The Seville Metro (Spanish: Metro de Sevilla) is an 18-kilometre (11 mi) light metro[3] network serving the city of Seville, Spain and its metropolitan area. The system is totally independent of any other rail or street traffic. All stations are provided with platform screen doors.
| Seville Metro | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
 Puerta Jerez station | |||
| Overview | |||
| Native name | Metro de Sevilla | ||
| Owner | Autonomous Government of Andalusia | ||
| Locale | Seville, Andalusia, Spain | ||
| Transit type | Light metro | ||
| Number of lines | 1 finished 1 in construction 2 planned | ||
| Number of stations | 22 | ||
| Daily ridership | 55,970 (2023) | ||
| Annual ridership | 20.4 million (2023) | ||
| Website | Metro Sevilla (in English) | ||
| Operation | |||
| Began operation | 2 April 2009 | ||
| Operator(s) | Metro de Sevilla Sociedad Concesionaria de la Junta de Andalucía S.A.[1] | ||
| Number of vehicles | 21 CAF Urbos 2 | ||
| Technical | |||
| System length | 18 km (11 mi)[2] | ||
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge | ||
| Electrification | 750 V DC overhead catenary | ||
| Top speed | 70 km/h (43 mph) | ||
| |||
Line 1 was inaugurated on 2 April 2009. Three more lines are planned to be built. Construction of Line 3 began in 2023 and is expected to be completed in 2030.
The Seville Metro fleet consists of 17 articulated low-floor Urbos 2 light rail vehicles (LRVs) manufactured by CAF. The Urbos 2 LRVs are 31 metres (101 ft 8 1⁄2 in) long, 2.65 metres (8 ft 8 3⁄8 in) wide, and 3.3 metres (10 ft 9 7⁄8 in) tall, with a total 6 doors on each side. The capacity of each LRV vehicle is of 192 passengers, of which 60 would be seated and 132 standing. The Urbos 2 LRVs have air conditioning. LRVs are powered by an overhead catenary at 750 V DC.[4]
It was the sixth Metro system to be built in Spain, after those in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao and Palma de Mallorca. Currently, it is the fifth biggest Metro company in Spain by number of passengers carried – it carried over 20 million passengers in 2023.[5]
History
editOriginal project
editIn 1968, the City Council of Seville already stated that surface transportation was insufficient to meet the mobility demands of citizens due to the growing development of private transport in the area. The Council proposed to build a metro system in the following decade.
On 30 July 1969, the City Council approved a study that received support from the Ministry of Public Works. The Ministry then put out a tender for the drafting of the project, which was selected in September 1972. This first project proposed that the network length would be 27.2 km with 32 stations in three lines, covering only the city of Seville:
- Line 1:: La Plata, Puerta Jerez, Plaza Nueva, Plaza del Duque, Alameda, Macarena, Pino Montano.
- Line 2:: Santa Clara, Polígono San Pablo, Alhóndiga, Plaza del Duque, Marqués de Paradas, El Tardón, Rubén Darío.
- Line 3:: Heliópolis, San Bernardo, Menéndez y Pelayo, Recaredo, Macarena, Cartuja.
Experimental construction began in mid-1974, with definitive construction beginning in April 1976. On 4 November 1981, the monument to San Fernando in Plaza Nueva sank, raising concerns to citizens. A few months later, on 28 March 1982, a 5 metres (16 ft) sinkhole appeared in Puerta Jerez station, and later that year, some cracks appeared in several buildings in the San Bernardo neighborhood.
These events sparked public alarm and encouraged a campaign against the progress of the metro project, leading to the suspension of the works in 1984 in the midst of a budget restructuring of the newly created Junta de Andalucía, which preferred to build other, more popular infrastructure projects in Andalusia.[6]
Revised metro project
edit
In 1999, fifteen years after the works were halted, PSOE and Partido Andalucista reached an agreement to reactivate construction, citing technological advances and considerable population growth as the reasons. A new study project was ordered by the Junta de Andalucía, planning a network covering Seville and its metropolitan area (over 1.5 million inhabitants) formed by four lines, all of them, completely independent of other traffic.
Construction of Line 1 began in September 2003, starting with the rehabilitation of the flooded Nervion station, whose works were halted 25 years prior. The line was scheduled to be completed in 2006, but construction was still halfway done by then. In October 2007, Metrocentro tram system was inaugurated. The Junta de Andalucía temporarily transferred five Urbos 2 trams to TUSSAM (operator of city buses and MetroCentro) since the metro system was not still operating. A few months later, TUSSAM bought the trams, which were eventually brought back to their manufacturer, CAF, and sold once again to the Seville Metro in 2010.
The inauguration day was expected to be 21 December 2008. However, on 27 November, a water filtration at Puerta Jerez station delayed the inauguration by three and a half months. Line 1 finally began operation on 2 April 2009.[2]
Enlargement
edit
After Line 1 was inaugurated in 2009, Seville Metro projects were halted due to the global financial crisis that severely struck Spain. Over the following years, projects for the construction of new lines were requested, but they were never completed.
In 2018, government officials came to an agreement to build line 3 of the metro system next, as this line would only cross the city of Seville, thus requiring less permissions.[7] Line 3 officially began construction in February 2023, although just the northern half of it, since the southern half still does not have an approved project. Line 3 is expected to be inaugurated in 2030.[8]
In October 2024, Seville Metro updated its logo and corporate image.[9]
System
edit| Metro de Sevilla | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Line | Terminals | Length | Stations | Status | |
 |
Ciudad Expo Olivar Quintos |
18 km
|
22
|
Operating since 2 April 2009
| |
 |
Torreblanca Puerta Triana |
13.4 km
|
18
|
Study phase as of late 2024
| |
 |
Pino Montano Bermejales |
11.5 km
|
17
|
In construction since February 2023
Expected to be completed by 2030 | |
 |
Circular line | 17.7 km
|
24
|
Planned
| |
Line 1
edit
- Line 1, West-South
- Cities: Mairena del Aljarafe, San Juan de Aznalfarache, Seville, Dos Hermanas.
- Stations: 22
- Length: 18 km (11 mi)
- Construction: September 2003 - April 2009
- Licence holder: Grupo ACS, Grupo SyV, GEA 21, AOPJA, CAF
Line 1 of Seville Metro crosses the southern part of Seville metropolitan area, starting at Ciudad Expo station in Mairena del Aljarafe. The end of the line is Olivar de Quintos in Montequinto, a neighborhood of Dos Hermanas. The line crosses the busiest zones in Seville, including Puerta Jerez near Seville city center, San Bernardo, which is a transportation hub, and Nervión. The line also stops at Pablo de Olavide University, where it is expected to have a connection to the Alcalá de Guadaira tramway in 2026.
In 2019 the busiest stations on Line 1 were Puerta Jerez (2,139,000), San Bernardo (1,393,000) and Nervión (1,385,000).[10]
Fares
edit
There are several payment methods that can be used in the metro facilities.
- An exclusive Seville Metro ticket: they can be bought at automated ticket machines in stations.
- A Seville Metro card
- A multimodal card of the Transport Consortium of any Metropolitan Area of Andalusia.
- Bank card using the Tap&Go system.[11]
 Seville Metro fees
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Method | 0 zones | 1 zone | 2 zones |
| Single ticket | 1,35 € | 1,60 € | 1,80 € |
| Round trip ticket | 2,70 € | 3,20 € | 3,60 € |
| 1-day ticket Unlimited trips in a single day |
4,50 € | ||
| Bonoplus45 45 trips in 30 days, sole proprietorship |
0,66 € (30€) 0,26€ (12€)* |
0,94 € (42€) 0,37€ (17€)* |
1,10 € (50€) 0,44€ (20€)* |
| Bonometro (Seville Metro card) | 0,82 € 0,33 €* |
1,17 € 0,47 €* |
1,37 € 0,55 €* |
| Transport Consortium Card** | 0,82 € 0,33 €* |
1,17 € 0,47 €* |
1,37 € 0,55 €* |
| *Provisional prices from January 2023 to December 2024 **This payment option allows the user to transfer between different means of transport in the metropolitan area, discounting 20% of the total amount of the means used within a period of 2 hours. | |||
See also
edit- MetroCentro (Seville) (i.e. Seville tramway)
- RENFE, operator of the commuter train system of Seville.
- Medium-capacity rail transport system
References
edit- ^ "Who we are". Metro Sevilla. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
- ^ a b "Sevilla metro inaugurated". Railway Gazette International. 6 April 2009. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
- ^ Michael Taplin (March 2013). "Home - World Systems List index - World List P-T - Spain (ES)". Light Rail Transit Association (LRTA). Retrieved 18 May 2014.
- ^ Robert Schwandl. "Sevilla". UrbanRail.net. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
- ^ "Metro de Sevilla logra su récord histórico: más de 20 millones de pasajeros transportados en 2023". Diario de Sevilla (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 January 2024.
- ^ "La Junta de Andalucía, dispuesta a paralizar definitivamente las obras del 'metro' de Sevilla". El País. 14 March 1983. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
- ^ Reyes, Alberto García (24 January 2018). "Gobierno, Junta de Andalucía y Ayuntamiento acuerdan hacer la línea 3 del metro de Sevilla". ABCdesevilla. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
- ^ "Arrancan hoy las obras de la línea 3 del Metro de Sevilla, catorce años después de la apertura de la línea 1". Cadena SER. 20 February 2023.
- ^ "El Metro de Sevilla estrena logo sin anuncio oficial mientras se esperan más trenes". El Correo de Andalucía. 8 November 2024.
- ^ "La línea 1 roza los 17 millones de viajeros en 2019". Diario de Sevilla (in Spanish). 24 January 2020. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
- ^ "Tickets & Fares". Metro Sevilla. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
External links
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