It is a rarity that a canopy has been installed and even the name of the stop has been given when the tracks on which the tram will run have not even been finished, but in an election year anything is possible. Thus, the mayoress Ada Colau already has a photo of her at the tram works on Diagonal, one of the actions for which she has flagged the municipal government and which has taken almost eight years to achieve.
In order to get on the tram and go from Glòries to Verdaguer in a seven-minute journey, it will still take a year, but the works started in March 2022 are advancing at a good pace and there seems to be no going back. If nothing goes wrong, after two years of works, in March 2024, the most abandoned part of the avenue that crosses the Catalan capital will finish its transformation in a totally different place, with the tram in between, its corresponding bike lane and more space pedestrian.
It will be “an icon of Barcelona in the 21st century”, according to Colau, although everything will depend on the result of the elections on May 28. If the comunes maintain the mayoress rod, they will be able to complete the extension from Verdaguer to Francesc Macià, making the second phase a reality and giving meaning and unity to Trambaix and Trambesòs once and for all. If, on the other hand, it is Xavier Trias who occupies the mayor's office, he will not go beyond Verdaguer, as the Junts candidate made clear in the Círculo Ecuestre, with views of the section in question, a few hours after Colau's photo in the future station of Sicily. "I'm not going to continue it, this will stay in Verdaguer," Trias remarked. In his opinion, the pending section can be covered with buses and there are other more important needs.
Regardless of what Colau, Trias or any of the other mayoral candidates say, the truth is that the action has the support and financing of the Generalitat through the Autoritat del Transport Metropolità (ATM), which is the administration in charge of carrying out the tramway infrastructure works. Despite the clear position of Trias, the member of his electoral list called to deal with the urban area, the former Minister Damià Calvet, was in charge of signing the works that are now being carried out at the time and, in addition, defended them actively and for passive.
The current holder of the Territori portfolio, the Republican Juli Fernández, also made it clear yesterday during the visit to the works with Colau that the Generalitat is committed to the union of the tramway regardless of who is in charge on the other side of Plaça Sant Jaume. “If we are not all there, it does not happen; what is good about us is that we are all there and then things happen that transform people's lives", celebrated Fernández, who did not even want to put himself in the scenario of a hypothetical mayor opposing the extension of the tram and reiterated his “commitment to the project”.
The best proof of this is the recent award of the drafting of the executive project for the second phase of the connection, between Verdaguer and Francesc Macià, through the municipal company Bimsa. The temporary union of companies formed by the consultancies Meta Engineering, Zeta Ingenieros de Caminos and Master Plan has won the contest valued at 680,677 euros, and for a few weeks has been working on the definition of infrastructure and superstructure works, as well as redevelopment of the section of the Diagonal between Paseo Sant Joan and Plaza Francesc Macià.
At the beginning of next year, it is expected that the consultancies will have the project ready, and then the works can be tendered, if the municipal government resulting from the next elections considers it so, since the City Council is in charge of the works of redevelopment, while the Generalitat, through the ATM, is in charge of the infrastructure as such. For the first months of 2024, it is expected that the work in progress of the first phase will have finished and then the two or three months of technical verification and circulation of the trains prior to commissioning can begin.
The intention is "to link the works of the first phase with the second", according to Colau, who considers it "a matter of common sense outside of electoral appointments" and which also includes previous works for the construction of a collector and other redevelopment works. . Be that as it may, the union of the tram as such is not expected, at best, until 2026 at the earliest.
Before, already in the first phase, an important technological innovation will be put to the test: the installation of the third rail in charge of feeding the trams without catenary. In this way, poles and cables are avoided in the reformed Diagonal with the tram, in the image and likeness of other French cities that have the same system designed by Alstom and thus guarantee a more open space. The first segments of this rail are expected to be received in April to be installed next to the tramway platform.
The manufacturer will also provide three new trains already equipped with this system and will adapt the entire Trambesòs fleet. In this way, they will be able to circulate powered by the classic pantograph in the already existing section from Glòries to Badalona and Sant Adrià, and with the new continuous power technology by land from Glòries to Verdaguer. If it ends up being extended to Francesc Macià, this section will also use the same system and will then force the Trambaix trains to also adapt.
Aside from the tram tracks themselves, the residents of the Diagonal can already walk at some points along sidewalks that are much wider than before and that allow them to get an idea of the transformation of this section. The most advanced part in charge of the construction companies responsible for the development associated with the arrival of the tram is the sea side of Diagonal, between Marina streets and Paseo Sant Joan. From just three meters that some points had, it goes to 7.5 meters.
