Seville

Seville’s Metro has its origin in a law approved in 1975, which designed a three-line radial network, with a hub in the historic centre of the city. The works advanced slowly, and in 1983, the project was abandoned for a “new definition of the system” after some problems with several buildings in the nearby historic centre, declared a “World Heritage” site by the Unesco.

Twenty years later, on May 21, 2002, the Transport Ministry of the Regional Government of Andalusia approved a new metro system for Seville and its metropolitan area (about 1,450,000 inhabitants), which was absolutely different from the old one. This plan avoided the risks of penetrating the underground of the historic area, and planning a shuttle-tram line named “Metro-Centro”, to connect the closest metro station at “Puerta de Jerez”, with the Cathedral, the Royal Palace, and the business area of “Plaza Nueva” and C. Sierpes, truly the heart of the town.

The new system's plan has four conventional metro lines inside the urban area, and shuttle trams to the most important suburban cities like Dos Hermanas, Alcalá de Guadaíra, and the Aljarafe area. Metro Line 1 is going to be operational in late 2008 or early 2009. It will run about 18 km and have 22 stations, most of them underground. The Metro will operate with low floor "light rail"-type vehicles from CAF.

The first phase of the Metro-Centro tram was inaugurated October 28, 2007, consisting of a route of 1.4 km from Plaza Nueva to Prado de S. Sebastián, going across the Avda. Constitución, Puerta de Jerez and C. S. Fernando, inside a whole area now reserved to pedestrians, and connecting the historic district with the “outwalls” midtown. The tram has been very successful and in a few months it will be extended to the S. Bernardo local train station, and then to the Santa Justa Central Station, the terminal of the Spanish high speed AVE trains from Madrid. The tram operates with a 5 min. frequency. The tram operates light rail vehicles from CAF, numbered 101-117 (the same type vehicles will be used on the Metro lines). The trams are bidirectional and articulated with a capacity of 275 passengers. The tram railways are installed on a concrete platform, which is installed on top of a bed of elastic matterial to absorb noise and vibrations to the surrounding area.