As if it were the Olympic Games and we were back in 1992, Barcelona needed a great event, the America’s Cup to look at the sea again. Beyond all the urban transformations, the effects on neighbors or the regatta itself, now the city has launched a new system of aquatic mobility to get around the port: the Bus Nàutic.
Last summer the city council already announced a “nautical bus” that will connect Las Ramblas with the tinglados (or restaurants) of the Moll de Llevant (the ones past the Vela hotel). Yesterday this line was premiered with two ecological catamarans zero emissions, which will offer a direct connection to alleviate the collapses during the summer season due to the intense tourist mobility in the area that is expected to grow with the sporting event.
A “port line” with five stops at €1.9 each way
The new “nautical bus” line will connect the Portal de la Pau (the port at the end of the Rambla) with a less crowded area, the Moll de Llevant and its new sheds and the new Mirador building with the Rambla de la Nova Bocana (the whole area behind the Hotel Vela), which will experience a boost with the reform of the America’s Cup.
The service will operate 12 hours a day, c on a frequency of 15 to 30 minutes. The one-way ticket costs 1,9 € and the round trip costs 2,85 €. There are also passes for 10 trips, which cost 13,30€ and for two (10€) or 30 days (40€), as well as discounts for children, young people and senior citizens. The objective in the future is to integrate the service into the regular fare system.
The Olympic Games and its consequent reforms tore down the sheds of the Barceloneta forty years ago to open Barcelona to the beach and made the port gradually lost its traditional function for the benefit of shopping centers such as Maremagnum or the port for luxury yachts.
Now the reform of the new port involves rebuilding some sheds a few meters beyond where the original ones were, reopening the fish market in an increasingly less fishing port and seeking the reunion of the people of Barcelona with the Rambla and its port through a boat, as the swallows did a few years ago with the breakwater. In a city devoted to tourism, we will have to see if the new space in the port gained to the city is a gain for the locals or simply a new cession to visitors.