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That's more like it! Interior of
Barcelona's more traditional
Estacio de Franca
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by Pat Casey
OIEC History Instructor
As I mentioned in Part I, Barcelona
Sants may not be the most romantic rail station in Europe but it is well
designed and user-friendly; the first time I went there I quickly figured out
where to go to find my train.
(Barcelona does have a grand
and gloriously traditional rail station, BTW; called Estatió de França and
formerly the city’s main station. Now it serves mainly local Rodalies trains
but it does have overnight Trenhotel service to Paris.)
Sants also serves a number of
local Rodalies trains, with access bundled at one side of the main hall and
gates for the AVE high-speed rains at the other. One thing that Sants’s
two-level design does is direct passengers to the proper platform, so it’s
actually pretty tough to get on the wrong train. The gate leading to your train opens roughly
15 minutes before departure; a gate agent scans your ticket and then you head
downstairs to the platform. Since Sants is a terminal – most (if not all) AVE
trains originate or end there rather than only pass through – your train is
waiting for you as you descend to the platform.
The RENFE ticket printout
lists your Coche (car) and Plaza (seat) number, and
the cars are sequentially
numbered and have very clear electronic reader-board signs at all doors, so
finding your car is straightforward. AVE
trains offer Club (First) Preferente (Business) and Tourist (second) class.
First & Business Class features three-across seats and a meal and drinks served
at your seat; second has four-across seating and food and drinks available in
the Café Car. The food offerings seemed kind of basic – a selection of Spanish
sandwiches (bocadillos), and croissants, along with a full array of soft
drinks, beer, and small airline-bottles of whiskey, gin, and vodka.
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That's Car 7, Seat 6B,
leaving Sevilla at 2:50 pm,
arriving Barcelona 8:22
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These Café Cars have a
counter and small tables where you can stand as you eat, but unlike some
international trains (and long-distance Amtrak trains), there is no sit-down dining
car service.
I went Tourista class and
found the seats extremely comfortable and roomy. Each has a massive tray table,
big enough to comfortably set up a laptop, and the cars have overhead luggage
racks and some room for suitcases at the front and rear. A reader board at the
front of the car lists the Coach number as well as outside temperature and
current speed – fastest I ever saw was 300 KPH (186 MPH), although the trains
are capable of going faster. There are also comparatively small – 13” or so –
video monitors on the ceiling, which show full-length movies as well as an
animated map showing your location.
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An unusually wet Spring this year means
normally arid Andalusia is gloriously green
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My train for Sevilla left the
station right on time, and moved comparatively slowly through Barcelona’s
outskirts but soon the reader board indicated we were doing 300 kph. The ride
was quite smooth and there was a definite sense we were moving quickly,
especially if you looked at things fairly close to the train window as we
whizzed by.
When the Spanish began
building the high-speed network in 1992 they decided to build entirely new
stations in all but the largest cities (Madrid and Barcelona). As a result the
stations are a bit less central than classic European rail stations, but all
are within ten minutes of the center of town.
My train was nearly full and
it seemed like a fair number of people boarded and left the train at
intermediate stations such as Tarragona, Zaragoza, Ciudad Real, and Córdoba. We arrived at each
intermediate station on time, as well as in Sevilla – a journey of nearly 1000
km (600 miles), covered in 5 ½ hours – that’s the same distance as San
Francisco from Portland – imagine getting to the heart of town in less than 6
hours!
All photos by Pat Casey
Sources:
http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/01/15/inenglish/1358253198_135607.html
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