Barcelona is about to live a historic moment in its public transport system: the first step of a historic work, the connection between the two streetcars, the one in the upper part of the Diagonal, and the lower one.
It will be on November 9, when a convoy will connect for the first time the section between Glòries and Verdaguer, culminating more than two and a half years of work and significantly transforming mobility in the city center.
This will mark the start of one of the city’s major pending works: the Diagonal tramway connection, which will allow the two ends of the Diagonal to be connected directly for the first time.
Three new stops and two kilometers of tramway
The new section of the tramway will have three new stops: Monumental, Sicília and Verdaguer. The intention is not only to improve connectivity, but also to have a positive impact on traffic reduction. According to the City Council’s predictions, some 2,000 cars are expected to be removed from the central section of the Diagonal and 24,000 new users will be added to the public transport system.
To adapt the environment, traffic lights have been adjusted at 27 intersections between Castillejos and Bailèn streets. In addition, the Diagonal renovation has created 17,290 m² of new sidewalks, more than 5,000 m² of new bicycle lanes, the planting of 266 trees and the creation of almost 9,000 m² of new green areas.
In addition, this section presents a technical innovation: for the first time in Spain, a tramway uses an underground catenary system instead of the traditional overhead system.
When will the streetcar be fully connected?
While celebrating this first step in the definitive connection of the tramway, the City Council expects work on the connection to Francesc Macià to begin in the summer of 2025, with an estimated duration of 40 months. This would place the completion of the project at the end of 2028.
However, the deputy mayor for Mobility, Laia Bonet, has stressed that this expansion is conditional on the approval of the necessary budgets. “What we need is to have the resources. All this cannot be done without resources and we can’t keep talking about timetables,” Bonet said.