The Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC) trains that will link Barcelona with the Airport on a still uncertain date have already begun to take shape, although the first will not be delivered for another three years, according to information released this Friday by the Government and the railway manufacturer.
The service, which will compete with Renfe, will connect the Catalan capital with the two El Prat terminals every 15 minutes, and will have 10 85-meter-long trains, made up of five one-story wagons each, with a capacity for 600 passengers and that can reach a maximum service speed of 120 km/h.
The entire train will be low-floor, except for the bogie and cabin areas, with wider double doors located at platform height. The wagons have been designed to be comfortable and accessible, and modular in order to adapt them to the needs of the service.
They will have plugs and USB charging points in all seats and a Wi-Fi network; They will have numerous luggage spaces and wider aisles to facilitate internal mobility, and they will also have real-time information on terminals and flights.
At an operational level, boarding the trains at terminal T1 will be facilitated, since at all times there will be a train on the platform receiving passengers so that they have time to settle in, and this new line will allow easy exchanges with the main lines of the rest of the public transport in Catalonia (metro, trains and buses), according to the Generalitat.
The aim is for this new service to be assimilated to models with the same characteristics that already exist in the main European airports, such as the London Heathrow Express, the Sprinter from Amsterdam Schiphol, the City Airport Train from Vienna or the Leonardo Express from Rome Fiumicino. .
local production
FGC formalized the purchase of the trains in July, as well as the signing of the financing of the investment with various financial entities and the European Investment Bank. The contract with Alstom includes the supply of the 10 units and their maintenance for a period of 15 years, for a total of 177 million.
To carry out maintenance, Alstom will build a 3,000 square meter specific workshop for FGC at its Alstom industrial center in Santa Perpètua de Mogoda (Barcelona), where construction of the convoys has now begun. The new workshop will be fully equipped to carry out all integral maintenance operations within the same facility, indicates the French company.
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