Political impetus on the definitive role of the Camp de Tarragona tramway, the urban public transport project with the greatest impact ever proposed in the south of Catalonia, with almost ten million annual travelers expected when it is put into operation. Yesterday, the Government wanted to express its commitment with a concrete, ambitious schedule, announcing the circulation at the end of 2026 of the first trams between the three major centers of the Costa Daurada (Cambrils, Salou and Vila-seca). In addition, the tender for the first seven trains (48.1 million) was finalized by Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC), its future operator.
The completion of the tramway, administratively underway for many months, has a great second date, that of 2028. The year in which the two major cities of Camp de Tarragona, its capital and Reus, would be interconnected in comfortable journeys of 20- 25 minutes If the Generalitat realizes the investment announced yesterday, of 543 million euros, in just a year the dream of having a real public transport network (46 kilometers of tracks and 47 stations) in the second area will come true metropolitan area of Catalonia, with 335,000 inhabitants and 3.6 million annual tourists.
"It's a step forward that means a before and an after. It is the responsibility of the country as a whole because in Catalonia there is not only one metropolitan area, the second most important metropolitan area is that of Tarragona and we must articulate it with public transport; the tram will be its backbone", emphasized the president Pere Aragonés during the presentation ceremony.
The Generalitat is betting on a public transport network that, if it becomes a reality, will connect the main lines of communication in Camp de Tarragona with its main cities, with an eye on its decisive tourist sector and its neighbours.
It is no coincidence that the first phase of the tram (150 million euros) will be deployed on the Costa Daurada (2026), including strategic elements such as Salou-Port Aventura station or Reus airport. It will be possible to go faster because the route of the old regional railway network, which is being dismantled with the arrival of the Mediterranean corridor, will be used. The Generalitat has already agreed the route with the different municipalities.
The tram will make it possible to connect Reus airport with the future intermodal station, which the Spanish Government will start building in 2026, 3.5 kilometers from the aerodrome, in the municipality of Vila-seca. A puzzle where, finally, all the pieces would fit, linking continental flights with high-speed trains, the conventional railway line and the Mediterranean corridor.
Almost a dream for a territory used to historical mistakes in the field of transport, such as locating the AVE station far from Tarragona and Reus or designing its rail transport network thinking about trips to Barcelona. An incomplete and poor transport network in the second metropolitan area of Catalonia that has condemned its residents to use the car: 82% of the inhabitants use private transport.
With the launch of the tramway, the Generalitat is planning a redesign of the bus lines, the public transport most used for urban and interurban journeys. The end of the concession coincides, in 2028, with the commissioning of the second phase of the tramway.
The Tarragona-Reus connection (2028) will be key for metropolitan transport, beyond tourism, because it will finally connect the center of Tarragona with the neighborhoods of Ponent, the Rovira i Virgili University campuses (URV), the Sant Hospital Joan of Reus and Joan XXIII of Tarragona or the petrochemical estates area. A territory divided by old national roads where mostly private vehicles circulate will finally be stitched together, in which the centers of the main cities and their outer radius are like two worlds facing each other.
