BILBAO'S METROA, PART 2: THE NEW METROA

The article describes the history and construction of the metro which was first envisaged in 1920 to connect Bilbao to Lezama, Plentzia and Santander light railways as well as serving the broad-gauge lines at the mainline station. Construction of line 1 of the metro began in 1989, the first underground section in Bilbao was started in 1990. The surface section of the line uses the track bed of an abandoned narrow-gauge railway. Considerable civil engineering work will be required to permit the accommodation of the metro tracks plus a new link with the Bilbao to San Sebastian narrow-gauge railway at an improved interchange. Metre- gauge track has been retained on the metro development, automatic train protection will be standard from the start of subway operation using headways of 2.0 and 2.5 minutes. Eventually automatic train operation will be used when between 24 and 30 trains per hour will pass through the subway. It is expected that Phase 1 will generate more than 100,000 daily passengers and this number will increase by a further 50,000 when Phase 2 becomes operational. Stations are to be single-manned and inter-modal ticketing is being seriously considered.