INTEGRATING INTERCITY AND URBAN RAILWAYS IN BARCELONA

Abstract

Railway traffic has been continuously growing in large cities in recent years, as part of the global mobility of the city. In Barcelona, for example, commuter rail demand grew from 220,000 passengers/day in 1993 to 305,000 passenger/day in 1998. To accommodate this growth (38%), several physical aspects had to improve to allow for better quality of service: a clear and urgent action needs to be undertaken in Barcelona was the remodeling of 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 passengers/year. Both commuter and high speed rail need a global vision and solution so that each type of service can reinforce its potential with their complementarities. This paper presents the context of rail services and network in the city of 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 cost/benefit analysis), and the conclusions of the study that define and make possible the implementation of the new network are also presented.