a distance of about 500 metres. The line profile, quite steep, has a maximum slope of 5% on the initial urban section; the minimum curve radius is 30 metres and is located on the approach curve to the Intermodal stop, where the ADIF railway station is located.

The Jaén Tramway will run entirely on the surface along its route and will allow access to the city centre, ensuring intermodality with railway and bus stations, where a stop will be placed.

The Andalusian Government is responsible for the implementation of this infrastructure, and work started in May 2009, the aim being for it to enter service in the first few months of 2011. Jaén City Council, the authority responsible for its operation, awarded the rolling stock procurement and supply contract to Alstom in February 2010.

The line has been built with a 1,435 mm gauge and a slab track has been used with different finishes, either with grey and pink granite cobblestone, at stops and nearby areas, or with a covering of artificial turf in the section between the Intermodal and Vaciacostales stops.

Almost the whole route will run on a double, reserved track, except in the Paseo de la Estación, where there will be single track, and traffic lights will be installed at all intersections and will give priority to the passage of trams. The tram line can only be encroached by emergency vehicles and public services throughout the Paseo de la Estación, except at stops.

Electrification is through a 750 VDC voltage and trams will be powered by a single overhead line supported by brackets at a height of about six metres.

Line signalling is the tramway type, with electronic interlockings. Traffic will be controlled from the Central Control Office (PCC) located inside sheds, which will also coordinate line security and facilities via cameras. There will also be electronic indicators at stops with information about the arrival time of the next tram.

Alstom Citadis 302 trams

The service will be provided with five trams, articulated low-floor Alstom Citadis models built at the Barcelona factory of Santa Perpetua de Mogoda. They have a length of 32.338 metres, and a gauge of 2.40 m. Traction is performed by four motors located on the two end bogies, with a unit capacity of 120 kW (480 kW in total).

Passenger access is through the six doors, four double ones and two single ones, located on each side and with a total capacity of 186 places, 54 of which are seated.

It has two driving cabs, located at the ends and separated from the rest of the vehicle and the passenger area by a transparent screen. The cars have air conditioning, PA system and stop indicators; electronic direction indicators have been installed at the ends and sides.

They will be maintained at shed facilities, which can be accessed by a branch line from the Vaciacostales stop. The shed building has nine tracks inside, five for garages, with the capacity for ten units and four devoted to maintenance and repair work, two with pits and bridges, another one with hydraulic jacks and the last one with a wheel lathe and paint booth.

Granada Tramway

The new Metropolitan network in Granada is actually a modern suburban tramway system, with one single 2.4 kilometre long underground section to cross the city centre. It will have a total length of 15.923 kilometres that runs along 23 stops and three underground stations (Méndez Núñez, Recogidas and Río Genil) and passes through the towns of Albolote, Maracena, Granada and Armilla, serving a population - with a stop or station within 500 metres - of 120,000 people. Building work has already passed the halfway stage and civil works – infrastructure, tram line and urban integration – is in fact nearly 70 percent complete, according to figures provided by the Andalusian Government, which has promoted this transport system.

The route runs along the western part of the city and starts at the southern town of Armilla, with 15,000 inhabitants, also serving the city centre of and ending up in the northern towns of Maracena (16,500 inhabitants) and Albolote (14,000 inhabitants).
The stops have 68 metre long platforms and shelters, although there are two types, 21 stops with two side platforms and five with a single central platform. The average distance between stops is about 645 metres.

Almost the whole route will run on a double reserved track segregated from road traffic, except for a 528 metre section in Armilla (calle Real), which will be single track. There will be traffic light control at intersections with road traffic, with priority for light rail.
The track gauge is 1,435 mm and a slab track has been used with different finishes; granite cobblestone and artificial turf on external urban sections and a concrete surface on the underground section.

The line has been electrified at 750 VDC and trams will be powered by an overhead line, the latter being of two types, the tramway type on the outside, supported by brackets at a height of 5.75 metres, while rigid catenary suspended from the tunnel structure has been installed on underground sections.

Urbos 3 for Granada

The Granada Metropolitan service will initially have fifteen articulated low-floor tram units, thirteen for the operation and two backups. The contract has been awarded to CAF and they are Urbos 3 models.

Each unit, 32 metres long, consists of five modules with a capacity for 200 passengers and a performance that is similar to that of most of the new generation trams. The track gauge is 2.65 metres and each tram has twelve doors.

Comfort and Safety are the two basic concepts developed in their design. They do as a result have the most modern and advanced technical systems to allow safe and comfortable operation. They will have independent air conditioning systems for both passengers and the cab, and innovative security, surveillance and user guidance systems, both acoustic and visual.

They are able to run both on the surface and in tunnels through reserved tracks, reaching a maximum speed of 50 km/h in urban sections and 70 km/h on interurban or underground routes.

Thanks to their double shock absorber system, noise and vibration is practically zero in the interior of the vehicle and in the surrounding area where it runs.

With respect to tram maintenance, this will be carried out at sheds located on the Maracena industrial park, which vehicles can access through a 407 metre long technical branch line. The building has 17 tracks, fourteen for workshops and garages, two that correspond to the inner link loop and one for the service station. This is where the central control office is located.

Murcia Tramway

In 2007, after the successful operation of a 2.1 kilometre long test section in Murcia city centre, the construction and operation concession for the new Murcia tramway line 1 was put out to tender in August 2008. It was awarded on April 1, 2009 to the Sociedad Concesionaria Tranvía de Murcia, S.A, a company formed by the companies Comsa Emte Concesiones and FCC, with a concession period of 40 years and a total investment of 264 million euros.

The new route has a total length of 17.5 kilometres. The main line is U-shaped and connects the University of Murcia, in a circular route of about three kilometres, with the Nueva Condomina Stadium and the new urban developments in the northern part of the city. But the backbone of the route is formed by the crossing at the Plaza Circular, located in the city centre. A branch line will finally be built, linking the Terra Natura stop with Universidad Católica, which will have a length of three kilometres and will operate as a shuttle.

The Murcia tramway will have 28 stops, which will be of three types: twelve stops with two side platforms, eight with central platforms and eight with single-track side platforms, all of them 40 m long and provided with shelters. The average distance between stops is 625 metres. It is expected that the line will be used by 5.5 million during the first year of operation, a figure that will grow to 20 million annually at the end of the concession period, forty years later. The city of Murcia currently has more than 430,000 inhabitants.

The track gauge is 1,435 mm with a slab track system and 60 kg/m tram rails welded onto a long bar. The track will be finished in both concrete cobblestone and turf and asphalt at intersections.

The route between the University of Murcia and Nueva Condomina, 11.5 km long, will be on a double track. The single track will exist at the University of Murcia loop, for three kilometres, and at the UCAM University branch line, also three kilometres long. The network will have 26 points: six single cross-overs, two double cross-overs, five turnouts and a crossing.

Electrification is through a 750 VDC voltage and trams will be powered by an overhead line located at a height of about 5.30 metres. Electrical power is provided through seven substations distributed along the route.

The new network timetable is between 7.20 am and 22.30 pm from Monday to Friday and one hour later, until 23.30, on Saturdays, with a minimum frequency of eight minutes at peak times on working days. Trams take about 34 minutes to complete the trip between the two terminals of the main line and about seven minutes on the branch lines. The commercial speed is 23 to 27 kilometres per hour on main and branch lines respectively and the maximum speed achieved is 50 km h.

Citadis 302

The service will be performed with eleven articulated trams manufactured by Alstom at its factory in Barcelona in 2006. These are vehicles that were originally intended for the new tram network in Madrid, but two of them have been running on the test section since 2007 and the remaining seven were purchased in 2009 by the new concessionaire.

Trams are the Citadis 302 model type, identical to the ones that run in Jaén and whose technical characteristics have been explained on previous pages.

Maintenance will be carried out in a new shed next to the New Condomina, north of the city, which will have capacity for fifteen trams. The shed will have ten tracks, three for workshops, four tracks dedicated to the uncovered shed area, a passing track for internal connection, a service station track and a siding for auxiliary vehicles.