In the course of the severe economic and financial crisis more than ten years ago, numerous railway projects that had been started in Spain were stopped – including the Tranvía Alcalá de Guadaira, a branch line to metro line 1 in Seville.
For many years, many locals were concerned about the continuation of construction, as about half of the planned investment funds of approximately 198 mn EUR had already been spent. A large part of the route had been built with several artificial structures, including a long viaduct section. In addition, the tracks had already been largely laid in the area of the city of Alcalá de. The first funds for the continuation of the project had already been approved in 2016, but the construction work on the missing parts began hesitantly, and the electrical systems were still largely missing. In addition, the restoration of the already finished but heavily damaged installations due to vandalism has only now been seriously initiated. Accordingly, the railway is not expected to open before 2025, more than 15 years after the original date.
The Tranvía de Alcalá de Guadaira is a 12.5 km long, double-track line in the Seville metropolitan area that connects at the Pablo de Olavide station to the Seville Metro’s Metro Line 1 to the centre of the Andalusian regional capital, which went into operation in 2009 and is the only line of this kind to date. While the metro runs without crossings and partly underground, although it is served by CAF’s URBOS 1 low-floor tram-like carriages, the Tranvía Alcalá will use carriages of the newer, five-car URBOS 3 type, also serving sections flush with the road.
The manufacturer has just announced the award of the contract for 6 such wagons, 5 of which will be needed on weekdays. A good 32 million euros will be spent on them, including a spare parts package and a two-year maintenance contract. The wagons will be maintained in a specially built depot along the route.
At the same time, CAF announced a follow-up order from Budapest for the delivery of 26 five-section and 5 nine-section low-floor trams for the local transport authority.
A network scheme is available here:
https://www.urbanrail.net/eu/es/sevilla/sevilla.htm
