Barcelona-França train station
| Estació de França | |
|---|---|
Estació de França on Avinguda del Marquès de l'Argentera
|
|
| Data | |
| Design | Terminus |
| IBNR | 7100067 |
| opening | 1848 |
| location | |
| City / municipality | Barcelona |
| province | Barcelona Province |
| Autonomous community | Catalonia |
| Country | Spain |
| Coordinates | 41 ° 23 '2 " N , 2 ° 11' 10" E |
| Railway lines | |
| List of train stations in Spain | |
Estació de França ( Catalan for France train station ) is a long-distance and regional train station in the Catalan metropolis of Barcelona . It is the second most important in the city after the Barcelona-Sants train station , but is expected to lose this status when the Barcelona-Sagrera train station opens and will then only be number 3 in the city.
location
The train station is on Avinguda del Marquès de l'Argentera in the eastern part of the Ciutat Vella district (old town), not far from the Mediterranean Sea . The districts of Barceloneta and La Ribera as well as the Parc de la Ciutadella and the Barcelona Zoo are in the immediate vicinity. The tracks leave the station towards the sea, then swivel in a curve - which borders the zoo to the south - behind the Torre Mapfre and disappear underground, where they are connected by a triangular track to the Sants – Costa Brava / France railway line, which also runs in the tunnel.
history
At this point, a terminus station was built in 1848 as the end of the Costa Brava railway line and - as the name suggests - France .
The station was renewed for the 1929 World Exhibition , giving it its current appearance. It developed into the main train station of Barcelona. The station concourse is 29 meters high and extends over a length of 195 meters.
At the end of the 1960s, a fast freight handling facility next to the train station, which was also opened in 1929, was converted into a local transport terminal. This terminal was closed and demolished in 1987. The area was intended to be used several times for hotel and apartment buildings, but lay fallow for a long time and has now even been used as a paid parking lot. In 2007 the construction machines finally drove up for a complex.
On the occasion of the 1992 Summer Olympics , the station was completely renovated between 1988 and 1992. The connection to the Costa Brava, which runs directly on the sea, has been discontinued. The connections via the Poble Nou train station with railway maintenance systems, as well as the track connection to the north station, which was closed in 1972, were also discontinued. All trains now left the station through the access route to the El Clot-Sants tunnel .
In 1970 the Sants station was opened and the France station increasingly lost its importance. Several tracks have already been bricked up. The importance will increase with the opening of the Sagrera train station (expected in 2023) in the north of Barcelona, because the Catalan government wants to let many of the trains with final destination Barcelona end there. Even a direct connection to the nearby underground station "Barceloneta" is likely.
traffic
Long-distance transport
The night train connections to Milan and Zurich were discontinued in December 2012. The night trains to Paris have stopped running since December 2013. Since the Talgo connection to Montpellier was abandoned , also in December 2013, the França station is no longer served by international long-distance trains.
However, at the end of 2013 it was connected to the Spanish long-distance network again, the Euromed and Alvia trains in the direction of Valencia and Alicante were extended from Sants station to França. Seven pairs of Euromed trains and one pair of Alvia trains run daily.
Regional traffic
Rodalies Barcelona
The station is served by the R2Sud line of the Rodalies Barcelona S-Bahn system . Line 2Sud has trains to and from Vilanova i la Geltrú and Sant Vicenç de Calders.
Normally the R10 line runs from França via Passeig de Gràcia - Sants and El Prat de Llobregat to Barcelona Airport , but in the course of renovation work at the Sant Andreu train stations on the occasion of the new long-distance and regional train station Sagrera in the north of the city, line R2 and the R10 line mixed - for the time of construction there are the R2 (Castelldefels-Granollers Center), the R2Nord (Airport-Maçanet-Massanes) and the R2Sud (França-Sants-Vilanova i la Geltrú-Sant Vicenç de Calders).
Other regional traffic
From França via Sants, the Catalunya Express trains to Tortosa , Reus , Lleida and Saragossa . Most of these trains also serve the Barcelona-Sants station.
Subway
The Barceloneta metro station, which is served by line 4, is located near the train station.
Worth mentioning
- The station also serves as an alternative station for the other major stations in the city. Especially during the renovation of the Aragó tunnel , numerous long-distance trains ended up in França instead of in Sants.
- França is the only above-ground train station in the center of Barcelona
- França train station is the only terminus in the city, Sants and Sagrera are through stations.
- The station is part of the university complex of the Pompeu Fabra University, founded in 1990 .
- The Barcelona-Arc de Triomf train station is very close by . It is underground and is on the Sants – Costa Brava line.
- Until 1992 there was a direct connection to the Costa Brava. However, it was canceled in the course of various changes in local passenger transport and the access was integrated into the Costa Brava – Sants line.
- Also until 1992, a railway line ran past the station and the seaside from the line from the Costa Brava to the port facilities. It had to give way to the plans that Barcelona would open to the sea on the occasion of the Olympics, so a motorway was also laid underground.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ La Estació de França - Railway-History.de
- ↑ Timetable information for the Spanish railways. RENFE , accessed March 2, 2015 .