A collapse in the electricity supply system to train and underground services operating out of Palma caused chaos yesterday, the outage lasting for over three hours in the later afternoon and into the early evening. Buses couldn't cope with demand from stranded passengers.
See more: Ultima Hora
Showing posts with label Trains. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trains. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 03, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Sa Pobla rail line under threat
Well, forget all that old talk about the rail line from Sa Pobla being extended to Alcúdia, it looks as though the line from Inca to Sa Pobla is under threat, the suggestion having been made that it might be closed.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
Monday, August 01, 2011
The Train That Ran Away
"The runaway train went over the hill and she blew." Fat chance. The train won't be going near the hills of Artà any time soon. It has run away and hidden. Wagons for the Manacor-Artà line had already been bought. They are in storage, and they are likely to stay there.
Why, in the name of financial common sense, were wagons purchased before the line was anything like completed? Sure, it had been anticipated that the line might be ready this year (this was initially the plan), but the development, ever since it was embarked upon, has been only a sudden halt from ramming into the buffers.
Crisis has well and truly done for former President Antich's "age of the train", one that he announced on becoming president in 2007. First, the Alcúdia extension was scrapped, and now the Artà line, which had been intended to eventually go on to Cala Rajada, is paralysed. Whether it will ever be reactivated, who can tell.
The regional and central governments are bust. We know this. President Bauzá, desperate to reduce the Balearics massive debt, has ordered the freezing of projects. Central government has been only too happy to support him, by stating that it will not forward any more funds for the Artà line.
Something had to give. Clearly it had to. Boracic, the Balearics Government can't afford to indulge in major projects. However, at the same time as the announcement was being made as to the halting of the Artà line, Vice-President Aguiló (and overseer of finance and business) was saying that the Palacio de Congresos in Palma was "fundamental in order to reactivate the Balearic economy". It will continue to receive funding.
How is it fundamental? The palacio is essentially a conference centre, one designed in the hope of a strand of tourism - the business conference tourism market - becoming a significant part of Mallorca's tourism mix. But on what evidence?
Plenty of other cities in Spain have similar palacios. Perhaps this was the impulse to create Palma's. If others have got them, then so should we. It could indeed prove to be important in economic reactivation, but the suspicion is that it is a vanity project. It will be heralded, as such developments tend to be, as "iconic". A railway line, on the other hand, wouldn't merit such hyperbole. It is functional and presumably is not considered fundamental to anything.
Furthermore, the palacio couldn't just be abandoned. Its structure exists. For it to not be finished would make for an appalling eyesore, which is what it might turn out to be anyway, uncomplementary as it will be to other Palma seaside architecture, the Cathedral for instance. It's an easier option to crack on with the centre than it is with a railway line for which vast tracts of land - out of sight of Palma - have already been churned over, dug up and levelled.
The total cost of the Artà line is said to be 150 million euros. But there is a mystery about its funding. In 2009, 92 million euros were supposed to have been diverted from the abandoned Alcúdia project. What happened to them? In June, it was reported that 112 million euros for the Artà line were lacking.
Is the government so wrong, though, to have put a halt to the line? The mayors of towns which would have been connected, Sant Llorenç and Son Servera, believe so. One who doesn't is Antoni Pastor, mayor of Manacor (Partido Popular). There again, Manacor already has the crucial connection - that to Palma. Moreover, Manacor's resorts would not potentially have benefited. The line would have run close to Cala Millor, a resort that falls under two administrations - Sant Llorenç and Son Servera.
The Chamber of Commerce in Mallorca has come up with a telling finding. According to its own report, the volume of traffic that the line would have generated would have been roughly a third of that considered by the government to make it viable. This governmental figure appears to be one that the previous administration came up with. If the discrepancy is accurate, then why was the line ever contemplated?
However, the Artà line would have brought benefits other than those directly from passenger sales. The eastern part of the island needs development. Improved connections with Palma would have brought secondary benefits, hard though these might be to quantify.
Similarly though, there is a conference centre being built in Palma, the benefits of which have not been quantified. It goes ahead because of what it is and because of where it is. The train to Artà is in another world.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Why, in the name of financial common sense, were wagons purchased before the line was anything like completed? Sure, it had been anticipated that the line might be ready this year (this was initially the plan), but the development, ever since it was embarked upon, has been only a sudden halt from ramming into the buffers.
Crisis has well and truly done for former President Antich's "age of the train", one that he announced on becoming president in 2007. First, the Alcúdia extension was scrapped, and now the Artà line, which had been intended to eventually go on to Cala Rajada, is paralysed. Whether it will ever be reactivated, who can tell.
The regional and central governments are bust. We know this. President Bauzá, desperate to reduce the Balearics massive debt, has ordered the freezing of projects. Central government has been only too happy to support him, by stating that it will not forward any more funds for the Artà line.
Something had to give. Clearly it had to. Boracic, the Balearics Government can't afford to indulge in major projects. However, at the same time as the announcement was being made as to the halting of the Artà line, Vice-President Aguiló (and overseer of finance and business) was saying that the Palacio de Congresos in Palma was "fundamental in order to reactivate the Balearic economy". It will continue to receive funding.
How is it fundamental? The palacio is essentially a conference centre, one designed in the hope of a strand of tourism - the business conference tourism market - becoming a significant part of Mallorca's tourism mix. But on what evidence?
Plenty of other cities in Spain have similar palacios. Perhaps this was the impulse to create Palma's. If others have got them, then so should we. It could indeed prove to be important in economic reactivation, but the suspicion is that it is a vanity project. It will be heralded, as such developments tend to be, as "iconic". A railway line, on the other hand, wouldn't merit such hyperbole. It is functional and presumably is not considered fundamental to anything.
Furthermore, the palacio couldn't just be abandoned. Its structure exists. For it to not be finished would make for an appalling eyesore, which is what it might turn out to be anyway, uncomplementary as it will be to other Palma seaside architecture, the Cathedral for instance. It's an easier option to crack on with the centre than it is with a railway line for which vast tracts of land - out of sight of Palma - have already been churned over, dug up and levelled.
The total cost of the Artà line is said to be 150 million euros. But there is a mystery about its funding. In 2009, 92 million euros were supposed to have been diverted from the abandoned Alcúdia project. What happened to them? In June, it was reported that 112 million euros for the Artà line were lacking.
Is the government so wrong, though, to have put a halt to the line? The mayors of towns which would have been connected, Sant Llorenç and Son Servera, believe so. One who doesn't is Antoni Pastor, mayor of Manacor (Partido Popular). There again, Manacor already has the crucial connection - that to Palma. Moreover, Manacor's resorts would not potentially have benefited. The line would have run close to Cala Millor, a resort that falls under two administrations - Sant Llorenç and Son Servera.
The Chamber of Commerce in Mallorca has come up with a telling finding. According to its own report, the volume of traffic that the line would have generated would have been roughly a third of that considered by the government to make it viable. This governmental figure appears to be one that the previous administration came up with. If the discrepancy is accurate, then why was the line ever contemplated?
However, the Artà line would have brought benefits other than those directly from passenger sales. The eastern part of the island needs development. Improved connections with Palma would have brought secondary benefits, hard though these might be to quantify.
Similarly though, there is a conference centre being built in Palma, the benefits of which have not been quantified. It goes ahead because of what it is and because of where it is. The train to Artà is in another world.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
The Train Not Now Standing ...
Amongst the various measures announced by the Spanish Government to save energy and oil in light of the little local difficulty in north Africa is one to incentivise the use of public transport. An incentive, that of a 5% discount on local train journeys, does not, unless I'm very much mistaken, apply in Mallorca, as this reduction applies to services operated by Renfe, and Renfe doesn't run services in Mallorca.
Whatever incentive may or may not be flying around, therefore, would have to be one through SFM (Serveis Ferroviaris de Mallorca), the local operator. The problem is that SFM doesn't always do the greatest of jobs in incentivising travellers, because of its proneness to breaks in service. For ten months, following an accident near to Sineu station, the line between Sineu and Manacor had been closed. It re-opened on Monday of this week. Up and running once more, there have, however, been delays in the service.
The unfortunate accident at Sineu just added to the woes that SFM has had to contend with, such as a train catching fire and an attempt at sabotage on the line near Inca. There have also been other delays to services, the consequence of the process of electrification, which is due to be mostly finished by the end of this month. This upgrading of the network, welcome though it may be, disguises, though, the dashed ambitions of the current regional government.
When Francesc Antich re-assumed the presidency in 2007, one of his Big Things was that his new administration would usher in "the age of the train". With the words of Jimmy Savile not quite ringing in our ears, we waited on the platform of political promises for the arrival of trains to take us to Alcúdia and Cala Ratjada. And we're still waiting.
The two main rail projects were to have been the extension of the line from Sa Pobla to Alcúdia and the re-creation of the old line from Manacor to Artà and on to Cala Ratjada. Both have been controversial; one (the Alcúdia extension) has failed to emerge, the other has been dogged by problems, so much so that the Balearic parliament has now censured the transport minister, Gabriel Vicens (PSM - Mallorcan socialists), and called for a legal and technical audit of works.
Yet the Artà line had benefited from having additional funding, money that was finally diverted from the Alcúdia line, after months of bickering between Vicens's department and Alcúdia town hall as to the siting of the rail track and terminal had threatened a complete withdrawal of central government finance. The stand-off between the town hall and the department, regardless of any differing and legitimate logistical and environmental issues, was a nonsense of rivalry between Mallorca's two nationalist parties - the now defunct UM of the town hall and the PSM of the transport ministry. The result? No railway.
In spite of the odd accident, fire, delays, undelivered new lines and political handbags, the rail service in Mallorca is not bad. Like buses, the service is inexpensive. But, also like buses, it only does so much. Governments, such as the Spanish one, may talk blithely of incentives to change transport habits, but behaviour will not change when the infrastructure, in terms of network coverage, is lacking. And in Mallorca, there is a real issue in respect of where you put this infrastructure, as evidenced by the farce over the siting of the Alcúdia extension.
Another hope of government is that the public will eschew King Car in favour of cycling. Fine, but as pointed out the other day, there are issues of safety as well as facility where biking is concerned. The wish to create a new cycle lane across the northern tourism zone is fair enough, but how can it be done? In parts of the road that would accommodate this new lane, which would need to be much wider than is currently the case in order to confer genuine safety, there simply isn't the space.
Along one stretch, that from Puerto Alcúdia to Can Picafort, there has also been ambition for a tram service. And to one side of part of this stretch is a damn great, legally protected nature reserve. How could all the competing transport needs - cars, lorries, taxis, buses, bikes, trams, to say nothing of nutters on roller blades and tourist trikes - all be comfortably fitted in? They couldn't be, unless there was a complete change in attitude among the main road users - drivers of cars and commercial vehicles.
Mallorca has one of the highest levels of car ownership per head of population anywhere in Europe. The car is king. For a very good reason. Public transport services only run, or run with anything like reasonable frequency, where demand makes economic sense, which excludes a great deal of the island.
In urban areas, such as that of the northern conurbation on the bay of Alcúdia, roads devoted to multi-use, as envisaged with the addition of trams and new cycle lanes, could only hope to work were there a system under which priority was given to everything - and everyone (pedestrians, therefore) - other than cars and lorries; a system akin to that which exists in parts of the Netherlands. But in a land in which patience is not the greatest of virtues, you would have to wonder if such a system could ever function. And the same mentality would be unlikely to result in a major uptake in public transport services, incentives or no incentives.
Whatever central government might think, whatever the regional government might think (or have thought), Mallorca is not about to experience the age of the train anytime soon. Or the age of the bicycle.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Whatever incentive may or may not be flying around, therefore, would have to be one through SFM (Serveis Ferroviaris de Mallorca), the local operator. The problem is that SFM doesn't always do the greatest of jobs in incentivising travellers, because of its proneness to breaks in service. For ten months, following an accident near to Sineu station, the line between Sineu and Manacor had been closed. It re-opened on Monday of this week. Up and running once more, there have, however, been delays in the service.
The unfortunate accident at Sineu just added to the woes that SFM has had to contend with, such as a train catching fire and an attempt at sabotage on the line near Inca. There have also been other delays to services, the consequence of the process of electrification, which is due to be mostly finished by the end of this month. This upgrading of the network, welcome though it may be, disguises, though, the dashed ambitions of the current regional government.
When Francesc Antich re-assumed the presidency in 2007, one of his Big Things was that his new administration would usher in "the age of the train". With the words of Jimmy Savile not quite ringing in our ears, we waited on the platform of political promises for the arrival of trains to take us to Alcúdia and Cala Ratjada. And we're still waiting.
The two main rail projects were to have been the extension of the line from Sa Pobla to Alcúdia and the re-creation of the old line from Manacor to Artà and on to Cala Ratjada. Both have been controversial; one (the Alcúdia extension) has failed to emerge, the other has been dogged by problems, so much so that the Balearic parliament has now censured the transport minister, Gabriel Vicens (PSM - Mallorcan socialists), and called for a legal and technical audit of works.
Yet the Artà line had benefited from having additional funding, money that was finally diverted from the Alcúdia line, after months of bickering between Vicens's department and Alcúdia town hall as to the siting of the rail track and terminal had threatened a complete withdrawal of central government finance. The stand-off between the town hall and the department, regardless of any differing and legitimate logistical and environmental issues, was a nonsense of rivalry between Mallorca's two nationalist parties - the now defunct UM of the town hall and the PSM of the transport ministry. The result? No railway.
In spite of the odd accident, fire, delays, undelivered new lines and political handbags, the rail service in Mallorca is not bad. Like buses, the service is inexpensive. But, also like buses, it only does so much. Governments, such as the Spanish one, may talk blithely of incentives to change transport habits, but behaviour will not change when the infrastructure, in terms of network coverage, is lacking. And in Mallorca, there is a real issue in respect of where you put this infrastructure, as evidenced by the farce over the siting of the Alcúdia extension.
Another hope of government is that the public will eschew King Car in favour of cycling. Fine, but as pointed out the other day, there are issues of safety as well as facility where biking is concerned. The wish to create a new cycle lane across the northern tourism zone is fair enough, but how can it be done? In parts of the road that would accommodate this new lane, which would need to be much wider than is currently the case in order to confer genuine safety, there simply isn't the space.
Along one stretch, that from Puerto Alcúdia to Can Picafort, there has also been ambition for a tram service. And to one side of part of this stretch is a damn great, legally protected nature reserve. How could all the competing transport needs - cars, lorries, taxis, buses, bikes, trams, to say nothing of nutters on roller blades and tourist trikes - all be comfortably fitted in? They couldn't be, unless there was a complete change in attitude among the main road users - drivers of cars and commercial vehicles.
Mallorca has one of the highest levels of car ownership per head of population anywhere in Europe. The car is king. For a very good reason. Public transport services only run, or run with anything like reasonable frequency, where demand makes economic sense, which excludes a great deal of the island.
In urban areas, such as that of the northern conurbation on the bay of Alcúdia, roads devoted to multi-use, as envisaged with the addition of trams and new cycle lanes, could only hope to work were there a system under which priority was given to everything - and everyone (pedestrians, therefore) - other than cars and lorries; a system akin to that which exists in parts of the Netherlands. But in a land in which patience is not the greatest of virtues, you would have to wonder if such a system could ever function. And the same mentality would be unlikely to result in a major uptake in public transport services, incentives or no incentives.
Whatever central government might think, whatever the regional government might think (or have thought), Mallorca is not about to experience the age of the train anytime soon. Or the age of the bicycle.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Cook's Tour
Thinking that it might be cheaper to stay in the UK for the annual holiday this year? Thomas Cook would suggest otherwise. Reported on in yesterday's "Diario" is a cost comparison for various holiday destinations, based on various prices including those for a beer, a coffee and a three-course meal. The most expensive of the eleven destinations is the UK. Of others, Mallorca is the second most expensive behind Cyprus. The island may not be cheap in the way that Goa is (slightly less than a third of the Mallorcan daily cost), but it still comes out some six and a half euros less than the UK. Of the three items quoted, the prices in Mallorca - on average it would seem - are 2.78 euros for a beer (and this is for a caña, i.e. more like a half), 1.67 for a coffee and 22.26 euros for the meal.
These findings are not especially surprising, though the fact that Mallorca is nine euros per day per person more expensive than the Iberian peninsula does make one wonder as to relative costs between the island and the mainland. But of the Mallorcan prices, all seem a bit on the steep side. It depends where you drink a beer or a coffee or eat a meal, but each can be purchased for less than the amounts mentioned. A coffee (café con leche) is typically 1.50, but you can pay less. A three-course menú del día can be as low as seven or eight euros, and there are places that are offering them for less. The problem with the menú del día is that all too often your average tourist will not avail him or herself of it as it tends to be confined to "Spanish" restaurants and therefore funny foreign food. The second problem is that the menú del día is not to be had in the evenings, which is when, typically, tourists might prefer to take their main meal of the day. The third is that you don't get a lot of choice.
Nevertheless, it is still quite feasible to have a good evening meal for a lower price. It also depends how hungry you are, but there are plenty of places which will serve up seriously good portions as a main meal that will set you back maybe 12 to 13 euros. The starters are often pretty substantial as well; a main course will usually suffice. As far as beer is concerned, the British brews will always tend to be more expensive than local ones. But if one's taste is for Tetley's rather than a Saint Mick or Cruzcampo then it will make more of a dent in the budget.
As a comparative exercise between different destinations, the Thomas Cook survey is probably, in general terms, fairly accurate, but the savvy holidaymaker can do it for a lower amount. It may require a bit of looking around and drawing your own comparisons, but the prices stated should not be taken as gospel.
An historical curio about Mallorcan trains
Occasionally, one stumbles across something quite unintentionally. And so it was yesterday. An article reproduced from "The Railway Magazine" for April 1936. Here are some snippets:
On actually getting to Mallorca: "the most usual route - via Paris and Barcelona, and thence by the very fine 3,000-ton motor-ships that ply nightly, reaching Palma, the capital, in the early morning. The journey by way of Barcelona takes about 43 hours."
On railways themselves: "In March, 1921, an extension from Manacor to Arta, 30 km. (18¾ miles), was opened." (It no longer exists of course but may be reactivated.)
"At the present time extensions of the railway are proposed from La Puebla (Sa Pobla), about 14 km. (8¾ miles), to serve the growing residential town of Alcudia and the port there, at which an increasing number of steamships call."
"The island is increasingly popular with both Spanish and foreign tourists, and there would seem to be scope for the development of more speedy rail transport, such as might be provided by fast and comfortable railcars."
How fascinating is this. It once took nearly two days to get from England to Palma, the Alcúdia extension was planned over 70 years ago and there was a call for more speedy rail transport. Of these, only the time of travel to the island has really changed. And note when this was written. 1936. The year of the start of the Civil War and thus the Franco era and thus, for many years, economic stagnation.
For the whole article, which does have a lot of technical stuff about gauges and such like but which is thoroughly recommended, go to http://freespace.virgin.net/neil.worthington/mallorca.htm
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Paul Simon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46bkXgxb66E). Today's title - no question, just an explanation. Cook's Tour was what Thomas Cook first offered his travellers; the journey to Palma was once something of a Cook's Tour in terms of time; and meals are made by cooks. Oh well, suit yourselves.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
These findings are not especially surprising, though the fact that Mallorca is nine euros per day per person more expensive than the Iberian peninsula does make one wonder as to relative costs between the island and the mainland. But of the Mallorcan prices, all seem a bit on the steep side. It depends where you drink a beer or a coffee or eat a meal, but each can be purchased for less than the amounts mentioned. A coffee (café con leche) is typically 1.50, but you can pay less. A three-course menú del día can be as low as seven or eight euros, and there are places that are offering them for less. The problem with the menú del día is that all too often your average tourist will not avail him or herself of it as it tends to be confined to "Spanish" restaurants and therefore funny foreign food. The second problem is that the menú del día is not to be had in the evenings, which is when, typically, tourists might prefer to take their main meal of the day. The third is that you don't get a lot of choice.
Nevertheless, it is still quite feasible to have a good evening meal for a lower price. It also depends how hungry you are, but there are plenty of places which will serve up seriously good portions as a main meal that will set you back maybe 12 to 13 euros. The starters are often pretty substantial as well; a main course will usually suffice. As far as beer is concerned, the British brews will always tend to be more expensive than local ones. But if one's taste is for Tetley's rather than a Saint Mick or Cruzcampo then it will make more of a dent in the budget.
As a comparative exercise between different destinations, the Thomas Cook survey is probably, in general terms, fairly accurate, but the savvy holidaymaker can do it for a lower amount. It may require a bit of looking around and drawing your own comparisons, but the prices stated should not be taken as gospel.
An historical curio about Mallorcan trains
Occasionally, one stumbles across something quite unintentionally. And so it was yesterday. An article reproduced from "The Railway Magazine" for April 1936. Here are some snippets:
On actually getting to Mallorca: "the most usual route - via Paris and Barcelona, and thence by the very fine 3,000-ton motor-ships that ply nightly, reaching Palma, the capital, in the early morning. The journey by way of Barcelona takes about 43 hours."
On railways themselves: "In March, 1921, an extension from Manacor to Arta, 30 km. (18¾ miles), was opened." (It no longer exists of course but may be reactivated.)
"At the present time extensions of the railway are proposed from La Puebla (Sa Pobla), about 14 km. (8¾ miles), to serve the growing residential town of Alcudia and the port there, at which an increasing number of steamships call."
"The island is increasingly popular with both Spanish and foreign tourists, and there would seem to be scope for the development of more speedy rail transport, such as might be provided by fast and comfortable railcars."
How fascinating is this. It once took nearly two days to get from England to Palma, the Alcúdia extension was planned over 70 years ago and there was a call for more speedy rail transport. Of these, only the time of travel to the island has really changed. And note when this was written. 1936. The year of the start of the Civil War and thus the Franco era and thus, for many years, economic stagnation.
For the whole article, which does have a lot of technical stuff about gauges and such like but which is thoroughly recommended, go to http://freespace.virgin.net/neil.worthington/mallorca.htm
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Paul Simon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46bkXgxb66E). Today's title - no question, just an explanation. Cook's Tour was what Thomas Cook first offered his travellers; the journey to Palma was once something of a Cook's Tour in terms of time; and meals are made by cooks. Oh well, suit yourselves.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Friday, February 13, 2009
Station To Station
So, it would seem that some técnicos have been handed goodly sums of public wonga to come up with the bleeding obvious - namely where the railway extension from Sa Pobla should not be sited. Técnicos, it should be noted, can be anything from an "expert" (either one who is legitimately an expert or one who thinks he is) to the bloke who unblocks the drains or short-circuits your electricity system. Actually, the chap with the rods would have been as expert in this instance as those who would claim expertise. In fact, I would have been as expert, and I'm not a técnico in any shape or form.
For those of you who may have missed the earlier instalments of this civil-engineering saga, the railway is meant - at some point - to run for the final ten kilometres or so from Sa Pobla to Alcúdia which would bring the local railway not so much into the twenty-first century as into the nineteenth. The route for this has been a thing of controversy and environmental wrangling, the obvious one always having always been one that goes alongside the main road (in other words, the road from the motorway). The greater issue has been where it will end up. And it is this that the técnicos have pronounced upon: it will not be by the Es Foguero ruin next to Albufera and the industrial estate. This should be the cue for yet more wailing, not least from Alcúdia's mayor who is in favour of the Es Foguero option and has thrown his toy choo-choo out of the pram on more than one occasion, complaining that the government's mobility department has not consulted adequately. Muro town hall has also voiced its preference for Es Foguero, which may have something to do with the fact that a terminal would be right next to the Muro border.
But no, the técnicos are saying no to Es Foguero. The big question remains, however, where exactly will the terminal be, and for the first time that I can recall, other than on this blog, they are now talking about it going next to the Horse Roundabout. When this railway was first mooted, following President Antich's glorious socialist victory in 2007 that heralded his "age of the train", I said that putting it by the roundabout would seem the obvious place. Talk to many people here and they will say the same thing. One should be used to the fact that the obvious is often the last thing on a Mallorcan planner's list. Until now, and it is still a possibility, the preference has been for causing a considerable amount of upheaval to say nothing of a fair degree of expropriation and dissent by running the track across finca land and knocking other bits down so that Alcúdia railway station could be somewhere behind the auditorium. The Horse Roundabout option would be far more straightforward; it would also be more sensible as a terminal for the planned tram to Can Picafort. Moreover, it would have a demographic advantage in that there are more people living within a kilometre radius than there would be if the terminal were to go in the old town. That there maybe some wetland by the roundabout should not be beyond the know-how of some técnicos to sort out. They could always get the blokes with their plumbing rods to see to it.
Some shock news from the town hall in Alcúdia regarding the redevelopment of the Can Ramis building next to the market square. It is a shock because I am told it's likely to be finished by July or August - this year! Remarkable. And apparently, they're not going to close the existing tourist office in the old town but have two - the current one and the one that has always been planned for Can Ramis. So, four tourist offices in all in Alcúdia. Well done, them. And some of them might even be open. Reeling from the impact of this news, I had to go and steady myself by having a drink in a nearby café, and who should I stumble across but the ebullient Miguel, the owner of the Agata stone shops, who is normally, at this time of the year, trekking along the Amazon basin extracting rare gems and generally disrupting the fragile eco-system of Brazil. But this year isn't, or hasn't for as long as normal. Anyway, this is all by way of leading up to the fact that he is to open a third Agata, in addition to the original one in Alcúdia old town and the one in Puerto Pollensa that he started a couple of years ago. This third one is to be in Playa de Muro between the Oasis and Topo Gigio restaurants. Given that even the local tourist office has said that the shops there could do with some improvement, this is pretty decent news for Playa de Muro.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Bruce Springsteen, "Thunder Road" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KngiJUNdsu0). Today's title - well, no clues for this; pretty easy.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
For those of you who may have missed the earlier instalments of this civil-engineering saga, the railway is meant - at some point - to run for the final ten kilometres or so from Sa Pobla to Alcúdia which would bring the local railway not so much into the twenty-first century as into the nineteenth. The route for this has been a thing of controversy and environmental wrangling, the obvious one always having always been one that goes alongside the main road (in other words, the road from the motorway). The greater issue has been where it will end up. And it is this that the técnicos have pronounced upon: it will not be by the Es Foguero ruin next to Albufera and the industrial estate. This should be the cue for yet more wailing, not least from Alcúdia's mayor who is in favour of the Es Foguero option and has thrown his toy choo-choo out of the pram on more than one occasion, complaining that the government's mobility department has not consulted adequately. Muro town hall has also voiced its preference for Es Foguero, which may have something to do with the fact that a terminal would be right next to the Muro border.
But no, the técnicos are saying no to Es Foguero. The big question remains, however, where exactly will the terminal be, and for the first time that I can recall, other than on this blog, they are now talking about it going next to the Horse Roundabout. When this railway was first mooted, following President Antich's glorious socialist victory in 2007 that heralded his "age of the train", I said that putting it by the roundabout would seem the obvious place. Talk to many people here and they will say the same thing. One should be used to the fact that the obvious is often the last thing on a Mallorcan planner's list. Until now, and it is still a possibility, the preference has been for causing a considerable amount of upheaval to say nothing of a fair degree of expropriation and dissent by running the track across finca land and knocking other bits down so that Alcúdia railway station could be somewhere behind the auditorium. The Horse Roundabout option would be far more straightforward; it would also be more sensible as a terminal for the planned tram to Can Picafort. Moreover, it would have a demographic advantage in that there are more people living within a kilometre radius than there would be if the terminal were to go in the old town. That there maybe some wetland by the roundabout should not be beyond the know-how of some técnicos to sort out. They could always get the blokes with their plumbing rods to see to it.
Some shock news from the town hall in Alcúdia regarding the redevelopment of the Can Ramis building next to the market square. It is a shock because I am told it's likely to be finished by July or August - this year! Remarkable. And apparently, they're not going to close the existing tourist office in the old town but have two - the current one and the one that has always been planned for Can Ramis. So, four tourist offices in all in Alcúdia. Well done, them. And some of them might even be open. Reeling from the impact of this news, I had to go and steady myself by having a drink in a nearby café, and who should I stumble across but the ebullient Miguel, the owner of the Agata stone shops, who is normally, at this time of the year, trekking along the Amazon basin extracting rare gems and generally disrupting the fragile eco-system of Brazil. But this year isn't, or hasn't for as long as normal. Anyway, this is all by way of leading up to the fact that he is to open a third Agata, in addition to the original one in Alcúdia old town and the one in Puerto Pollensa that he started a couple of years ago. This third one is to be in Playa de Muro between the Oasis and Topo Gigio restaurants. Given that even the local tourist office has said that the shops there could do with some improvement, this is pretty decent news for Playa de Muro.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Bruce Springsteen, "Thunder Road" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KngiJUNdsu0). Today's title - well, no clues for this; pretty easy.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Shape Of Things
The towns of Alcúdia and Pollensa are two of Mallorca's most extraordinary bequeathals. Their histories are a conjoint immensity of pre-Christendom, occupation, imported cultures, war, religion and architecture. These are the histories that reside within the city walls and in the ruins of Pollentia in Alcúdia and about the Plaça Major, up the Calvari steps and to the Roman bridge of Pollensa. Here is the architectural heritage of an old Mallorca. And then there is the rest.
Drive along the road from the motorway and glance to your left as you pass Pollensa, and you might well be inclined to just carry on. The impression is, if not of brutalism, then of a modernist fudge of non-description. Locally, one refers to the "pueblos" (small towns). Yet in reality Alcúdia and Pollensa are old and new towns, the latter nailed on as minor urban sprawls of unintelligent design. The idea that a sympathetic contemporary architecture might have mimicked the town-house style of the hearts of the towns was lost in planning offices stripped of foresight and amenable to a developer's lack of heart. The old centre of Alcúdia is protected by law as a heritage site; the surrounds were and are unprotected against an architectural dog's breakfast. Even something as "cultural" as Alcúdia's Auditorium looks like it has been transported, brick by glass facia, from a Robbins university campus lecture theatre in England; new, in the sense that the sixties might be defined as new, and utilitarian in both design and its lack of sympathy. It is not just Alcúdia and Pollensa. Sa Pobla, Santa Margalida, Muro all suffer in varying degrees; Muro's outer reaches, for example, could best be described as dreary, though some might spin this as light-industry chic. I'm not sure how one would describe them at worst.
There is not the same competition between the new and the old in the two towns' resorts, but it hasn't prevented them from being hotch-potched according to the latest whim, mainly of apartment block construction. Glass, less glass; white, less white; colour, less colour; however it is decreed by current trend, the effect is uniform in its very lack of uniformity - an absence of an overarching sense of purpose in terms of there being some symmetry to the towns' appearances. The ports of Alcúdia and Pollensa are the victims perhaps of their success and of their continuity. By contrast, Can Picafort, largely built from scratch over the past five decades, has a certain consistency and regulation, certainly in the residential areas of Son Bauló and the Avenida Santa Eulalia. In Son Bauló, there has been some success in marrying tourist and residential real estate with a degree of harmony; in the avenida, the two Viva complexes add grace to rather than detract from a wide-streeted elegance. Can Pic is a kind of Mallorcan Singapore: out with the old, in with the new, and applied with a degree of autocracy.
The ever-onward development of the ports, demonstrated by the various apartment sites in a state of permanent non-completion that may yet see them completed, has made the ports Lego architectural irregularity. One shape here, one shape there. It is only the old towns, the real old towns, that have the satisfaction of order.
And, in the case of Alcúdia, there is another shape that looms - that of the train. Where will it go? Will it go? The other evening, there was a meeting of local people to discuss the proposals for the siting of the line and the terminal. The advantages of the train coming to Alcúdia should be obvious, but there are those who are opposed to it, wherever it might end up. And then there are those opposed to specific sitings. You can, for example, see a "no-to-the-train" sign along the road from the roundabout as you enter Alcúdia going towards the roundabout for Puerto Pollensa. Anywhere but in the backyard of my finca, or right through my finca. Despite the sense of a terminal somewhere close to the centre of population, i.e. towards the back of the lovely auditorium, there is a lack of sense in respect of the changes to the landscape across the finca areas and their expropriation, to say nothing of the links to the proposed tram routes. Francesc Antich wanted an age of the train. It could be he will get an age. An age of debate with potentially no end.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Martika, "Toy Soldiers" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpJy46o_7b0). Today's title - '60s greats.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Drive along the road from the motorway and glance to your left as you pass Pollensa, and you might well be inclined to just carry on. The impression is, if not of brutalism, then of a modernist fudge of non-description. Locally, one refers to the "pueblos" (small towns). Yet in reality Alcúdia and Pollensa are old and new towns, the latter nailed on as minor urban sprawls of unintelligent design. The idea that a sympathetic contemporary architecture might have mimicked the town-house style of the hearts of the towns was lost in planning offices stripped of foresight and amenable to a developer's lack of heart. The old centre of Alcúdia is protected by law as a heritage site; the surrounds were and are unprotected against an architectural dog's breakfast. Even something as "cultural" as Alcúdia's Auditorium looks like it has been transported, brick by glass facia, from a Robbins university campus lecture theatre in England; new, in the sense that the sixties might be defined as new, and utilitarian in both design and its lack of sympathy. It is not just Alcúdia and Pollensa. Sa Pobla, Santa Margalida, Muro all suffer in varying degrees; Muro's outer reaches, for example, could best be described as dreary, though some might spin this as light-industry chic. I'm not sure how one would describe them at worst.
There is not the same competition between the new and the old in the two towns' resorts, but it hasn't prevented them from being hotch-potched according to the latest whim, mainly of apartment block construction. Glass, less glass; white, less white; colour, less colour; however it is decreed by current trend, the effect is uniform in its very lack of uniformity - an absence of an overarching sense of purpose in terms of there being some symmetry to the towns' appearances. The ports of Alcúdia and Pollensa are the victims perhaps of their success and of their continuity. By contrast, Can Picafort, largely built from scratch over the past five decades, has a certain consistency and regulation, certainly in the residential areas of Son Bauló and the Avenida Santa Eulalia. In Son Bauló, there has been some success in marrying tourist and residential real estate with a degree of harmony; in the avenida, the two Viva complexes add grace to rather than detract from a wide-streeted elegance. Can Pic is a kind of Mallorcan Singapore: out with the old, in with the new, and applied with a degree of autocracy.
The ever-onward development of the ports, demonstrated by the various apartment sites in a state of permanent non-completion that may yet see them completed, has made the ports Lego architectural irregularity. One shape here, one shape there. It is only the old towns, the real old towns, that have the satisfaction of order.
And, in the case of Alcúdia, there is another shape that looms - that of the train. Where will it go? Will it go? The other evening, there was a meeting of local people to discuss the proposals for the siting of the line and the terminal. The advantages of the train coming to Alcúdia should be obvious, but there are those who are opposed to it, wherever it might end up. And then there are those opposed to specific sitings. You can, for example, see a "no-to-the-train" sign along the road from the roundabout as you enter Alcúdia going towards the roundabout for Puerto Pollensa. Anywhere but in the backyard of my finca, or right through my finca. Despite the sense of a terminal somewhere close to the centre of population, i.e. towards the back of the lovely auditorium, there is a lack of sense in respect of the changes to the landscape across the finca areas and their expropriation, to say nothing of the links to the proposed tram routes. Francesc Antich wanted an age of the train. It could be he will get an age. An age of debate with potentially no end.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Martika, "Toy Soldiers" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpJy46o_7b0). Today's title - '60s greats.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Long Train Running
The age of the train* is a question of the age of the terrain. Which bit of land to build on? It is the age of the terrain in respect of the proposed extension of the line from Sa Pobla to Alcúdia. When the decision was taken to site the line alongside the main road from Sa Pobla, the local town halls went into full aggrieved mode. The alternative route, favoured by Alcúdia and Muro town halls, would see a terminal sited by the industrial estate next to Albufera. Muro offered the somewhat spurious argument that such a location would be better for the coastal area. Alcúdia now seems to be supporting this, mayor Ferrer arguing that the number of tourists should be taken into account and not just the proximity of local residents, which is part of the reasoning behind the route that was decided upon. The central department (of "mobility") that has the final say states that the proposed route has a significantly greater proportion of the population within a hundred metres of its terminal area than does the alternative. This sounds like an impressive bit of population statistical justification, but neither this nor the number of tourists should be the determining factor. Wherever a terminal is sited, passengers, be they local residents or tourists, would have to get to it; that's the nature of rail terminals anywhere. The siting of the terminal under the favoured option has, as far as I am aware never been announced, though an assumption is that it would be by the Horse Roundabout. The alternative terminal, at what is the Es Foguero ruin, would also not be in someone's backyard; these things never are. No one would want a terminal in that yard anyway. Either location would make sense from that point of view.
One aspect that does not seem to be mentioned is that the Es Foguero option would be next to the new industrial estate. I don't know what plans are in store for the industrial estate, but it does not have to be something filled with industrial units only. The estates in Palma, such as Son Castelló, have shops as well. Has anyone thought that perhaps the industrial estate could be developed as part industrial and part quasi Festival Park? Stick a rail terminal next to it, and potentially you have a well-served-by-public-transport centre of business, entertainment and shopping, though where the latter is concerned doubtless the shopowners of the town and port would be up in arms. Whether though Alcúdia could sustain such a development is another question, but the improved infrastructure in terms of the road and eventually the railway might give pause for thought that it could. There is, however, the ruin of Es Foguero as a testament to the folly of over-grandiose ideas; the sheer size of the place meant it was not sustainable, which is why it became a ruin.
As the town halls are at loggerheads with the mobility department as to the siting, there is now a third option, which would be to take the line behind the mountain at the back of Bellevue rather than continue to, say, the Horse Roundabout. The Es Foguero site would be the terminal under this option. This all has the makings of an endless and never-solved saga. Our old chums in the enviro lobby, the pressure group GOB, are having their penn'orth as well, not wanting Albufera to be impacted upon. In Sa Pobla one has the distinct impression that the town hall would rather the whole project was dropped, which of course it still might be if Madrid reneges on promises for funding. Alcúdia's mayor Ferrer says that he will not bow to "ultimatums" given by the centre. What he's really cheesed off about is that Alcúdia town hall was not closely consulted when the decision for the route was taken. He may be justified; there again maybe he's just throwing his toy train out of the pram. This still has a long way to go; a long train running or perhaps not.
* The age of the train was the motto used by incoming Balearic President Francesc Antich when he won the elections last year; rail transport was his "big idea".
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Grover Washington - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0OQyG_h98o. Today's title - which American band?
Incidentally the last time I did a piece about the rail extension (26 June: "Came Down The Track And She Blew"), the remarkable Dimple Diamond was introduced to his now ever-growing army of fans. His "Runaway Train" now stands at 560 plus visits on youtube - a leap of getting on for 100% since it was first mentioned here.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
One aspect that does not seem to be mentioned is that the Es Foguero option would be next to the new industrial estate. I don't know what plans are in store for the industrial estate, but it does not have to be something filled with industrial units only. The estates in Palma, such as Son Castelló, have shops as well. Has anyone thought that perhaps the industrial estate could be developed as part industrial and part quasi Festival Park? Stick a rail terminal next to it, and potentially you have a well-served-by-public-transport centre of business, entertainment and shopping, though where the latter is concerned doubtless the shopowners of the town and port would be up in arms. Whether though Alcúdia could sustain such a development is another question, but the improved infrastructure in terms of the road and eventually the railway might give pause for thought that it could. There is, however, the ruin of Es Foguero as a testament to the folly of over-grandiose ideas; the sheer size of the place meant it was not sustainable, which is why it became a ruin.
As the town halls are at loggerheads with the mobility department as to the siting, there is now a third option, which would be to take the line behind the mountain at the back of Bellevue rather than continue to, say, the Horse Roundabout. The Es Foguero site would be the terminal under this option. This all has the makings of an endless and never-solved saga. Our old chums in the enviro lobby, the pressure group GOB, are having their penn'orth as well, not wanting Albufera to be impacted upon. In Sa Pobla one has the distinct impression that the town hall would rather the whole project was dropped, which of course it still might be if Madrid reneges on promises for funding. Alcúdia's mayor Ferrer says that he will not bow to "ultimatums" given by the centre. What he's really cheesed off about is that Alcúdia town hall was not closely consulted when the decision for the route was taken. He may be justified; there again maybe he's just throwing his toy train out of the pram. This still has a long way to go; a long train running or perhaps not.
* The age of the train was the motto used by incoming Balearic President Francesc Antich when he won the elections last year; rail transport was his "big idea".
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Grover Washington - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0OQyG_h98o. Today's title - which American band?
Incidentally the last time I did a piece about the rail extension (26 June: "Came Down The Track And She Blew"), the remarkable Dimple Diamond was introduced to his now ever-growing army of fans. His "Runaway Train" now stands at 560 plus visits on youtube - a leap of getting on for 100% since it was first mentioned here.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Saturday, June 28, 2008
You've Got A Smiling Face
And ever more on the train extension. It would appear that not everyone is happy with the planned route (alongside the road to Alcúdia from the motorway); that not everyone includes the mayors of Alcúdia and Muro. Alcúdia's Miquel Ferrer is complaining about a lack of consultation, and Muro's Jaume Perelló reckons that the other route (the one that would terminate at the Es Foguero "ruin") would be the better option. Well, as this other route would mean the terminal being sited close to the Muro boundary, I suppose one can sense a degree of self-interest. However, maybe he has a point when he says that such a terminal would be closer to the coast and also to the Muro hospital. Hmm, well, not sure it's that much of a point to be honest, but what about the new industrial estate? That would be right next to the other route's terminal; a stronger point I would have thought. Of course, some are happy about the decision. Step forward our old mates GOB, the environmental lobby group, who one might have imagined wouldn't have wanted anything that came within the sound of a train whistle of Albufera.
This has all the makings of something that will run and run, and run and run - for 15 long years probably like the time it took to agree on the industrial estate - and run and run like the runaway train, and talking of which don't forget the marvel that is Dimple Diamond (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84DmeutIAr4).
But another day, and another strike in the offing. This has been a fabulous year for industrial relations locally. It gets little better than the teachers and the police striking or working to rule. Oh yes it does if you happen to be flying in for your hols. Baggage handlers. Yep, they're downing the luggage and leaving the carousels sadly revolving with nothing bar the battered and unclaimed suitcase that should have gone to Alicante. Mind you, this has and is only scheduled to take place between the hours of 13:30 and 15:30 when they can go off and have a nice menu of the day. The forums are consoling themselves with the fact that a couple of hours wait is nothing to worry about as it takes that long for baggage to come through anyway (which it doesn't), but those seeking this solace should bear in mind that it also works (or rather doesn't work when on strike) in the outgoing direction, i.e. baggage doesn't get loaded onto outbound flights. So, Mr Smug coming-on-holiday tourist, watch out if you're only here for a week as they're planning a repeat next weekend, and for the whole of Saturday, not just the lunch break. And let's add to this glorious summer of strikes the train workers and possibly hotel workers. Wonderful stuff.
Meanwhile, celebration time and photo opportunity moment for Pollensa worthies yesterday. Some 40 years after it was first planned and six years after the first stage of the road was built, the new road that bypasses Puerto Pollensa was officially opened. Oh joy. The most recently built bit, from the coast road to link up with the roundabout by Caprabo (Eroski), is now complete, there being a roundabout on the coast road that takes you either along the bypass through Gotmar and Pinaret to join up with the bypass to Formentor or further along the old coast road. Excellent, especially if the enviros get their way and close the whole coast road, thus making the whole exercise a complete waste of time.
QUIZ
Chain - Michael Brecker who was part of The Brecker Brothers. Brecker's final public performance was with which jazz pianist? Clue: "I Thought It Was You". Yesterday's title - U2, "Desire" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bjNHzU81qY). Today's title - in honour of the baggage handlers' strike, what had this smiling face and flew a baby away?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
This has all the makings of something that will run and run, and run and run - for 15 long years probably like the time it took to agree on the industrial estate - and run and run like the runaway train, and talking of which don't forget the marvel that is Dimple Diamond (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84DmeutIAr4).
But another day, and another strike in the offing. This has been a fabulous year for industrial relations locally. It gets little better than the teachers and the police striking or working to rule. Oh yes it does if you happen to be flying in for your hols. Baggage handlers. Yep, they're downing the luggage and leaving the carousels sadly revolving with nothing bar the battered and unclaimed suitcase that should have gone to Alicante. Mind you, this has and is only scheduled to take place between the hours of 13:30 and 15:30 when they can go off and have a nice menu of the day. The forums are consoling themselves with the fact that a couple of hours wait is nothing to worry about as it takes that long for baggage to come through anyway (which it doesn't), but those seeking this solace should bear in mind that it also works (or rather doesn't work when on strike) in the outgoing direction, i.e. baggage doesn't get loaded onto outbound flights. So, Mr Smug coming-on-holiday tourist, watch out if you're only here for a week as they're planning a repeat next weekend, and for the whole of Saturday, not just the lunch break. And let's add to this glorious summer of strikes the train workers and possibly hotel workers. Wonderful stuff.
Meanwhile, celebration time and photo opportunity moment for Pollensa worthies yesterday. Some 40 years after it was first planned and six years after the first stage of the road was built, the new road that bypasses Puerto Pollensa was officially opened. Oh joy. The most recently built bit, from the coast road to link up with the roundabout by Caprabo (Eroski), is now complete, there being a roundabout on the coast road that takes you either along the bypass through Gotmar and Pinaret to join up with the bypass to Formentor or further along the old coast road. Excellent, especially if the enviros get their way and close the whole coast road, thus making the whole exercise a complete waste of time.
QUIZ
Chain - Michael Brecker who was part of The Brecker Brothers. Brecker's final public performance was with which jazz pianist? Clue: "I Thought It Was You". Yesterday's title - U2, "Desire" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bjNHzU81qY). Today's title - in honour of the baggage handlers' strike, what had this smiling face and flew a baby away?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Came Down The Track And She Blew
The technical bods have deliberated long and hard and decided that the planned extension of the railway from Sa Pobla to Alcúdia will follow the route of the main road from the motorway. I wouldn't have thought that it would have needed much deliberation. The alternative was to go by Albufera, a route that would be far more complicated and could not really go any further than the old "Es Foguero" place by the roundabout from Sa Pobla, and a terminal there would make it almost Playa de Muro and not the "pueblo" of Alcúdia. A decision has yet to be made regarding the siting of that terminal and, though the report today ("Diario de Mallorca") refers to the fact that the railway line would then go on to link the "pueblo" (the town) to the port and Can Picafort by means of a new tram line, local opinion is that the train terminal would be most likely to be just outside the "pueblo", i.e. by the Horse Roundabout. It might just be feasible to run a line from the roundabout coming into Alcúdia across finca land to end at, say, the roundabout to Puerto Pollensa, but that would just have the effect of making more complicated the laying of the planned tram line, I would have thought.
If it does actually get built, the rail extension could well prove very popular, so much so that some consideration must surely also be given to the number of carriages that one train would carry. A train line from Alcúdia into the centre of Palma would have the distinct advantage for many, myself included, who shy away from driving into the centre of Palma as it is, frankly, something of a nightmare. It would take longer, but it would be considerably less stressful. But the capacity of the trains would be an issue, especially in summer. At present, tourists tend not to use the train (from Sa Pobla) in great numbers because of the obvious hassle with getting to Sa Pobla in the first place; this would all change with a terminal in Alcúdia.
Then there is the proposed tram. To connect with Can Picafort, there is only one way that it could go, and that would be along the main road (the carretera Artà). This would not be without difficulties, one of which would be how to deal with the bridge over the canal from Albufera in Playa de Muro. Short of widening the bridge (which would be no bad thing as it is currently quite dangerous anyway), there presumably would have to be a traffic light system to give the tram priority. In addition, there would be the new roundabouts along the carretera to negotiate; the one at the top of the Mile, which is tight already, should prove fun. Which does of course raise the question as to whether the new layout of the carretera from the Magic Roundabout all the way to Can Picafort was ever conceived with a tram in mind. I very much doubt it. All that development and all that cost, and they'll have to rip it up and start again. I guess that a tram could use the side roads, but there are breaks in these, so the simplest solution would be to go straight down the middle of the main road, which raises the question as to whether the space really exists. The tram line (or lines) by itself (themselves) could probably be accommodated, but then there are the platforms to be taken into account.
Whatever they decide, and God knows how long it would take to build the thing (if it gets done), the presence of a few trams hacking along the centre of the carretera is going to make using a car even more joyous than it already is. Cyclists, people on roller blades, trikes, tourists wandering in the middle of the road and now trams. Sounds like great fun.
And talking of fun. On the WHAT'S ON BLOG, I have added the events for the La Victoria fiesta that takes place on 1 and 2 July. This is one of the most traditional local fiestas, but it is a bit out of the way, and a taxi is advisable partly because of the amount of drinking that goes on on the night of 1 July.
QUIZ
Chain - Ohio to the Ohio Players to the Players Association and therefore "Turn The Music Up". Yesterday's title - Elvis Costello, "Shipbuilding", but here is Robert Wyatt's version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6T9qp9XbRY). Today's title - those who remember Uncle Mac should know this.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
If it does actually get built, the rail extension could well prove very popular, so much so that some consideration must surely also be given to the number of carriages that one train would carry. A train line from Alcúdia into the centre of Palma would have the distinct advantage for many, myself included, who shy away from driving into the centre of Palma as it is, frankly, something of a nightmare. It would take longer, but it would be considerably less stressful. But the capacity of the trains would be an issue, especially in summer. At present, tourists tend not to use the train (from Sa Pobla) in great numbers because of the obvious hassle with getting to Sa Pobla in the first place; this would all change with a terminal in Alcúdia.
Then there is the proposed tram. To connect with Can Picafort, there is only one way that it could go, and that would be along the main road (the carretera Artà). This would not be without difficulties, one of which would be how to deal with the bridge over the canal from Albufera in Playa de Muro. Short of widening the bridge (which would be no bad thing as it is currently quite dangerous anyway), there presumably would have to be a traffic light system to give the tram priority. In addition, there would be the new roundabouts along the carretera to negotiate; the one at the top of the Mile, which is tight already, should prove fun. Which does of course raise the question as to whether the new layout of the carretera from the Magic Roundabout all the way to Can Picafort was ever conceived with a tram in mind. I very much doubt it. All that development and all that cost, and they'll have to rip it up and start again. I guess that a tram could use the side roads, but there are breaks in these, so the simplest solution would be to go straight down the middle of the main road, which raises the question as to whether the space really exists. The tram line (or lines) by itself (themselves) could probably be accommodated, but then there are the platforms to be taken into account.
Whatever they decide, and God knows how long it would take to build the thing (if it gets done), the presence of a few trams hacking along the centre of the carretera is going to make using a car even more joyous than it already is. Cyclists, people on roller blades, trikes, tourists wandering in the middle of the road and now trams. Sounds like great fun.
And talking of fun. On the WHAT'S ON BLOG, I have added the events for the La Victoria fiesta that takes place on 1 and 2 July. This is one of the most traditional local fiestas, but it is a bit out of the way, and a taxi is advisable partly because of the amount of drinking that goes on on the night of 1 July.
QUIZ
Chain - Ohio to the Ohio Players to the Players Association and therefore "Turn The Music Up". Yesterday's title - Elvis Costello, "Shipbuilding", but here is Robert Wyatt's version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6T9qp9XbRY). Today's title - those who remember Uncle Mac should know this.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
How’s About That Then?
You get some real crackers, I’m telling you. The new Balearic Government of Mr. Antics (who now shall be known as Frantic) is to oversee - and I quote “The Bulletin” here - “a legislature...hallmarked by being known as ‘The Age of the Train’ ”. Grand stuff, if it comes off, as the existing line north, which currently terminates at Sa Pobla, would go on to Alcúdia and Cala Ratjada.
But seriously, “The Age of the Train”. Jimmy Savile will be back, appearing on Mallorcan TV, bling and cigar to the fore. Only 25 years after it was the age of the train in Britain, but Jimmy probably needs the work.
(Please add your own Jim inflections as you read this.) “Now then, now then, now then, I have had a letter from a young sir in the lovely island of Majorca who wants to know if I can fix it for him to build a new railway. Well, young Francesc, I know just the person, and here he is - Sir Richard Branson.”
On a more serious note, it is fine to try and develop the rail system, but I somewhat doubt that any development would make much of a dent in the current road usage. There is also talk of another track to Inca, but even with this, the rolling stock that can be carried by the lines is not great and nor are the trains that frequent. Moreover, what Mallorca could also benefit from would be a rail system that allows for freight to be carried, but that just simply will not happen in a place this size. If one takes the local issue of the coal that is transported from the port of Alcúdia to the power station, it is an environmental absurdity. Heavy vehicles pouring out God knows what pollutants - up and down the roads in constant shuttles. A railway would be ideal, but it won’t happen.
Quiz: “Hello, John, Got A New Motor?’” Correct for all who got it. Today: Jimmy Savile presented the first (and indeed last) “Top Of The Pops”. Which group was the first act on that first show, and what song did they do?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
But seriously, “The Age of the Train”. Jimmy Savile will be back, appearing on Mallorcan TV, bling and cigar to the fore. Only 25 years after it was the age of the train in Britain, but Jimmy probably needs the work.
(Please add your own Jim inflections as you read this.) “Now then, now then, now then, I have had a letter from a young sir in the lovely island of Majorca who wants to know if I can fix it for him to build a new railway. Well, young Francesc, I know just the person, and here he is - Sir Richard Branson.”
On a more serious note, it is fine to try and develop the rail system, but I somewhat doubt that any development would make much of a dent in the current road usage. There is also talk of another track to Inca, but even with this, the rolling stock that can be carried by the lines is not great and nor are the trains that frequent. Moreover, what Mallorca could also benefit from would be a rail system that allows for freight to be carried, but that just simply will not happen in a place this size. If one takes the local issue of the coal that is transported from the port of Alcúdia to the power station, it is an environmental absurdity. Heavy vehicles pouring out God knows what pollutants - up and down the roads in constant shuttles. A railway would be ideal, but it won’t happen.
Quiz: “Hello, John, Got A New Motor?’” Correct for all who got it. Today: Jimmy Savile presented the first (and indeed last) “Top Of The Pops”. Which group was the first act on that first show, and what song did they do?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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