Post by gantshill on Feb 28, 2015 11:15:29 GMT
I've just come back from a few days in Barcelona, staying at a hotel close to Jaume I metro station on line 4.
A few observations.
The platforms have countdown indicators giving the time until the next train in minutes and seconds, although it is a little disconcerting when the time suddenly increases by 10 or 15 seconds, which can happen more than once in my experience.
I didn't get on any of the lines with platform doors. Current collection was from a fixed third rail which was mounted like a catenary wire.
The trains were mainly walk-through with grab poles that split into two or three to make it easier to share them. In one train I saw half height poles in the middle of the train between the seats, which in my mind would be very useful on our S-stock trains.
Metro signage was in Catalan, Spanish and English, in that order, although announcements and the LED displays on the trains seemed to be only in Catalan.
Some of the interchanges felt like very long walks, almost like the Paris metro.
You needed to insert your ticket into the gate to gain access to the system, with some gates having the slot on the left and others on the right, which was a little confusing, although it was always signed and I didn't see rows of gates that were mixed left or right. To exit the system there were gates of varying sorts, some were double which would make it harder to gain access through them as it would be very obvious to anyone watching what you were trying to do.
On the mainline regional railway, there were gates at entrance and exit, however, at the airport station on the mainline railway, there was no requirement to use a ticket to exit the station. Presumably there are sufficient ticket inspections to deter over-riders and this allowed the crowd getting off the half-hourly service to exit the station without too much delay. The tourist card which allowed travel in the central zone 1 also permitted travel to the airport which was in zone 4. That felt like a very friendly and welcoming gesture.
Alas the Funicular de Montjuic was closed and appeared to have been for some time, with a replacement bus service and no indication of when it might reopen.
The station Paral.lel had the two metro lines running parallel to each other, which felt very satisfying: it was odd thought as at that end of the line, line 2 runs on the left rather than the right for the first few stations: this did provide better interchange at the station.
We did see some of the more normal tourist sights as well....
A few observations.
The platforms have countdown indicators giving the time until the next train in minutes and seconds, although it is a little disconcerting when the time suddenly increases by 10 or 15 seconds, which can happen more than once in my experience.
I didn't get on any of the lines with platform doors. Current collection was from a fixed third rail which was mounted like a catenary wire.
The trains were mainly walk-through with grab poles that split into two or three to make it easier to share them. In one train I saw half height poles in the middle of the train between the seats, which in my mind would be very useful on our S-stock trains.
Metro signage was in Catalan, Spanish and English, in that order, although announcements and the LED displays on the trains seemed to be only in Catalan.
Some of the interchanges felt like very long walks, almost like the Paris metro.
You needed to insert your ticket into the gate to gain access to the system, with some gates having the slot on the left and others on the right, which was a little confusing, although it was always signed and I didn't see rows of gates that were mixed left or right. To exit the system there were gates of varying sorts, some were double which would make it harder to gain access through them as it would be very obvious to anyone watching what you were trying to do.
On the mainline regional railway, there were gates at entrance and exit, however, at the airport station on the mainline railway, there was no requirement to use a ticket to exit the station. Presumably there are sufficient ticket inspections to deter over-riders and this allowed the crowd getting off the half-hourly service to exit the station without too much delay. The tourist card which allowed travel in the central zone 1 also permitted travel to the airport which was in zone 4. That felt like a very friendly and welcoming gesture.
Alas the Funicular de Montjuic was closed and appeared to have been for some time, with a replacement bus service and no indication of when it might reopen.
The station Paral.lel had the two metro lines running parallel to each other, which felt very satisfying: it was odd thought as at that end of the line, line 2 runs on the left rather than the right for the first few stations: this did provide better interchange at the station.
We did see some of the more normal tourist sights as well....
