Zaragoza tram
Encyclopedia
The Zaragoza tram is a tram system in the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 city of Zaragoza
Zaragoza
Zaragoza , also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain...

, capital of the autonomous community of Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...

. Line 1 will be expanded with a second and third line.

History

In 1885, the first animal traction tram line was established.

In 1902, Zaragoza had five main lines and one secondary line. In the same year, one of the lines were electrified. The network was expanding quickly in a radial form across the city, with the present Spain square as the center.

The 1950s was the period of maximum splendour.

Since the 1960s, the tram was beginning to decline, converted bit by bit to bus lines.

23 January 1976 the last Zaragoza tram line (Parque-San José) disappeared and the company changed its name to Transportes Urbanos de Zaragoza (Urban Transport Company of Zaragoza).

10 June 2009 The Traza consortium of Tuzsa, CAF, FCC Construcción, Acciona, Ibercaja and Concessia selected to build new tramway.

19 April 2011 Phase 1 of Line 1 opened. Phase 2 of the work of the new tram line 1 began for completion in mid-2013.

For 2015, two more lines are likely to be operational:
  • Line 2 (Las Fuentes-Delicias (Zaragoza))
  • Line 3 (La Jota-Torrero)

Line 1 (Valdespartera-Parque Goya)

The full north-south line will have 25 stops with side platforms except in two of them. The average distance between consecutive stops is about 500 m, adding a total length of 12.8 km line, which will be traversed to a commercial speed
Speed
In kinematics, the speed of an object is the magnitude of its velocity ; it is thus a scalar quantity. The average speed of an object in an interval of time is the distance traveled by the object divided by the duration of the interval; the instantaneous speed is the limit of the average speed as...

 of 19 km/h, completing the course in 40 minutes, 19 minutes for the journey Academia General Militar-Plaza de España (Spain Square) and 21 minutes from Plaza de España to Plaza Cinema Paradiso (Valdespartera).

Construction work started on August 18, 2009 and is projected to last four years in two phases:
  • Phase 1 (2009–2011): Section between the Valdespartera neighbourhood and Plaza de Basilio Paraiso. Opened 19 April 2011.
  • Phase 2: (2011–2013): Section between the Plaza de Basilio Paraiso and Academia General Militar. Currently is under construction.


The estimated investment is 400 million euros:
  • Construction of the platform 202 million
  • Purchase of rolling stock: 82 million
  • Construction of the depot: 37 million
  • Private supplementary route: 55 million
  • Traffic light system integration and other expenses: 25 million


The expected traffic in the project is around 100,000 passengers per day, with an average rate of 0.75 euros per passenger.

Trams

The 21 CAF Urbos 3
Urbos
Urbos is a family of light rail vehicles built by CAF.There are three generations of Urbos:-Urbos 1:This series was only sold to Euskotren to operate tram services in Bilbao.- Urbos 2 :* Tranvía de Vélez-Málaga* Tranvía de Vitoria* Metro de Sevilla...

 trams are 33 m long, extendable to 43 m, a width of 2.65 m and a height of 3.2 m. They have a capacity of 200 people, 54 seated and 146 standing (at 3.5 persons per m2).

Electricity

The trams will mostly use conventional catenary
Overhead lines
Overhead lines or overhead wires are used to transmit electrical energy to trams, trolleybuses or trains at a distance from the energy supply point...

, but in the historical city centre (between Plaza Paraíso and the Roman wall) they will use stored braking energy and, additionally, could receive power during stops, thanks to the ACR system. Thus no overhead wires will be needed in the historic area.

External links

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