This article describes developments and future plans for public transport provision for the metropolitan area of Barcelona, Spain. The Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) was set up in 1997 as a consortium to co-ordinate public transport, in planning, arranging finance, regulating and administration. The Directive Plan was approved in 2002 for implementation by 2010. New construction of rail or tramway lines was proposed, with new stations and vehicles. The Plan is structured around four programmes: network expansion, modernisation and improvement, interchanges, and the state railway network. The Metro L-9 line is constructed at extreme depth needing special tunnelling machines; and two tramways are being constructed to serve an expected 30 million passengers. The Directive Plan describes a proposed method of financing and distributing funding, as well as systems for operation by public/private partnership; with a process of revision for the Plan itself. The first phase of application was hastened by co-ordination work from the MTA, including bringing forward some works in view of a cultural event in 2004.
Abstract