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New Barcelona bus network to be extended on Monday with five additional lines, covering more than 93 km

Posted: 15 November 2013 | TMB | No comments yet

The Catalan capital is transforming its surface passenger transport system to ease…

  • The Catalan capital is transforming its surface passenger transport system to ease congestion and improve the environment
  • As of 18 November, 30% of passengers using city buses will be travelling on high-performance service lines

Next Monday, 18 November, the implementation of the new Barcelona bus network continues, spearheaded by the Catalan capital’s City Council and local public service operator TMB, with the creation of five lines, three running horizontally and two vertically: H8, H10, H16, V3 and V17. It will be a decisive step in the transformation of the city’s public surface transport, from a model consisting of an accumulation of lines into one truly integrated, more efficient, easy-to-understand, useful and attractive network, based on a schematic of 28 vertical, horizontal and diagonals axes.

The five new lines correspond to high-demand routes. In four cases (H8, H10, V3 and V17) these will replace and improve existing conventional lines (15, 43, 44, 72 and 28), while the horizontally running H16 overlaps three conventional lines which will continue to operate with some changes. In total six lines will be adapted to avoid conflicting with the new lines in operation.

The five new lines equate to 49 kilometres and 233 stops, on which 91 standard (12 m) and environmentally advanced articulated (18 m) vehicles will run: powered either by low emission compressed natural gas engines, or by diesel engines equipped with filters for removing nitrogen oxides and particulates.

A network of ten high-frequency routes

The new bus network represents the realisation of Barcelona’s investment in a quality public transport system, of which surface transport forms a part, in conjunction with the underground railway, trams and suburban trains. To this end, in October 2012, the City Council and TMB initiated the reformulation of the current bus network, with the introduction of the D20, H6, H12, V7 and V21 lines. Improvements have been implemented which have increased both the efficiency of the service and demand. There has been a trial of three 24-metre long bi-articulated hybrid buses on the H12 line running since the summer. Currently these five lines carry 16% of the city’s bus users, consisting of 102 routes. Passengers have given the new lines a rating of 7.6 out of a possible 10, which is higher than that given to the bus service as a whole, with a rating of 7.2.

The first five lines added to the five that will now be in operation form a 93.5 kilometre-long network, covering most of the city and three other municipalities in the metropolitan area. This is a step towards the configuration of a new frequent, easy-touse, high connectivity network, through which Barcelona hopes to increase the demand for public transport, relieving congestion and improving environmental quality. The ten lines will operate at convenient intervals of 5-8 minutes during the course of an extensive weekday timetable. It is expected that around 30% of weekday urban bus passengers (the equivalent of 180,000 trips made) will be able to travel using high-performance lines.

User information campaign

Since 7 November, Barcelona City Council and TMB have been developing a campaign to explain the new bus network to the city’s residents and let them know about the changes involved in the implementation of this second phase, providing them with all they need to travel around on the new network. As part of the campaign, both this week and next week, 200 information agents will be stationed at key stops and junctions, to inform users directly in the most comprehensive manner possible.

Further information can be found on the website http://www.novaxarxabus.bcn.cat/es and on the TMB website.

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