Tenerife Tram

The Tramway de Tenerife (Tenerife, Canary Islands) was inaugurated on 2nd June 2007, with a first line joining the Transport Interchange Santa Cruz de Tenerife with the Trinity Avenue de La Laguna. The company that exploits it is called Metropolitano de Tenerife, Sociedad Anonima (MTSA). It is the only existing tram on the Islands.

In Tenerife, there was a tram in the first half of the twentieth century. It was inaugurated on 7th April 1901, with a service that began at the Plaza of Spain Santa Cruz de Tenerife and ended to the Plaza de la Concepcion de La Laguna. It was designed by engineer and military person Julio Cervera Baviera. On 27th July 1904 the line was extended to Tacoronte. In 1927 the Cabildo of Tenerife was the operating company for the economic problems. The tram continued to operate until 1951, when, by a series of problems and accidents, plus the lack of competitiveness with the car, taxis and buses, it stopped its services.

In the late twentieth century risen from the Cabildo, was the building of a new tram between the two urban centers of the metropolitan area of Santa Cruz-La Laguna. Large public sectors and to a lesser extent, opposition politicians, denounced the lack of discussion in developing this project.

They argue that this is an unnecessary expense by failing to adequately operate a bus service that currently exists, not currently done on public transport policies and measures have been raised regarding the exclusive lanes. There are also complaints about the planned route of Line 1, between terminals, which will be longer and more expensive than the same journey by bus.

It also denounces a price increase of the passage of the buses and a decrease in their service. Another complaint is related to the expense of this project, a share of this cost with advertising campaigns on the streetcar. Moreover, most of the complaints arising is in connection with the inconvenience of the works. The cost has been about 306 million euros.

Construction began in 2004 and in late December 2005 the first tests were conducted on a stretch of 600 meters between the depot (Taco) and the Hospital Universitario de Canarias (La Cuesta).

The company responsible for the manufacture of vehicles (Alstom) gradually delivered 20 units of the trams, the last being brought in August 2006. The work officially ended on 2nd June 2007 with the coming into operation of Line 1. During the opening day and the following weekend, there was a free trolley service and various open houses and tents which were fitted at various stops to sample the typical products of the Canaries.

There are currently two lines running. Line 1 (Switch-La Trinidad) consists of 21 stops along a route of 12.5km and covers about 46,000 people a day in the metropolitan area. Each unit of 20 trams is able to transport 200 passengers (60 seats) at a maximum speed of 70 km/h. Metropolitano de Tenerife travel, plans to increase this through an extension of the tram line 1, with four more stops, including one last stop in Tenerife North Airport.

The trams were, during 2006 and 2007, given test runs, both Alstom Citadis vehicles – the same model used by the Metro Ligero de Madrid – Parla and the streetcar lines and Trambesos Trambaix Barcelona – (with routes from Workshops and Depots Taco to the University of La Laguna). Tests included security systems, ticket clerks and other mechanisms of the track.