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AN Efficient and intermodal PUBLIC METROPOLITAN transport, a key to the future
by Joan Clos mayor of barcelona

Centuries ago, cities had to ensure their defence and the supply of goods, so they established city walls and protected markets. Towns were fairly autarchic cells and people were born and died in the same place: if they moved, it was for long periods, or for ever. Roads were secondary elements outside the great routes of history, of which people were often unaware. Itinerancy is perhaps the factor that most differentiates the urban inhabitants of today from those of centuries ago. Cities still ensure supply -particularly now of information- and regular exchanges, but now we increasingly demand a new element: mobility. This is what allows metropolitan cities to be conceived as supra-urban units, i.e. as networks of cities spread over the land. Large cities can no longer be understood outside this interplay of concentric areas that makes up the metropolitan reality, because towns are by definition mobile. The residence and the workplace are fixed and may or may not be in the same municipality, but the use made of the urban reality is clearly metropolitan: leisure, trade, traffic, culture, all lead us to move over an area that extends beyond our municipality.

The real Barcelona covers 100 km2, but the Metropolitan Area covers 600 km2 and the Metropolitan Region 3,000 km2. and this is an urban and human continuum, and an unquestionable economic reality, a complicity. The economic power is clear, as is the fact that due to the increasing need for interrelation it must be irrigated by a viable transport system in order to continue progressing. Today connectivity is a strategic key. We are fortunate enough to have produced spontaneously a model of growth with a great potential for sustainability, because though the land occupation may be excessive, it has be carried out through the aggregation of compact cities rather than through the urban sprawl of suburban residential units that multiply rapidly. The compact city is more competitive and has a suitable population density for an efficient public transport network -which cannot be achieved in a segregated residential neighbourhood. However, the fact that public transport is the structuring element of the metropolitan reality does not mean that we have the network we need.

The reality of Barcelona city is that seven million journeys are made in it every day, of which two thirds are internal and the remainder come in and out of the municipal district. In other words, there are over two million metropolitan itineraries! It therefore makes no sense that the density of cover of public transport falls sharply as one leaves Barcelona and continues to fall as one moves away.

On the contrary, the modes of transport should be hierarchised so that they represent a consistent alternative to private vehicles. In order to contribute to this hierarchisation, the nodes of intermodal exchange in particular must be promoted: local trains, underground railways, tramways, and finally buses for the urban proximity routes. In addition to this, significant actions have been aimed at returning the use of public space -the street- to alternative and sustainable transport systems, such as those applied in Barcelona to regulate and dissuade the excessive use of private vehicles: the removal of traffic lanes (which makes it possible to widen pavements) or the control of above-ground parking.

The result is that of the internal journeys that are made in the city, 44% are made on public transport, 22% on foot and only 34% in private vehicles. This is a proportion that can be improved but it is close to a good, sustainable equilibrium.
However, when the journeys are intermunicipal, the use of private transport is over 50%. Is there a relation between this and the deprogramming of 50 km of underground railway that took place in 1984? It seems clear that the metropolitan reality has outpaced the reality of metropolitan transport, and the price of this is congestion stretching for kilometres, not only in the accesses to the city (one need only listen to the information given on the radio in the early morning) but also within the city, because the cars that come into Barcelona then circulate inside it. This is shown by economic figures: in 1986 Barcelona had 600,000 jobs for a population that was larger in number than today; today it has 800,000.

This means that every day 250,000 metropolitan citizens come to work in the capital, without counting those who come for other reasons. And the plausible forecast is that this power of attraction will continue to grow in the years to come, which is good news for the economic indicators, but will lead to a very high demand for mobility. The fact is that the expected -and welcome- increase in the next ten years cannot be absorbed by the current road network, and the best solution is not to extend the capacity of this network excessively. More tarmac in the accesses was perhaps a good solution in the sixties, when the model of growth was different.

There is a need to develop the transport network. Some of the initiatives that have been taken in the last few years have led to a spectacular increase in users: examples of this are the improvement of the local train network, which in practice operates as a regional metro, or fare integration, which has considerably reduced the cost of longer journeys. However, there is an obvious need for a quantitative and qualitative change in line with the metropolitan ambition.
Otherwise, Barcelona will lose competitiveness in relation to similar European cities. The response to this situation is the Master Plan of Infrastructures, which was recently approved after a very long process of negotiation and provides for investments until 2010. It includes the construction of 251 km of metro, train and trams.

It will mark the first step for the articulation of the municipalities of the Besòs and the Baix Llobregat -and beyond- with metropolitan Barcelona. This will involve connecting industrial estates, health institutions and universities that are currently poorly served, and promoting new areas of development such as that of Forum 2004, District 22@ or the efficient alternative centralities of the surrounding towns. In other words, the MPI will allow us to develop a favourable situation for attracting new economic activity.

To some extent the MPI compensates for the lack of investment by the Generalitat in this area (only five new km of Metro line from 1999 to today) but it involves an enormous investment of nearly 7,300 million euros. Two thirds of the funding is traditionally provided by the Generalitat and the remaining third by the State, but in this case the figures have not yet been definitively established. Another requirement will be a local railway plan involving the construction of a rail ring to structure the region beyond the first circle of proximity. Also, when the AVE (high-speed train) comes into operation it will change some habits of journey and location of both companies and private residences, because it will shorten distances -the length of the journeys- even further.

In any case, we must all remember that the metropolitan reality is becoming increasingly polycentric. This means that not all the networks must necessarily go through Barcelona: there is, perhaps, an excessive centrality in the routes and planning. It is true that the calculated increase in journeys includes Barcelona, but the metropolitan towns must be connected with each other effectively and conveniently. It is also necessary to promote correspondence between the different modes of transport. This is already being done by fare integration, but it often comes up against the problem of depending on different operators. In our metropolitan system there coexist three levels of management: the political level shared by three types of authority, the politico-technical level, and that of the operating companies, whether public or private. These things must be reconsidered in order to increase efficiency in management and service.

There is still much to be done in the field of intermodal transfer. There is a need for convenient points of transfer and integrated systems of information and ticket sales, paying special attention to period tickets. Small actions in this direction tend to give major results, because the demand by users exists and is increasing. If today the users of private transport mention speed and comfort as decisive factors, we must ensure that these two values are associated firstly with public transport. Public transport is a priority tool of social cohesion and of the sustainability of our cities: it is one of the points in which our future is at stake, not only in the economic field, but also in the quality of life of our citizens.

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The MTA, responsible for coordinating a network serving 4.5 million persons
by Editorial staff

Five years ago, in March 1997, the MTA (Metropolitan Transport Authority) was officially established as a consortium for the coordination of the metropolitan public transport system in the area of Barcelona. The area of Barcelona is understood to be the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona and the surrounding counties, covering a total of 201 municipalities with approximately 4.5 million inhabitants.

The MTA was set up by the Generalitat (Government) of Catalonia, Barcelona City Council and the MTE (Metropolitan Transport Entity), by common agreement with the General State Administration. One of the specific aims, as laid down in the founding documents, is that the remaining authorities responsible for public transport in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona will progressively join it voluntarily by transferring their competences on transport through agreements.

The functions of the MTA
With a view to organising an integrated system that is able to promote collective public transport, the following were the main functions assigned to the MTA:

1. Planning of transport infrastructures with a timescale of ten years, and specifically the creation of planning instruments for the coordination of the Metropolitan Collective Public Transport System. Drawing up and monitoring the corresponding investment programmes and a proposal for a new infrastructure funding agreement between the General State Administration and the Generalitat of Catalonia.
2. Establishing the relations with the collective transport operators. These relations include the monitoring of the agreements and programme contracts with the MTE, Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat and the private and public transport companies; drawing up new programme contracts, and drawing up proposals of concertation with RENFE on the integration of local services in the Metropolitan Collective Public Transport System.
3. Drawing up proposals for funding agreements with the different public authorities responsible for funding public transport and defining the contribution of budget funds to the system as of January 1998.
4. Fare regulation through the definition of a new fare model, studying and carrying out its introduction and jointly exercising the competences on fares of the authorities responsible for collective transport.
5. Creation of a single corporate image whilst respecting the individual ones of the different transport authorities and operators, and carrying out communication campaigns to promote the use of the system among the public.

Governing bodies
The governing bodies of the MTA, as laid down in the founding agreement, were the board of directors, the chairman and the director-general. On the board of directors the Generalitat of Catalonia has a 51% representation and appoints the chairman. The local authorities (Barcelona City Council, the Metropolitan Transport Entity and the town councils that progressively join the consortium) will have 49%, which at the time of founding was distributed as 25% to Barcelona City Council and 24% to the MTE. The General State Administration is represented on the board of directors of the MTA by two permanent observers.

Finally, linked to the board of directors, a Users' Commission, a Technical Operators' Commission and a Legal Advice Commission were set up.
The Users' Commission is the body of participation and consultation of the institutional and social actors in the operations of the transport system. It is composed of representatives of the associations of municipalities (Federació Catalana de Municipis and Associació Catalana de Municipis), the main trade unions, the employers' organisations and certain associations and groups related to transport.

The Operators' Commission is composed of the three public operators (Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat, RENFE and Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona) and the companies who have licences to operate urban and interurban transport services. These two commissions are organisations for the participation and consultation of the respective sectors in the operations of the collective transport system.

The network and its operators
The transport network that the MTA regulates includes the RENFE local lines, Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat, TMB (Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona; the Metro and the buses), the taxi service, and the network of buses of the Metropolitan Transport Entity and of other bus companies operating in its geographical area of competence.

Of the operators represented on it, the greatest market share corresponds to Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona, followed by RENFE. According to figures corresponding to 1999, TMB carried 67.3% of all passengers in the area, and its turnover was 53.9% of the total. RENFE carried 12.4% of the passengers, and its turnover was 20.7% of the total. The following places were occupied by Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (7.8% of the passengers and 10% of the turnover), bus companies other than the MTE (6.5% of the passengers and 8.4% of the turnover) and finally the bus lines of the MTE (6% of the passengers and 7% of the turnover).

Naturally, in the central agglomeration, which includes the city of Barcelona, the nine adjoining municipalities of Santa Coloma, Badalona and Sant Adrià in the east, and L'Hospitalet, Esplugues, Sant Joan Despí, Cornellà, Sant Just and Sant Feliu in the west, the participation of TMB rose to three quarters of the total, (78.6% of the passengers and 72.1% of the turnover). Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat carried 7.1% of the passengers and had 7.2% of the turnover, whereas the buses of the MTE carried 7% of the passengers and had 9.4% of the turnover; RENFE carried 6.1% of the passengers and had 9.3% of the turnover and other bus companies carried 1.2% of the passengers and had 2% of the turnover.

The Master Plan of Infrastructures
The most outstanding achievements of the MTA in its first five years of operation include the drawing up and approval of the Master Plan of Infrastructures (MPI) and the process of fare integration.
The MPI foresees investments of over 6,000 million euros until the year 2010 to build 120 new kilometres of railway, metro and tram lines, which will carry 800,000 passengers per day.

The most outstanding projects in this Plan include Line 9 of the Metro and a new railway line between Sarrià and Castelldefels; the extension of the Baix Llobregat line from Plaça d'Espanya to link with the Vallès line at Gràcia or Provença; the tramways of the Baix Llobregat and the area of Forum 2004; and extensions of several of the current lines of the Metro and Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat in Terrassa and Sabadell.

Fare Integration
Fare integration has been applied progressively since last year. For the purposes of fares, the geographic area covered by the network managed by the MTA, composed of the Metropolitan Region and some surrounding counties, has been divided into six rings. The five outer rings, which cover the areas of El Vendrell, Igualada, Manresa, Vic and Maçanet de la Selva, are placed concentrically around the first, formed by the 18 municipalities of the Metropolitan Transport Entity, and are defined according to the distance in kilometres.

Each ring is divided in turn into sectors established according to the different transit corridors, without dividing the areas of influence of the capitals and the county polarities.

The relations with the main transport operators, i.e. RENFE, Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat and Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona, are regulated by programme contacts, which establish the funding of the deficit arising from the running of their respective transport networks, i.e. the difference between the income and expenditure of the service.

In the first case, the local rail network is 100% funded by the State. For Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat, the corresponding programme contract establishes the distribution of its funding between the General State Administration and the Generalitat. Transports Municipals de Barcelona, finally, is funded in equal parts by the General State Administration, the Generalitat and the local authorities (Barcelona City Council and the Metropolitan Transport Entity).

Organisational models
The organisational model of public transport is based on the identification of three large sections or levels, whose basic characteristics correspond to elements and functions laid down in the ISOTOPE project of the European Union, which examines the regulatory framework for public transport in large cities.

Firstly, the strategic level corresponds to the political decisions on planning of general mobility policies, and particularly of transport networks and fare policies. Secondly, the tactical level includes the decisions aimed at carrying out the daily management of the network, to meet the changing needs arising from the dynamism of urban zones. Finally, the operational level deals with production, i.e. specific transport operations in the different sections of the network, which are perceived directly by the users.

The current model of the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona has been in a period of evolution since the constitution of the MTA. The possible and ideal development of the original model applied to Barcelona and its metropolitan area is that the institutions -through the MTA- should deal with the strategic level, that the tactical level should be dealt with by a large public company responsible for the general management of all the networks of the region, and that the operational level should be dealt with by one or several transport companies.

In this model the company that deals with the tactical level, or the manager of the network, must take charge (at the third level) of the whole Metro network and the lines of at least one bus garage.

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THE REAL CITY AS A SCENARIO OF MOBILITY
by Manuel Villalante
director of studies, coordination and presidential advisor. transports metropolitans de barcelona

When one decides to reflect on the real city as a scenario of mobility, one must first try to define and, if possible, delimit this geographic area.
The city is a series of experiences and relations formed by different systems and infrastructures of transport and communication and collective facilities, which are public spaces that help people to get about.
It is desirable for each part of the city to have its monumentality, its symbolism and its own identity. However, there is no doubt that a democratic city must maximise the possibilities of mobility of its citizens. Collective transport systems are often the opportunity and guarantee of accessibility to the dwelling and to the workplace, and they are also a basic part of the collective project of city.

It may seem that during the last few decades the evolution of the major European cities has converted the idea of the city as a space of encounter and relations into a thing of the past, because social and functional segregation seem to have broken the traditional model of the city.

The reality of the metropolitan city must never negate the city as a space of relation. On the contrary: it must multiply it by establishing an unavoidable positive dialogue with other cities and their communication networks.

One must thus progress in the construction of a balanced system of polycentric cities in which the infrastructures of mobility act as articulating elements of the urban and metropolitan fabric, whilst increasing regional cohesion. This network structure of polycentric cities can also articulate different polarities, without this leading to the generation of new outskirts. In fact, a regional structure based on a network of cities favours the rapid dissemination of innovations, generates a more effective and efficient occupation, and facilitates rapid access to resources and information.

There is no insuperable contradiction between competitiveness and social cohesion: in the long term the most competitive conurbations on an international level are those that offer greater quality of life to their inhabitants.

Barcelona and the metropolitan region
Barcelona today is a complex and multiple reality whose limits are very difficult to define in terms of functionality.
The modern city is opposed to the traditional idea of a delimited space, because the networks that form the urban and metropolitan space have different geometries and different regional intensities and discontinuities.
After an integrating process, the metropolitan reality of Barcelona has involved the intensification of the relations between different realities with very diverse potentials in a common space, without this leading to a decrease in the polarity of the central city.

The future consolidation of this metropolitan reality will depend to a large extent on the intensification of the flows of persons, goods and services. Therefore, the intensities of mobility relations will serve to define three different areas in the metropolitan reality of Barcelona:

o The central city, formed by Barcelona and the other ten municipalities of its area, with which it forms the urban continuum. This area, which has a population of almost 2.4 million inhabitants and shows the highest densities, has a high level of internal and external accessibility.
The great centrality of this area makes it generate and attract most of the journeys for work and study (compulsory mobility) and also for leisure and shopping (non-compulsory mobility).
o The first metropolitan ring, also called the central agglomeration of the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona (MRB), which with 35 municipalities is the second level of the metropolitan reality. This area forms a single labour market because it is the area in which the population and the economic activities of the central city have been decentralised.
o The second metropolitan ring, formed by the 129 municipalities articulated around a group of cities such as Mataró, Granollers, Sabadell and Terrassa. These large, mature cities of the second ring have their own labour markets and commercial areas, but they maintain a strong relation with Barcelona.

In this context, one of the characteristic features of the city of Barcelona, its high density resulting from a centuries-old concentration of activities and services, is now being affected by the population movements. For example, between 1972 and 1992 the consumption of land per inhabitant in the area of the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona (MRB) doubled, showing that the traditional form of urban development in this area is undergoing a transformation.

Indeed, the area of the MRB, with almost 4.4 million inhabitants and a very highly contained labour, culture and leisure market, is the real area of analysis and planning of mobility and transport.
With regard to government, the main characteristic of the metropolitan area is its fragmentation. Indeed, in this area there are 164 municipalities, seven counties, sectoral metropolitan entities, the provincial council and the regional and state governments.

The Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA), created as a consortium between authorities, has partly provided the necessary coordination for planning and funding of the public transport system.
However, one must move towards the establishment of a metropolitan instrument of government based on polycentrality to promote greater coordination and to articulate the network of cities in other key aspects such as urban planning and the location of activities and services. These are some of the aspects that are absolutely dissociable from the planning of transport and mobility.

Metropolitan dynamics in the scenario of mobility
The elements that most directly affect the mobility of persons and goods in a metropolitan area are:
o The regional distribution of the population and its age structure.
o The location of economic activities and the level of occupation.
o The location of facilities and services and the habits of purchase and consumption.
o The infrastructures of transport and communication and the level of motorisation.
We will study these elements with regard to the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona, and specifically for each of the areas considered above.

Population
Between 1975 and 1981 the population of the city of Barcelona was stable. From then on there was a gradual fall that involved the loss of almost 250,000 inhabitants between 1981 and 1999. The ten closest municipalities, which we have defined as the central city or the urban continuum, showed a similar fall in population as of 1981.

The rest of the MRB showed an inverse process to that of Barcelona and the immediate outskirts. The annual growth rate of the second ring has increased gradually from 1% in the period 1981-1986 to almost 2% at present. In fact, Barcelona and the first ring are still losing a volume of population equal to that which is absorbed by the second ring, which involves greater mobility needs and land occupation.

The second ring shows an increasing growth in population. Almost 54% of the changes of municipality by the metropolitan population in the period 1985-2000 were internal or involved a move to this ring. The second ring of the MRB has concentrated the demographic growth due to its own dynamics and the decentralisation of the population and part of the economic activities. The result has been a redistribution of the population within the MRB, which has in general remained stable since 1975.

In recent years most migration is not from small towns to large ones but from large towns to small ones.
During the nineties a total of 226,000 dwellings were built in the MRB, of which 102,500 were in the central agglomeration.
Both in Barcelona and in the whole MRB the growth rate of new residential construction has fallen in the two last years in comparison with the dynamic period from 1998 to 1999. However, the number of dwellings on which construction started in the city in the period 1999-2001 is approximately 5,200 per year, which is a similar figure to that of the former three-year period. If the current tendency continues, the population forecasts for 2010 indicate that the current process will be intensified: there will be a very moderate decrease in population in the city of Barcelona and the municipalities that form with it the urban continuum, a moderate growth in the rest of the central agglomeration and high growth in the second ring.
This possible growth can be estimated at 130,000 inhabitants, which would mean that there would be a population of almost 4.4 million inhabitants in the MRB at the end of this decade. Of course, some factors could lead to an increase in this trend, especially if a recovery in the birth rate is confirmed.

In recent years, especially in the first ring, there has been a progressive ageing of the population in the MRB, which has been tempered by immigration.

Distribution of jobs and economic activities
As stated above, there is an increasing dissemination of activity in the metropolitan region, and the polarity of Barcelona is being extended to the first and second ring. With more than two million jobs, which is 70% of the total of Catalonia, the MRB is the sixth European metropolitan region.

The average annual growth in gross domestic product (GDP) between 1998 and 2001 was approximately 3.5%, one point above the European average, despite the slowdown in the economy in the last year.
43% of the jobs in the MRB are located in Barcelona, 26% in the rest of the central agglomeration and 31% in the second ring. Though 43% of the jobs are located in Barcelona, only 35% of the occupied population lives there. This difference gives an idea of the surplus of jobs in the city and its capacity of attraction for work.

The location of jobs in the MRB follows the basic lines of communication, influenced by the location of the zones of activity and the distribution of population in the municipalities. In recent years there has been a decrease in the self-contention of labour, i.e. in the number of persons who live and work in the same municipality. Self-contention has fallen from 64.4% in 1990 to 52.4% in 2000. The greatest level of self-contention is in the city of Barcelona, with 76.6%, compared with 84% in 1990. In other words, 10% of the people of Barcelona work in the rest of the first ring and 7.4% of the people of Barcelona work in the second ring.

At 30%, the first ring is the lowest area of self-contention, excluding Barcelona. Over 30% of the workers of its municipalities travel to Barcelona each day. This confirms that the area of 35 municipalities is one of intense interrelation of labour mobility. The self-contention of the second ring is approximately 50%, and has fallen by 10% in the period 1995-2000. Also, almost 8% of the workers of the second ring travel to the city of Barcelona each day. The level of self-contention increases with the distance from the city of Barcelona, but almost 7% of the workers of the rest of the province travel to the MRB for work.

Indeed, mobility for labour reasons in the MRB forces almost 700,000 persons to travel outside their municipality of residence each day. Of these, only 3.2% travel to a town outside the MRB and the rest (96.8%) travel to a municipality in the MRB. This shows the high general level of self-contention of the MRB as a labour market and as a scenario of this compulsory mobility.

The increase in occupation and in the number of persons who have to travel to work has led to an increase in the use of all modes of transport, but in relative terms what has most increased is the use of private vehicles. This behaviour is generalised in the whole MRB, particularly as the distance from the central city increases.

The residents of Barcelona are those that least use private transport to travel to work, whereas in the second ring almost two thirds of the residents go to work in private vehicles. If one takes the hypothesis that the growth in jobs will be 1 to 1.5%, this would involve an increase of 228,000 to 353,000 in 2010.

Everything indicates that the growth of jobs will take place in the whole area of the MRB, but particularly in the second ring. In the medium term, the mobility of the population for work will continue to have a radial structure broken at the points of industrial concentration and of the tertiary sector located on the axes of communication.

Location of facilities and commercial activity
Different factors, such as the evolution of private consumption, the incorporation of women in employment with a rate of female occupation similar to the European average, the association of shopping with leisure time and the concentration in time of daily shopping, are leading to a great transformation in the forms and location of commercial establishments in the area of the MRB.

The appearance of new forms of trading has led to the concentration of retail outlets in large establishments, and simultaneously traditional traders have tended to group together at two types of location:
o Near to major interurban communication routes without physical connection to the urban centres.
o On urban lines that are well connected to the general network and in physical contact with the urban fabric.
Unfortunately, in many cases a major reason for the location of the commercial areas of the first type has been that they are accessible in private transport, and that parking space is available. In the case of Barcelona, their location has been linked to the processes of urban transformation as one of the instruments of generation of new centralities.

The total floor area of the retail establishments of over 2,500 m2 in the city of Barcelona is less than 400,000 m2, whereas that of traditional retail outlets is 3,400,000 m2. It increased by 110,000 m2 in 1999-2000.

The progressive generalisation of these new forms of trading, their sectoral specialisation and the characteristics of their regional location affect -and will continue to affect- the patterns of non-compulsory mobility for shopping by reducing their frequency and increasing the time spent in establishments and the distance travelled to them.

The rate of motorisation
In 1998 the average rate of motorisation in the MRB was 583 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants and 425 cars per 1,000 inhabitants. What is important is not the figure in itself, but the increase of 20% and 18% respectively in comparison with 1991, because it indicates an increase in the level of income and an increase in mobility associated with private vehicles.

Barcelona and its centrality
The new distribution of the population in the area of the MRB and the loss of demographic importance of the city of Barcelona have in no cases led to a decrease in their polarity as a centre of economic activity and job creation. This is shown by the analysis of the different economic indicators, such as the growth in GDP stated above, which has generated many jobs and therefore reduced in unemployment in the city.

This increase places the occupation rates of residents of working age at the level of the European Union average. Specifically, the rate of unemployment is 6.5%, three decimal points below the level of Catalonia and almost three percentage points below that of Spain.

This dynamic situation has meant that the production structure of the city shows an increasing concentration of tertiary activities, reinforcing the role of Barcelona as a central server of the MRB. Currently, 80% of the occupied population work in the tertiary sector: 21% of them work in the retail trade and 79% in other services. Furthermore, 59% of the jobs of high added value, especially those in the most innovative sectors of the MRB (i.e. 47% of jobs of this type in Catalonia) are concentrated in Barcelona. Other indicators, such as attendance of cultural, educational and leisure facilities activities, show the increase in polarity.

The average population of the city of Barcelona increases by almost 400,000 persons each day, without considering the citizens from outside the MRB who come into the city each day as tourists but do not spend the night there.
Finally, at present processes of urban transformation tending to increase quality of life by incorporating new uses linked to the new economy and personal services are being developed in almost 1,000 ha of the 10,000 ha of the city.

Whether this process of growth in polarity and competitiveness will be compatible with the improvement in quality of life will depend largely on whether the public transport system is able to competitively absorb the new mobility demands that are generated, both in time and in cost.

The patterns of mobility in the Metropolitan Region
In 2000 almost 7.5 million journeys were made in the area of the MRB every day, with a very unequal regional distribution. Non-compulsory mobility involved almost half of all journeys, and was more relevant in journeys within the municipalities. Non-compulsory mobility represented about 30% of intermunicipal journeys.

The proportion of the journeys made on public transport or in private vehicles depends on several factors: the reason for the journey, the level of motorisation and the level of supply and quality of public transport, as well as the point of departure and arrival.

If one excludes journeys made on foot, 60% of the internal journeys of the city of Barcelona are made on public transport, whereas private transport represents 65% of the journeys that cross the municipal district.
If one considers the five representative flows of the different areas and lines of mobility, one can see that the ratio of public to private transport differs greatly according to the area considered.

As shown in the following table, the use of public transport decreases with the distance from the central city, as does the density of residence and activity. (Refer to page no. 17)

Firstly, within the Ringroads almost 59% of the mechanised journeys are made on public transport. The use of public transport is homogeneous in the different accesses to the Ringroads, and reaches an average of almost 30%. In the accesses to the central agglomeration the figure is between 18.4% and 23.2%, with the exception of the Llobregat corridor, where it falls to 9.8%. This is mainly due to the fact that the A-7 motorway acts as a structuring axis of this increasingly congested area.

The radial component served by the eight corridor/axes of Vilanova i la Geltrú, Vilafranca del Penedès, Martorell, Terrassa, Sabadell, Caldes de Montbui, Granollers and Mataró is of great importance in the overall metropolitan mobility. The participation of public transport in the corridor/axes varies greatly according to the capacity of the infrastructures and the demographic importance of the capital of the axis. This participation is 40% in Vilanova i la Geltrú, 20% in Mataró, Terrassa and Sabadell, and less than 10% in Martorell, Caldes de Montbui and Granollers.

Finally, perimetral mobility is far lower, particularly in public transport, where it represents less than 2% of the journeys, except in the rail connection between Sabadell and Terrassa.

From the current dynamics of mobility, the foreseeable tendencies of creation and consolidation of new development areas and the loss of self-contention of some municipalities, one can make a projection of the future of mobility by 2010.

The increase in the number of jobs points to an increase in compulsory mobility in this period in both internal and external journeys. The tendency towards creation of areas of new centrality and the redistribution of the population will favour this growth despite the forecasts of demographic stagnation. The forecasts also confirm the tendency of growth in non-compulsory mobility in the zones of greater centrality between now and 2010.

Indeed, in the period 2000-2010 total mobility may grow by 15 to 25%, depending on which hypothesis one adopts. The greatest increase will be in radial journeys, through perimetral relations will also increase.

Barcelona will continue to have a great capacity of attraction of journeys and the first ring will considerably increase its attraction for the second ring. This increase in the attraction of the first ring will occur more in the municipalities that do not form the urban continuum, where an increase in industrial activity is foreseeable. Indeed, there will be an increasing trend in mobility and in the length of the journeys.

To meet these demands, the supply and cover of public transport must be increased to allow the system to absorb the increase in mobility. This expansion must be performed strategically in order to correct the malfunctions generated by urban sprawl and the increase in the length of journeys.

There has also been a sharp increase in the flow of goods in the area of the MRB. The effect of this has been especially felt in the central city, due to its effect on traffic congestion and on the surface public transport network. In the city of Barcelona, the mobility of commercial vehicles represents almost 20% of all mechanised journeys and shows a growth of almost 4% per year.

Furthermore, everything indicates that the new technologies of Internet shopping will accentuate this tendency even further. In the city of Barcelona almost 60% of homes have computers and 38% are connected to the Internet.

Conclusions
The metropolitan reality of Barcelona has led to an intensification in the relations between the urban continuum and other areas in a common space with very diverse potential and centralities, though the polarity of the central city has been maintained and even accentuated.

The metropolitan region, formed by the seven counties that surround Barcelona, with 4.4 million inhabitants and a high level of self-contention, is the real area of analysis and planning of mobility and transport infrastructures.
The creation of the Metropolitan Transport Authority as a consortium formed by the local and regional authorities has partly provided the necessary coordination for the planning, funding and establishment of fares of the public transport system in the MRB.

However, progress must be made towards setting up a local-based metropolitan government instrument in the area of the central agglomeration or the first metropolitan ring, in order to articulate other essential aspects of mobility such as urban planning and the location of activities and services.

The recently approved Plan of Infrastructures (MPI, 2010), which is an integral proposal for the new rail infrastructures reached by consensus, the consolidation of the process of fare integration, and the presentation of the Services Plan 2002-2005 as a instrument for planning services and establishing coordinated operating programmes for the different operators, mark a stage of expansion of the public transport system.

The improvement of the spatial and functional cover of public transport and its quality is a necessary but not sufficient condition to guarantee a sustainable mobility system. Improvements in public transport must be complemented by integrated policies of mobility and regional development aimed at regulating demand in private transport.

Page 20
Configuration and evolution of the metropolitan network
by Albert Busquets director-general of transports metropolitans de barcelona
by Jacint Soler director of the development and planning service
of the network. transports metropolitans de barcelona

The services offered by the Public Collective Transport System in a given geographic area must satisfy its mobility needs. To achieve this the configuration and characteristics of the services must meet a series of objectives to ensure that the public transport network is a good alternative for the journeys made in that area.

Because mobility relations go far beyond the strict municipal boundaries, the public transport services offered should be considered to their full extent as a general network of coordinated modes and systems.
Furthermore, because mobility needs change over time with the changing location of housing, workplaces, services and leisure, the transport network must also be dynamic in order to satisfy them.

The goodness of a public transport network in its totality, understood as a set of coordinated modes that provide an alternative to the use of private vehicles for transporting persons must be based on the conjunction of a series of basic characteristics, such as the following:

a) Cover of the network in the region, so that points of departure and arrival are close to all citizens.
b) Speed of travel, which must be competitive compared with private vehicles, especially for long journeys, so that time is gained in the journeys made.
c) Limitation of transfers in the journeys, because they involve both an objective and a subjective time penalty. This is even more important in short journeys, in which the limitation must tend towards minimisation.
d) Frequency of vehicles. For regular services, in order to reduce waiting time the frequency must be no greater than certain acceptable limits. If because of low demand the frequency is low, then a timetable must indicate the time at which the vehicles arrive, in order to reduce waiting time at the stop or station.
One must also take into account the characteristics of the rolling stock in order to ensure a comfortable, safe and reliable service in accordance with the conditions offered.

Public transport in the metropolitan region of Barcelona
The public transport service in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona has a basic rail network composed of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat and the RENFE local lines, which cater for certain corridors and spread out radially from the central agglomeration.

This central agglomeration contains the underground railway network of Barcelona (the Metro), which has a greater density of stations per kilometer of line than the more regional railways and serves the central urban fabric.
The three railway networks, whose characteristics are shown in Table 1, do not cover the whole central zone and offer even less regional cover, so the bus is also an integral mode in the basic network.

The bus lines that form the basic network serve the zones that are not reached by the fixed infrastructure network, in order to link them to the latter or to form links between these zones. They create transport routes that are different to those created by the railway network.

They therefore also include the great majority of inter-urban lines, the urban networks of the municipalities outside the central urban continuum, and a large percentage of the lines of the central agglomeration.
Finally, within the central zone there are also bus services that form a complementary network to the basic network, overlapping bus or Metro lines to ensure and facilitate short journeys and detailed mobility.

The evolution of the network
This is based on:
- Considering the different public transport services as forming a coordinated general network.
- The division into basic and complementary services.
- Considering the characteristics that should govern the public transport network and the providing of these services.

In the central zone major actions have been-and are still being-taken on the surface network. The aim of these actions is to:
o Respond to the structural shortcomings of the network in its configuration and cover, which are based on:
- improving communication from the sea to the mountain;
- the use of the new roads and new infrastructures to improve connectivity;
- providing service to neighbourhoods and centres of difficult access because of their topography and/or road system:
- connection between nearby neighbourhoods .
o Meet the changing mobility needs, resulting from:
- new residential and tertiary settlements arising from urban development, which generates new journeys;
- changes in the educational map of the city and the new university facilities;
- changes in the location of health centres and other public services.
o Increase the services already offered in order to:
- improve the conditions of the journey;
- reduce waiting times at stops.

These needs have led to the actions that have been taken from 1996 to the present, which can be divided into three main groups:
1) The creation of new lines and the extension of existing ones
22 lines have been extended and in the short term it is planned to extend five more. Three new lines have been created, and a fourth is planned for the near future.
All of this has required the placing in service of 35 more vehicles to cover the above needs related to the structure of the network and changes in mobility.
2) Proximity transport - the Neighbourhood Bus
This was created in order to provide public transport for urban centres located in zones with a difficult topography and those that are far from the main public transport network, in order to:
a) Connect this service to the closest point of the main public transport network.
b) Connect with the nearby public services in the neighbourhood, such as
the health centre (CAP), the market, etc., and to provide internal public transport for large neighbourhoods with a complex and narrow road system:
a) To link the public services of the neighbourhood internally.
b) To facilitate connection to the closest point of the main public transport network.
The first five lines of the neighbourhood bus were created in 1998. As they fully met the objectives for which they had been designed, six more were added in 2000. By the end of this year it is planned to put into operation six new lines and to considerably extend one of the existing ones, thus giving a total of seventeen lines and 32 vehicles in service.
3) Improvements in frequency
Finally, the third main area of action-the most recent one and the one that has involved the largest single increase in vehicles in service-is the significant improvement in the frequency of 25 lines, which:
- form routes not served by the Metro and
- have a high demand that must be satisfied in conditions that offer comfort to the users or
- have a great and significant potential for growth .

This has represented the placing in service of eighty new vehicles only for this action. The intervals of the lines and therefore the waiting time of their 300,000 daily users have been reduced considerably.
For the rest of the geographic area of the MTE and the rest of the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona, the Services Plan of the Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) is at a very advanced stage and will provide solutions to the present shortcomings in the surface network of this area.
Finally, with regard to the rail network, the Master Plan of Infrastructures is dealt with in specific articles.

Page 24
THE INTEGRATED FARE SYSTEM
by Francesc X. Ventura
director-general of the metropolitan transport authority

The Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) was set up five years ago as a coordinating body of collective public transport in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona. This consortium is composed of the Generalitat (government) of Catalonia, Barcelona City Council and the Metropolitan Transport Entity (a sectoral local government body responsible for transport in Barcelona and its nearby conurbation). Its aim is to improve public mobility by creating an integrated collective public transport system.

This integral approach can only be achieved through the joint action of the authorities and the competent bodies in such closely related areas as planning of infrastructures, coordination of services and establishing a common fare framework for all transport operating companies.
The introduction of the new fare system based on a single fare is the most direct exemplification of this unity of the network. Users can now make any journey on public transport without being penalised for changing from one mode to another.

The authorities and the MTA conceived this major project in response to a deep-rooted demand by the public, who now perceive that the effort made to improve collective public transport is beginning to show tangible results. The new system has also made it possible to increase the use of public transport by gaining new users and by increasing the number of journeys made by more loyal users. This has been quantitatively demonstrated since the first year of its application.

Criteria of the integrated fare model
When it is decided to establish a single fare model such as the one used in Barcelona, several aspects must be taken into account. The adaptation of the system to the mobility habits of the citizens of the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona and to current technology are undoubtedly essential starting points.

The area in which the fare system has been introduced, including the whole Metropolitan Region of Barcelona as far as the limits of the local railway network, covers a total of 200 municipalities and over four and a half million inhabitants. The public transport network that stretches over this area is run by a total of 41 operators (3 railway operators and 38 bus operators), which are progressively joining the system: today there are 36 integrated operators, including all the railways.

Zoning
This area has been divided into a set of zones in order to define fares according to the points of departure and arrival of the journeys.
The basic principles of the zoning are the following:
o Division of the area into six concentric rings defined according to the distance in kilometres, Ring 1 being that formed by Barcelona and the seventeen other municipalities belonging to the Metropolitan Transport Entity.
o Definition of eight radial sectors, based on the priority corridors of mobility in the metropolitan region, according to the studies of the Diagnosis and Guidelines of the Master Plan of Infrastructures and of the Transport Services Plan .
o The intersection of rings and sectors forms what is called a fare zone.
The area is thus divided into six rings and 33 sectors. It was attempted to avoid dividing the areas of direct influence of the county capitals and polarities (Granollers, Sant Celoni, Mataró, etc.) into different zones. It was also attempted to avoid separating municipalities into different zones, with the exception of Sitges because of the length of its municipal district.
The fares are calculated on the basis of this zoning. They are established according to the number of zones crossed on a journey, with a maximum of six zones. There are some particularities in this general criterion, such as the fact that the fare applied between contiguous stations or municipalities in the case of railways -or between municipalities in the case of buses- is the same as the fare applied to a zone, even if they belong to different fare zones.

The range of tickets
In the definition of the range of tickets, the following criteria were taken into account:
o All transport tickets (whether integrated or single-mode) form part of the system, and the MTA establishes the fares. The integrated tickets are the property of the MTA.
o The range of tickets must be simple and small: integrated transport tickets must be valid for all the modes and operators and transfers must be totally unpenalised.
o The range of tickets must correspond to the existing patterns of mobility, and be segmented according to their level of use.
o The system must have a suitable level of financial cover.
However, in order to define this new zonal structure, the range of integrated tickets and their prices, the systems used by the different operating companies for selling and checking the tickets must be adapted to make them compatible.

The technology that was used
The technology used for the tickets is the basic technical characteristic of the system, because it provides the essential information for distribution of income or for statistical processing of the demand of the different operators. In the system applied in Barcelona, it was decided to introduce magnetic technology in the new tickets. This decision was reached because the main operators (FGC, TMB and Renfe) and some private bus operators already had this type of system installed in their networks, with highly satisfactory results.

The efficiency of this type of system is therefore clear, but the application of new technologies (electronic systems) in the future must not be ruled out. When this happens, the two technologies will have to operate at the same time, because all the machines already installed by the different operators must be adapted, and particularly because for a long time there will be users who will require regular journey tickets for which electronic cards are not suitable.

The main technological characteristics of the system introduced in Barcelona can be summarised as follows:
o It allows passengers to travel with different companies and modes of transport using only one ticket and paying only once per journey, i.e. transfers are unpenalised.
o It allows a wide range of tickets to be offered.
o It is an open and evolutive system: the operators may be integrated in stages (as has in fact happened); new tickets can be incorporated and the services offered can be adapted to the needs of the users.
o The information gathered is sufficient to distribute income between the different operators, but it also serves as a reference for introducing improvements in the planning and organisation of the services.
o A bit is incorporated in the tickets to monitor the multi-modal chains.
o The system allows integrated tickets to be used alongside single-mode ones.

Perception of the system by the public and internal functioning
In a project of this type, which involves many bodies, companies and administrations and ultimately benefits the public, two aspects must be taken into account: the internal functioning of the system, and the result perceived by the public.
Citizens perceive the fare system through three main channels: the range of tickets, the sales and distribution channels and the operators in which they can be used.

The range of integrated tickets
In 2001 four integrated transport tickets were available to the public: T-10, T-50/30, T-Día and T-Mes. All of them were valid from one to six zones, except T-Mes, which was initially for only one zone. This year its use has been extended to six zones. Another novelty in 2002 has been the introduction of three new tickets: T-Familiar, T-Jove and T-Trimestre. The characteristics of each one are listed below:

o T-10: A multi-journey card intended for citizens who do not use public transport habitually. It can be used for ten integrated journeys in the zones for which it is purchased and in all modes of transport. It may be used by more than one person at the same time.
o T-50/30: A single-person multi-journey card that can be used for fifty integrated journeys in the zones for which it is purchased and in all the modes of transport for thirty consecutive days from the first date of validation.
o T-Familiar: A multi-person, multi-journey card that can be used for seventy integrated journeys on thirty consecutive days after the first date of validation. This card is intended for families or groups who travel a lot, whether together or individually.
o T-Mes: A ticket that can be used for an unlimited number of journeys on thirty consecutive days. This is a personal ticket that is confirmed by the identity card or the certifying cards of the operators.
o T-Dia: A single-person ticket that can be used for an unlimited number of journeys during one day, from the first validation to the end of the service. This is intended for persons who visit our region for a short period of time, for work or leisure.
o T-Jove: A ticket that can be used for an unlimited number of journeys in any mode of transport for ninety consecutive days from the first date of validation. This is a personal ticket confirmed by identity card or by the certifying cards of the operators. It is intended for persons under the age of 21 who use public transport often and continuously.
o T-Trimestre: A ticket that can be used for an unlimited number of journeys in any mode of transport on ninety consecutive days from the first date of validation. This is a personal ticket that is confirmed by the identity card or by the certifying cards of the operators.

With all tickets passengers can make up to three transfers within a period of one hour fifteen minutes in the case of one-zone tickets, and fifteen minutes more for each additional zone.
The prices approved by the Board of Directors of the MTA for the 2002 (in euros) are the following. (Refer to page no. 28)

This fare system is aimed at creating loyalty in users through a reduction in price according to the amount of use and the distance of the journey. However, it was also designed to ensure a suitable financial cover, without requiring an excessive subsidy of the transport systems by the authorities. The policy is therefore one of not reducing fares drastically and maintaining the coverage of the cost of providing the service through the income obtained by the operating companies.

Considering the current pricing structure and the journeys assigned to each integrated ticket, one can determine the discounts obtained with all of them in relation to the reference price of the single ticket for each zone. In some cases, such as the T-Jove for six zones, the discount is over 95%. As a reference, the following table shows the discounts for tickets of one zone. (Refer to page no. 28)

The new integrated tickets (whether multi-journey or season tickets) are a basic feature of the system aimed at modifying the fare structure by using the technology defined in the previous section. This makes it possible to offer a ticket for each potential population segment of public transport users, such as the new T-Trimestre for loyal passengers. However, it is not intended that all journeys on public transport be made with integrated tickets. They must be complementary with other tickets, such as the single ticket (for occasional users) or other single-mode tickets according to areas.

The network of ticket distribution and sales
Traditionally users purchased transport tickets when they arrived at the network, at the ticket offices of the railway stations or on board the buses. There were also some sporadic sales points outside the network, but they were mainly located in the central zone of Barcelona.

It is important for the users to disconnect the action of travelling on public transport from that of purchasing the transport ticket, because the choice of the mode of travel will thus not depend so greatly on the purchase of the ticket. It has been found that the fact that one has already purchased the ticket has a psychological effect in stimulating the use of public transport in preference to private vehicles.

It is therefore proposed to extend the network of sales points -especially outside the central zone where there are already many stations- by selling tickets at local sales points where the public make their daily commercial transactions.
The new logistics of supply and sales of integrated tickets has provided better access of users to transport tickets, which can now be purchased in a wide sales network covering the whole Metropolitan Region of Barcelona.

Specifically, integrated tickets can be purchased at:
o All stations of the rail and bus operators
o The customer service centres of the different transport companies
o Several banks such as Caixa de Catalunya (which has 275 offices selling integrated tickets) and Banco de Santander, and over 750 ServiCaixa machines covering the whole metropolitan region.
o Almost 800 tobacconists, 900 newsagents and different football pools sales points, all of which are places visited regularly by the public.

The key point of the fare system: the participation of the operators
The operators that have joined the integrated fare system have done so voluntarily through adhesion agreements, without breaking the existing institutional and franchise relations with the authorities under which they operate. The aim has always been to increase the number of passengers in the metropolitan collective public transport system.

Where necessary, two fare options have been established, as in RENFE local lines, which conserves its own structure for its own tickets. In these cases the users may choose between integrated tickets or the tickets of the operator, according to whether or not they need to transfer to other modes. They therefore have even more options for choosing the most suitable and economic ticket.
The introduction or adaptation of the validation systems and vending machines of each operator has involved a major process of certification and homologation. It is essential for all machines to be compatible for the transfer and processing of the information they generate, which forms the basis for the distribution of income from ticket sales.

Internal functioning: the governing bodies of the fare system
The MTA has defined a common protocol of communication that has been accepted by all the parties involved. According to this protocol, the results of sales, validation and exchanges are transferred electronically from the different operators and external sales points. This information is transferred directly to the Fare Integration Administration System, which processes the information received in order to carry out the following (among other tasks):

o To distribute income from sales of integrated tickets between the different transport operators.
o To pay the distribution outlets their commission for ticket sales.
o To obtain basic information and statistics that can be used in studies of demand or to calculate rises in the fares.
o To defined and establish the parameters of new integrated tickets and their prices.

The fact that integrated tickets sold by one operator and/or external outlet may be used in any mode of transport, including transfer, means that all the information received from the system must be managed centrally, but with the direct participation of those involved. This led to the creation of the Chamber of Compensation and Distribution of Income and the Fare Integration Monitoring Committee.

The former distributes income from the sales of integrated tickets to the different operators each month. This distribution is made according to a rule of distribution that takes into account the net fares charged and the modal chain of each journey, obtained from the algorithm called the intermodality index. In order to obtain this algorithm, the bit was incorporated in the tickets. As its name suggests, this monitors the use of each registered ticket and determines its use. For the purpose of comparing the results obtained from the bit with other methods for assessing the use of tickets in each mode of transport, continuous surveys are simultaneously made in the networks and lines of the integrated operators.

In order to guarantee the correct functioning of the Chamber and as a technical support for the monitoring of fare integration, a Monitoring Committee composed of the authorities and operators was set up. It holds monthly meetings to deal with specific topics such as the adhesion agreements, the establishment of services and prices of tickets in future financial years, the range of tickets offered, aspects of information and communication, assessing the efficiency with which income is distributed, approving the costs generated by the operators, and introducing and applying the mechanisms for managing the integrated fare system.

These bodies for controlling and monitoring the fare system are, as has been seen, completely necessary in order to ensure security and reliability in the essential tasks, though these tasks are not directly perceived by the public.

The communications plan of the system
The introduction of Fare Integration has involved the need to notify the public of the changes that have taken place in the transport system. It is essential to facilitate the understanding of the basic principles of this new system and to publicise the range of integrated tickets so that public transport users can adapt easily to this new fare structure.

With this aim, in the first few months of 2001 a major campaign of communication and information was organised under the slogan "Move freely". Information was given on the operators that accepted the new tickets, and the public transport network was presented as a single, general and integrated system coordinated by the MTA.
At the end of the year a second, more specific campaign was organised to communicate the new features of the fare system coinciding with the introduction of the euro.

In the first four months of this year a new campaign was organised to communicate the existence of new tickets and to stimulate the widespread use of public transport by specific groups such as the young.
These campaigns were complemented with the information that the operators offer to users of their services, the information centres of the Generalitat of Catalonia and Barcelona City Council, and direct queries that can be made to the MTA by telephone or Internet. All of these services give the users direct advice on the ticket that is best suited to their mobility needs and the number of zones that they need to buy it for.

The first year of fare integration: assessment of the results
Actions such as the introduction of the integrated fare system in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona improve the public's image of public transport and promote its use. This is confirmed by the good results obtained during this first year.
755.4 million journeys were made on public transport in 2001, through both integrated tickets and single-mode tickets. The existence of validation machines in most operators, particularly the integrated ones, made it possible to determine the number of journeys from the validations. This involved a change from the previous system, which calculated by sales of tickets, assigning a number of journeys to each ticket sold regardless of the real consumption.

The transformation of tickets sold into journeys in order to compare their evolution in recent years gives a figure of 800.3 million journeys, 6.9% more than in 2000; the most important fact, however, is that this increase has varied by 135% in the last year. (Refer to page no. 30)

In the Fare System project, the number of journeys was expected to increase by 58.2 million, whereas in fact the increase was 51.8 million. The degree of fulfilment was thus 89%, which is extremely high considering that the different operators have joined the new fare system progressively, culminating in the first few months of 2002 with the incorporation of all the services of RENFE local lines, the last interurban buses and many of the urban services.

The percentage of use of the integrated tickets, i.e. the proportion of all journeys made with integrated tickets, was 60%. The ten-journey card is still the most common one among public transport users. However, there has been a great change in its rate of use during the last three years, from 64% in 1998 to 44% this year.

This is a clear demonstration of how the tickets are adapted to the needs of the users: population segments that formerly used the ten-journey card because they were loyal and frequent travellers on public transport are now tending to buy tickets that offer economic benefits adapted to their mobility characteristics, such as T-50/30 or T-Mes. (Refer to page no. 31)

Almost 203.93 M euros was obtained from the sales of integrated tickets. This figure represents more than half the income from the whole collective public transport system, which was 397.173 M euros, and shows an increase of 3.4% over 2000.
The new fare integration system has met with great satisfaction among the users, and in its first year it has also led to a considerable increase in intermodality, from 8.3% in 2000 to 18.7% in 2001. For integrated tickets, the proportion is about 30%, i.e. three out of every ten journeys with integrated tickets are made with more than one mode of transport.

Conclusions
In just over a year since the Integrated Fare System was introduced, the excellent results show that the new system has been consolidated. There are, however, some more complex aspects that for the time being have not been fully resolved.
Work is currently being done in the following areas: greater automation in data transmission to the fare integration administration system in order to make it as reliable and accurate as possible; coordination of all the administrations and operators in order to establish measures to avoid fraud in public transport; and improvement of the transmission of information on the intermodal chains from the bits incorporated in the tickets.

The next step will be the introduction of electronic technology in transport tickets to make the validation process faster for the users and to obtain more information on the mobility habits of the public, in order to identify their needs more accurately.

With this aim, work is being done in all the areas related to public transport. It is being promoted through policies such as fare integration, offering further services and extending the networks, in order to achieve an efficient public transport system that meets with a high degree of customer satisfaction.

The results of the first year of fare integration, together with the increase in the offer of public transport that will be brought about by the actions laid down in the recently approved Master Plan of Infrastructures 2001-2010 and those proposed in the Transport Services Plan, suggest that if there are no structural changes in mobility habits or serious economic crises, in five years we may reach almost one thousand million journeys in the collective public transport network of the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona.

Page 32
The MPI 2001-2010, a consensus-based response to the infrastructure needs of PUBLIC TRANSPORT
by Jordi Prat technical director of the metropolitan transport authority

One of the responsibilities of the Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA), as the coordinating body of collective public transport (CPT) in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona, is the planning and programming of infrastructures. This responsibility led to the drafting of the Master Plan of Collective Public Transport Infrastructures 2001-2010 (MPI), which deals with the infrastructure needs in this area in the short and medium term. The definitive version of this plan was approved on 25 April 2002 by the Executive Board of the MTA. This article describes the main objectives and characteristics of the plan, and how it was drafted; it then presents a general diagnosis of the metropolitan transport system, followed by the guidelines of the new Plan, with the programmes of action of the MPI and the provisions for funding. The article ends with a few final comments.

The role, objectives and characteristics of the MPI
To fulfil its basic function of coordinating collective public transport in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona (RMB), the MTA is currently drafting or preparing four types of instruments:

o Planning and programming of infrastructures: the Master Plan of Infrastructures 2001-2010.
o Planning and coordination of services: the Plan of Collective Public Transport Services (currently being drafted; the first version is planned for July 2002).
o Definition and coordination of fares: the Fares Integration Plan (which has been introduced progressively since January 2001).
o Management of mobility: the Metropolitan Mobility Plan (in preparation).
Within this set of instruments of transport policy, the MPI 2001-2010 is the result of a consensus among the authorities responsible for transport in order to respond to the infrastructure needs of public transport in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona in the short and medium term. This diagnosis of the problems and the proposal of programmes of action to respond to them are based on the desire for consensus among the authorities that form part of the MTA. Within its period of validity the MPI thus aims to reflect the main actions presented by these authorities, within a long-term vision of transport networks based on the available resources.
The objectives of the Master Plan of Collective Public Transport Infrastructures 2001-2010 are the following:
o To significantly increase the number of journeys in CPT and to increase the use of public transport in comparison with that of private vehicles in all areas of the MRB (within the central city, in access to the city, in connections between the metropolitan polarities, etc.) through a policy of large volume supply.
o To ensure that the availability of CPT with a fixed infrastructure is not a limiting factor to the functioning of the metropolitan area, to the introduction of activities in the MRB or to the international competitiveness of Barcelona.
o To guarantee the highest economic and social efficacy of public investments in the metropolitan transport system by means of integral planning and by adapting the modes of transport to the foreseen demand.
o To undertake a series of shock actions that indicate the clear intention of the administrations to promote public transport in the metropolitan region.

The MPI 2001-2010 has a series of basic characteristics :
a) In accordance with its name, it is a plan of infrastructures of collective public transport, and therefore mainly deals with railways (though the large infrastructures associated with road passenger transport such as bus stations and dissuasive parking are also included). Therefore, due to the large capacity of railway infrastructures, the MPI focuses on meeting the need for high volume daily mobility.

b) As stated at the beginning of this point, the MPI 2001-2010 will be complemented with the Services Plan, which will establish the characteristics (frequency, timetables, itinerary, etc.) of the CPT service offered by each mode of transport and, particularly in the case of interurban buses, their coordination with the rail services and their adaptation to mobility flows of a lower volume.

c) The MPI is an integral plan, in the sense that both in the diagnosis of the problems and in the actions proposed (in this case only partially) it considers all the existing and planned rail networks in the metropolitan region (Metro, FGC, state railways, high-speed train), and even introduces a new one: the tram. However it is also an integrating plan that fosters the physical integration of the different networks of CPT with each other and with private vehicles through the creation of new interchangers and the improvement of the existing ones.

d) The MPI treats the whole MRB with the same general criteria in proposing CPT for the mobility flows, but the situation across the region varies greatly. Because of the difference in housing density and activity between the central agglomeration and the rest of the region, the proposals of the Plan are concentrated in the central area of the MRB, where the mobility flows are greater.

e) The MPI was conceived as a flexible, sliding Plan to be developed in five-year programmes that form the basis of the funding agreements between the Generalitat and the General State Administration. It will be monitored on two time scales by means of:
o An annual report indicating the degree of completion of the actions laid down in the MPI and contrasting them with the evolution of the population and of private vehicle/public transport mobility in the different geographic areas.
o A five-yearly review of fulfilment of the programme of actions and of the forecasts of residential location, activity and large centres of attraction/generation of journeys and the mobility that they generate. This will be used to define the new five-year programme, including any new infrastructures that are considered necessary.

The drafting of the plan
The process designed for drafting the plan, which is shown in the attached chart, was divided into four sequential stages:
a) Gathering and processing information. The earlier figures and the basic information from the administrations and operators were used to obtain an initial overview of the state of the metropolitan CPT system.
b) Drafting the Diagnosis of the system and guidelines for the MPI, a document which was informed and approved by the authorities and operators.
c) Gathering proposals of action in infrastructures and priorities by means of the Methodology of assessment of investments in collective public transport, which was also informed and approved.
d) The drafting of the proposal for the MPI, incorporating the Diagnosis and the revised Guidelines, the programmes of action and the corresponding economic and financial study.

The proposal for the MPI was initially approved by the Executive Board of the MTA on 14 May 2001. During the period of public and institutional information, 88 allegations were presented. These were assessed and a proposal of modifications and incorporations to the MPI was initially approved. The definitive version of the MPI 2001-2010, with these corrections and modifications, was approved on 25 April of this year.

General diagnosis
From the analysis of the metropolitan regional framework, the demographic and socio-economic situation, current mobility, forecasts of mobility in 2010, and a comparison with the current public transport services, the MPI established a general diagnosis of the situation and the perspectives of the metropolitan public transport system. It showed the following characteristics:
Expansion of the population over the region and sustained growth of metropolitan public transport system. It showed the following characteristics:

Expansion of the population over the region and sustained growth of metropolitan mobility
In 1999, the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona had 4,301,721 inhabitants, 0.88% more than in 1991. In 1996 it had 1,525,090 jobs, 3.9% fewer than in 1991. At present, the economy is in a phase of expansion and the highest employment rates for many years are being reached.

The population has started a process of regional expansion. The metropolitan centre is extending its influence over an increasingly large area, in which the growth in land occupation is far higher than the increase in population.
The location of jobs and services has not gone hand in hand with this residential expansion, which explains the sustained increase in mobility. This mobility clearly adopts a converging radial structure, in which for journeys to work the city of Barcelona has a capacity of attraction that is more than twice as high as its capacity of generation.

Motorisation has increased at a rate of 2.8% per year, and in 1998 it reached 425 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, with significant peaks in certain zones. Furthermore, construction is increasing at a rate of 22,500 new dwellings per year. The urban growth has been mainly in the outer zone of the agglomeration, and in particular in the second ring.

Linked to this phenomenon, there has been an overall increase in the mobility of the population. Though in the intramunicipal area it has fallen, in the intermunicipal area it increased by 16.1% between 1991 and 1996. As in the great majority of European metropolitan areas, the average number of journeys made by each person per day is increasing. Alongside the stabilisation of the volume of forced mobility, there has been an increase in the number of journeys for other purposes.

An important role in this increase in mobility has been played by the evolution of behaviour patterns: the increase in free time at weekends and holiday periods, the extension of the working timetable, the increase in multiple jobholding, etc.
Furthermore, there has been an obvious decentralisation of economic activity, especially industry. However, Barcelona and its more immediate area of influence still have a far higher capacity to attract business than housing, and Barcelona and its immediate area increasingly form the main service centre not only of the MRB, but of the whole of Catalonia.

The consequence of this has been not only an increase in the number of journeys between municipalities, but an increase in the length of journeys. The population is being distributed at an increasing distance from the centre.
The future development of mobility seems to lead towards a reinforcement of radial journeys, continuing with the current trend of development of the outer strip of the agglomeration and the second ring, and also towards an increase in the decentralisation of work, which would lead to an increase in flows of attraction towards this second ring. Perimetral mobility is also growing, but is still relatively less important.

Private vehicles and public transport: an unequal evolution that varies according to the area
The driving force of the redistribution of the population over the region has been the private vehicle. Despite the increase in demand for public transport, it has considerably increased its market share as a mode of transport. Whereas the number of intermunicipal journeys for reasons of work on public transport has increased by a third in the last fifteen years, the number of similar journeys in private vehicles has almost tripled. In this period, the number of intermunicipal journeys on public transport has fallen from 50.2% of the total in 1981 to only 27.3% in 1996.

The regional redistribution of the population and jobs in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona has had a dual effect:
1. It has reinforced the second ring and the secondary poles. There is a tendency towards a multipolar urban mesh, which will provide a greater integration of the region and a better distribution of metropolitan services.

2. The increasingly diffuse urban development makes it difficult to provide services to the public, including public transport.
A factor that contributes to this difficulty of covering the region is the fact that the different means of collective public transport in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona do not function fully as a single system, because of the heterogeneity of the operators (public companies and private operators, and among the latter various types ranging from firms with guaranteed deficits to ones that are complete capital ventures) and the differences in the volume of business, whether measured in number of passengers or in income.

However, more important still than the heterogeneity of the operators is the insufficient integration of the different modes. Firstly, there is a lack of physical integration, because the number of points of correspondence between different modes is insufficient, and also because interchange is penalised in many cases due to the length of the corridors, stairs without escalators, lack of information, etc. Secondly, the services are not sufficiently integrated due to lack of coordination of timetables. Finally, the operators of municipal CPT services do not have a single corporate image. All of this has been compensated by fare integration. The progressive application of the new integrated fare system, especially as of 2001 with the incorporation of all the interurban operators (RENFE local lines, road transport companies) and many of the urban operators of the towns in the second ring, has resolved these shortcomings.

The rail infrastructures offer a capacity that can be considered sufficient in general, but there are some very serious bottlenecks due to overlapping of services of different types on the same infrastructure, such as the Sants tunnel and Plaça Catalunya (RENFE), the tunnel of Carrer Balmes (FGC) and the section from Sants to Castelldefels (RENFE).

The road network, which is the major infrastructure of surface CPT, is saturated in rush hours and does not allow competitive commercial speeds, especially on the routes into the central agglomeration.

Finally, potential access to public transport in the different metropolitan areas is unequal. There are considerable differences in the regional cover of the rail and road modes (the latter are more extensive), in the volume of transport services, in the facility of modal exchange and in the commercial speed of the different modes of transport. Though a large part of this inequality, which is translated into greatly differing percentages of use of public transport according to areas, is due to the different densities of housing and economic activity, future development should tend towards a regional homogenisation of the available CPT.

Guidelines of the MPI 2001-2010
The main guidelines and proposals of action that are defined for the MPI 2001-2010, based on the objectives and the situation described, are the following:

1. Completion and rationalisation of the central rail network (Metro/FGC/RENFE)
o Establishment of a new perimeter line, L9, which will cover zones without service in the North Barcelonès and the corridor L'HospitaletZona FrancaAirport, and will reinforce the network effect by connecting with all existing rail lines through powerful interchangers.
o Prolongation of the ends of Metro lines to zones of high density.
o Penetration of the LlobregatAnoia line of FGC towards the centre of Barcelona to connect with the Barcelona-Vallès Line.
o Reorganisation and improvement of the local services of RENFE, taking advantage of the remodelling of Sants station and the new SantsSagrera tunnel created by the introduction of the high speed line and the UIC gauge.

2. Extension and improvement of the local rail network
o Double lines or supplementary lines where necessary (Baix Llobregat, Maresme Nord), in order to obtain the necessary capacity or permit the introduction of semi-direct services for long distance communications.
o Taking advantage of the surplus rail network (or lines that require small modifications) to introduce new services.
o Extensions and/or new stations to meet new demand and to achieve the network effect (Maresme, Sabadell, Terrassa, etc.).
o Increasing capacity to the limit by improving the control and signalling systems, extending platforms, double-decker rolling stock, etc.
o Completing the local system in the metropolitan areas that are insufficiently covered by the rail network (the corridor Sant BoiCastelldefels connected to Barcelona, the line PenedèsVallèsinterior through the corridor El PapiolMollet, etc.).
o Reorganisation of all the lines of the north entrance to Barcelona to gain access to Sagrera central station.

3. Establishment of a tram network in corridors of intermediate demand
o Development of this new mode of transport to connect the Baix Llobregat and the Besòs to Barcelona along Avinguda Diagonal in the future.
o It will run above ground (except at particularly problematic points) and will be carefully inserted in the urban fabric to achieve a distribution of the road surface that is more favourable to CPT and to pedestrians.

4. Creation of new interchangers and improvement of existing ones
o An increase in the network effect:
In addition to the introduction of the new L9, with fifteen interchangers:
- Introduction of the Central Interchanger in Barcelona (on Passeig de Gràcia between Ronda Universitat and Gran Via) that connects L3 to L4 and the FGC to L1 and RENFE local lines in the south, and to L2 in the north.
- The new La Torrassa interchanger in L'Hospitalet of Llobregat, with connection of L9 to L1 and the three RENFE lines (Vilafranca, Vilanova and the Airport).
- Reinforcement of the large intermodal centres of Sants and Sagrera (high-speed train, RENFE and Metro), each with bus stations, and improvement of the connection of Estació del Nord to the Metro and RENFE.
o A more complementary relationship between CPT and private vehicles
- Plan of dissuasive car parks linked to RENFE and FGC stations.

5. Modernisation and improvement of the existent network
o Infrastructural improvements in the quality of service through renovation of stations and rolling stock, and in particular adaptation of platforms and halls to PRMs.
o Improvements in the exploitation of the service: safety devices, passing lines, reversible working lines, etc.
The proposals of the Master Plan of Infrastructures 2001-2010 are divided into four programmes of action: extension of the network, modernisation and improvement of the network, interchangers, and actions on the state rail network (as a proposal to the Spanish government that was not agreed within the MTA). The details of the actions can be seen in the attached table and map. (Refer to pages no. 37-39)

Funding of the MPI 2001-2010
The Master Plan of Infrastructures 2001-2010 deals mainly with investments to improve and extend the rail networks, but fails to deal with the deficits caused by the production of these networks.

The total investments, including those referring to the state rail network, come to approximately 7,295.746 M euros for the whole period 2001-2010. The funding of the investments in the state rail network, estimated at 1,160.134 M euros, is almost wholly provided by the Ministry of Public Works (AGE), complemented in some actions by the Railway Infrastructure Management Entity (GIF) and RENFE.

The rest of the investments have sundry funding channels, according to their nature and according to who owns the networks (see the attached chart). (Refer to page no. 41)
Agreements for funding infrastructures for the extension of networks and infrastructural actions of improvement (1/3 State Administration, 2/3 Generalitat of Catalonia).

o Programme Contracts, with the participation of all the authorities, for investments to modernise and improve the existent network through improvements in the running of the service.
o Specific funding for trams, with a deferred contribution of capital by the Generalitat and compensation to the private franchisee according to the cost coverage rate plus investment.
o Specific funding for Line 9 and the Sarrià-Castelldefels line, which is to be defined by the Generalitat of Catalonia.
o Renting or similar operations for the acquisition of rolling stock.

The importance of the actions defined in the MPI 2001-2010 is clear: its implementation will affect nearly 40% of the existent rail network and will add decisive new elements to the transport system such as Line 9 or the new tram network. However, in these final comments I should like to stress other aspects that are more closely linked to the process of planning and decision-making in the field of the transport.
o Firstly, institutional concertation has played an irreplaceable role in this process. Only with the desire for understanding of the authorities responsible for public transport (the Generalitat, Barcelona City Council, the Metropolitan Transport Entity and the Ministry of Public Works) and the existence of an institutional framework of agreement such as the MTA could it have been possible to establish the MPI with its investment commitments.
o Furthermore, the planning of infrastructures is only part of the general improvement of the public transport system. Progress must also be made in physical integration and integration of the timetables of the different modes of transport (fare integration has now been completed, with the exception of a few urban services) and, particularly in the planning and coordination of transport services. In this aspect, the involvement of both public and private transport operators is essential in order to ensure that the public receive a good quality of service.
o In the planning process, there have been two important elements that have made it more objectifiable and consensus-based. The first element was the diagnosis of the metropolitan transport system, which detected its main problems, their causes and their likely evolution, and was accepted as realistic by the most relevant actors of the sector. The second was the use of a single methodology, also agreed by consensus, in order to make a comparative assessment of the different transport actions that had to be included in the MPI (and also the proposals contained in the allegations that were presented). From now on, a third essential element must be included in the planning process: the monitoring of the execution of the MPI by means of annual reports and a five-year revision.
o Finally, a note on the limits of promoting public transport. In the mobility market, public t

ransport competes with a very powerful adversary, the private vehicle, which has a great economic and media power. Any sustainable transport policy that wishes to promote the role of public transport must necessarily widen its field of action to incorporate measures of mobility management that involve restrictions to the indiscriminate use of private vehicles for any type of journey. This change of approach will require the corresponding adaptation of the institutions responsible for the current policies.

Page 44
THE PROGRAMME CONTRACTS
by Emilio López Bailón
managing director of transports metropolitans de barcelona

Four-yearly programme contracts are the economic and financial instrument by means of which the authorities recognise and implement the commitments arising from their political decisions on public transport. They are aimed at subsidising users and are channelled through the operating companies.

The public transport service applies political prices that are determined by the competent authorities. The operating companies thus have two clearly differentiated sources of income:
o The fares or the political price paid by the users of the service.
o The difference between this fare or political price and the real cost of the service, which must be paid by the authority that establishes the price.
The philosophy behind the programme contracts is therefore simply that, through its fiscal policy, the authorities pay the part of the cost of public transport that is not borne by the users.
In accordance with this, the programme contracts have three basic sections in their economic and financial formulation:
o Current expenditure
o Investments
o Replacements

The current expenditure must meet the expenses generated by the daily activity: fuel, energy, insurance, manpower, etc.
By their nature, the programme contracts must provide for a monthly flow to meet these payments.
Investments to achieve increases in quantity (purchase of more buses or more trains) and increases in quality (e.g. installing air conditioning in buses or trains that do not have it) mean that the authorities must provide capital.

This is because the political price does not allow the operating companies to generate a financial surplus to meet new investments: It must be remembered that the reference price is the strict cost price with no profit margin.
The programme contracts must account for this situation, and in fact they do so.

Finally, in the replacement of obsolete elements (buses and trains), there is also a difference between the amortisation of the obsolete good that is reflected in the reference price and the replacement cost of the good at current value.

This difference may be very great, because the periods of amortisation of transport elements range from 12 to 30 years.
The commitments of the operating companies with the authorities with regard to the correct administration and efficient management of the contract is measured by the cost coverage ratio, i.e. the relation between the income obtained by the companies (through sales of tickets and other concepts) and all the running costs.

In the case of Barcelona, the real cost coverage ratio achieved in the Programme Contract that was in force until 31/12/01 was 79.3%, compared with the forecast of 78.1%.
In fact, in most European cities this ratio is only about 50%, and in many cases it is lower.

The programme contracts increasingly include clauses on quality commitments by the companies referring to fulfilment of timetables, cleaning, security functioning of lifts, escalators, attention to users, etc.

In Spain we thus use programme contracts of the "results" type, unlike other countries or cities that have introduced those of a "cost" type, i.e. they subsidise the number of kilometres covered instead of the number of passengers transported.
The practice of establishing the relations between the companies and the authorities now has a history of twelve years in Spain. In this period the legal instruments have been honed and improved, and the responsibilities and roles that each party was to assume have been defined.

In the rest of Europe, this practice is exceptional, and either the authorities directly accept the deficits that arise or, in the best cases, an annual budget is paid with no commitment on how the companies should manage direct income.
In addition to the standard indicators of company management, the public transport companies of the large Spanish cities -in particular Madrid and Barcelona- have a long experience of contractual bargaining with the authorities. This places them on a good footing to deal with this economic framework.

After an initial attempt to establish a Programme Contract for Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona in 1986, which did not materialise, the first one that came into effect covered the period 1990-93.
This Programme Contract introduced important elements such as considering the effort that needs to be made by the operating companies to obtain more passengers, and it established the important principle of formalising the relations between the companies and the authorities through contracts.

However, the specific content of the contract was largely based on good will rather than regulations and specific details, and it fell far short of identifying the three basic sections explained at the beginning of this text.
The contributions to be made by the authorities were quantified by annual amounts, but no schedules were specified in a period in which the interest rate was about 18% per year. Nor did the contract define the application of these payments or the acceptance of financial costs.

The economic and financial results were far from positive. The uncertainties mentioned above led to an accumulation of negative results added to those previous to the Contract. A great effort of good will had to be made, but there was a long way to go.
Finally, the most important aspect was that the Generalitat of Catalonia was not involved in the daily problems of transport. We will speak of its role in the recent history of transport below.

The second Contract-Programme was for a three-year period, 1995-97. In 1994 it was given a new form that incorporated the three basic ideas mentioned above, and provided the solution to the financial problems that had been generated in the course of decades without clearly defined commitments and planned solutions. Other problems that were peripheral but of great economic and financial importance, such as the pensions of the Metro staff, were included in the Programme Contract in order to give them a clear solution.

Finally, the Generalitat of Catalonia also signed the Programme Contract for the first time.
The objectives that the authorities and companies had conceived were established and fulfilled for the first time.
Regular flows of funding were established to meet current expenditure; the investments had a specific funding programme and the differences due to replacement of obsolete material were laid down in the Contract. The financial debt was renegotiated on a long-term basis with a specific programme of amortisation, and the same was done with the commitments on pensions.
This second Contract-Programme proved to be an excellent instrument of management that made it possible to structure the historic problems that had been generated in the companies and to provide a reasonable solution for them.
The excellence of this model, which was devised between Barcelona (the City Council and TMB) and the Ministry of Economy and Inland Revenue of the Government in Madrid, served as a model for contracts with other companies and for the basic aspects for the future.

It also provided for the creation of the Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA).
The third Contract-Programme 1998-2001 was signed in two stages: the first (14.12.99), between the MTA and the local authorities, the Generalitat of Catalonia and the General State Administration; the second (27.04.00), between the MTA and TMB.
Because of the respective dates of the signing, the real validity of the Contract was 1999-2001. The situation of the 1995-97 Contract Programme was repeated.

The economic and financial content was essentially the same as in the previous Contract Programme, with commitments for TMB on functioning of the facilities and commitments of quality of service in both the Metro and the buses.
Comparative tables were including showing what had been laid down in the Contract Programme and the real achievements, with regard to both economic results and commitments of service and quality.

The new feature in this Contract was the creation and putting into operation of the MTA.
The MTA is a voluntary consortium created by the Generalitat of Catalonia (51%), Barcelona City Council (25%) and the Metropolitan Transport Entity (24%), to which other municipalities of the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona (MRB) may adhere. The State has the status of an observer.

Its main aim is to plan transport in the MRB and to establish the fare policy.
The local authorities and TMB had been calling for its creation for many years, aware of the need for a forum with the participation of the Generalitat in planning, decision making and accepting responsibilities with regard to the complex world of urban transport in a society that -legitimately- is increasingly demanding and has increasing mobility needs.
Only public transport can make this mobility sustainable, in close collaboration with urban planning and the construction and funding of transport networks.
It is a difficult and expensive challenge, but I think we are on the right track if the plans are fulfilled and the historic shortcomings are overcome.

Page 48
A dynamic process, full of challenges
and opportunities for the future
by Pelayo Martínez Bauluz
manager of the metropolitan transport entity

The first question we ask is: what do we consider to be the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona? Are we talking about the small area of the municipalities of the Metropolitan Transport Entity (MTE) or the area of 35 municipalities which is currently being considered in the Strategic Metropolitan Plan? Or are we referring to the seven counties that form the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona, the current area of action of the Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA)?

In the regional debate, a distinction is usually made between the region and the metropolitan area. The area is the central area of the region, a very dense and compact urban continuum. The metropolitan area, which has no formal demarcation, would be the central agglomeration of 600 square kilometres, equivalent in area and population to the municipality of Madrid, where over 80% of all mechanised journeys in the metropolitan region are made.

A political consensus on the metropolitan regional organisation has not yet been reached. It is clear that the county division is not functional at a metropolitan level and that there is a need for a supramunicipal organisation to regulate and promote town planning and services that need common management. However, to what extent is a strong, strictly local metropolitan body representing over 70% of the GDP of Catalonia politically feasible? The answer is not simple. It will probably require appropriate political circumstances to create a pact between the regional and local authorities on the regional planning of Catalonia, and in particular that of the metropolitan area of Barcelona.

Nevertheless, progress has been made in the field of transport. The creation in 1997 of the MTA, a consortium composed of the Generalitat, Barcelona City Council and the MTE, represented the forming of a platform of concertation between the regional and local authorities that made it possible to carry out major initiatives in transport policy, such as fare integration and the Master Plan of Infrastructures (MPI).

The role of the MTE, a supramunicipal local organisation that owns the bus services and runs the metro services, is still pending. If it is decided to maintain the MTE, it will be absolutely necessary to come to an agreement with the MTA on the specific functions of the two authorities in the regional area of the MTE. If, on the other hand, it is decided to absorb the MTE within the MTA, four basic questions must be resolved: the rates surcharge for transport; the shareholding and therefore the ownership of Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona, currently belonging to the MTE; the political representation within the MTA of the seventeen municipalities that together with Barcelona form the MTE; and the competences with regard to the metropolitan taxi service.

Returning to the metropolitan regional question, the local authorities very often mention the need to institutionalise as a specific area of local management what is known as the first metropolitan ring, or the central agglomeration, in order to reinforce the mechanisms of intermunicipal cooperation in this city of cities. This desire, which is repeatedly expressed by the municipalities, must be integrated in a wider debate on the design of the metropolitan organisation, taking into account all the authorities involved. It seems that the solution must be found through a new Regional Planning Law that decentralises the Generalitat and allows services to be administered more locally.

From the organisational viewpoint, metropolitan public transport has gone through three periods. The first, with the creation in 1975 of the Metropolitan Corporation of Barcelona (MCB), made it possible to declare that intermunicipal road transport within the 27 municipalities of the supramunicipal body was of metropolitan interest, and was therefore the responsibility of the MCB. The second period began with the dismantling of the MCB and the creation of the MTE covering a smaller area. In this period the urban transport of the eighteen municipalities of the MTE was metropolitanised, as were the municipal companies Transports de Barcelona, S.A. and Ferrocarril Metropolità de Barcelona, S.A. The third period began with the creation of the MTA as a consortium of the Generalitat, Barcelona City Council and the MTE. This body, on which the Generalitat has a majority vote, was completely necessary in order to reach an agreement on competences and funding. Another question that has already been mentioned is that when this consortium was created it failed to redefine and clarify the role of the MTE. This is probably a direction in which more work must be done. I think that it would not be advantageous for anyone to maintain the current level of uncertainty, and that if it was decided to incorporate the MTE integrally in the MTA, it could provide important experience in planning, administration and management of transport services and a profound knowledge of the needs of transport in the eighteen municipalities of its area. Another possibility, as stated above, is to maintain the MTE and to agree with the MTA the functions and mechanisms of collaboration of the two authorities. Whatever the case, the final design will depend on the regional organisation structure that is adopted in the future by the Generalitat, in which I feel the role of the provincial councils must be considered.
As can be seen, the topic is complex, and the fundamental problem lies in finding a suitable balance between regional power and local sensitivity. Perhaps the time has come for the Generalitat to govern with an approach closer to subsidiarity.

Another question of concern to those of us who work in the field of mobility and transport is the absence of operative instruments at a metropolitan level for planning and organising mobility as a whole. The MTA and the MTE are bodies that act exclusively in the field of collective transport without intervening in private transport, which of course has an increasing share in the modal distribution of mobility. It is therefore completely necessary to set up legislative initiatives that link town planning with mobility so that action can be taken simultaneously on public and private transport. In the medium term it will not be sufficient to improve public transport in order to achieve a sustainable development of mobility. Initiatives must be taken towards regulating the use of private transport through a great variety of measures, which may at times be controversial.

These initiatives include measures such as limiting the road space for private vehicles in central zones and certain accesses, applying urban tolls for the circulation of vehicles in the city centre, which is well provided with public transport, and limiting parking spaces for non-residents. All these measures must be developed together with the quantitative and qualitative improvement of public transport. Most of them depend on the municipalities, but because they are effective in the whole metropolitan area, a coordinated supramunicipal project is essential. The problem of traffic in Barcelona municipality is more a consequence of intermunicipal journeys than of internal ones.

As stated above, in order to meet the challenge of sustainable mobility, it will be necessary to centralise in a single body the policies of transport infrastructures, regulation of private traffic, parking and promoting public transport. I am not unaware of the practical difficulties involved in this project. So many pieces must be arranged and so many actors must reach an agreement that the right political moment will probably never be found. It is also clear that a project of such scope needs clear political leadership in order to be viable.

Despite all the difficulties, I think that this is the direction that we must take as quickly as possible. Too much is at stake -the future development of mobility in this Mediterranean metropolis will depend on the path that is taken. Progress must be made through decisions that may involve major legislative and organisational changes. We have reached a point at which our instruments and methodology are outdated and are insufficient to deal with the growth in mobility; the discourse in favour of public transport is no longer sufficient; clear action must be taken on the relation between town planning and mobility; and far greater funding must be assigned to public transport than at present.

One does not need to be an expert to be aware of the quantitative and qualitative shortcomings of public transport, particularly in the first and second metropolitan ring. The available figures on modal distribution of mobility are already fairly illustrative, showing with great clarity that the car is becoming the main means of transport used for medium and long metropolitan journeys. The growth in mobility is exponential, and no one questions the fact that this is the result of economic and regional growth and of changes in the habits and rhythms of life of the citizens. We may die of success if we are not able to regulate and rationalise this phenomenon, and to make it sustainable.

Public transport in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona must grow considerably, because it is far behind that of other urban agglomerations. It is true that the MPI is at the approval state and that when introduced it will lead to a partial recovery of the deficit in infrastructures. But it is far from clear how it will be funded. We must seek more resources and new formulas for funding both current expenditure and investments in rolling stock and infrastructures.

The current model of public transport funding is based on two instruments. The Programme Contract (PC) to fund the services, and the Infrastructures Agreement (IA) to fund the new transport infrastructures.

The Programme Contract for the period 2002-2005, which is currently being negotiated, is an instrument for the funding of public transport services run by public and private operators. Through it the three levels of government -the state (the Central State Administration), the autonomous government (the Generalitat) and the local government (Barcelona City Council and MTE)- provide certain percentages from their budgets to fund the operating deficits. This approach involves an agreement between all these authorities every four years, and of course the agreement depends greatly on the political situation. It is therefore a funding model that is subject to variation and that is not related to the production of goods and services by the metropolitan system or its real needs for service. In the medium term this model should be changed towards one based on a Metropolitan Transport Funding Law that provides funds to guarantee the financial autonomy and sufficiency of the metropolitan public transport system. The redefinition of the rates surcharge, participation in the special fuel tax, motor vehicle registration tax and road tax, the application of urban tolls, the increase in prices of parking -all of these could be considered as sources of funding. It seems more than reasonable that part of the funds needed by public transport should come from taxes associated with ownership and use of private vehicles.

Everything indicates that the need for public funding of transport services will be increasingly great. The tendency is that the percentage that users contribute to the funding of the service will decrease in real terms as a consequence of the fare policy and the evolution of operating costs.

Furthermore, if one wishes to improve the market share of collective transport in comparison with private vehicles, major improvements still have to be made in the quantity and quality of public transport, particularly in the first and second metropolitan ring, and this of course involves greater public expenditure.

In the field of new metropolitan transport infrastructures, the MPI is an important step forward. Its funding must now be specified in order to give it a proper schedule. The annualised investment that is required in order to carry out the planned extensions to the networks that are the responsibility of the autonomous government -the Metro and Ferrrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC)- must stem from the commitments in the Infrastructures Agreement, currently pending approval, which establishes the contributions of the Generalitat and the State as 2/3 and 1/3 respectively. The previsions laid down in the MPI will require far higher annual investments than have previously been given, which is not simple to achieve in a scenario of zero deficit in the public administration. This is why new funding formulas are being developed, as in Line 9 of the Metro and the licences to build and run tramway lines. However, these projects involving deferred payment of investments fail to solve the basic problem.

There is a clear perception that the current funding model of metropolitan transport, services and infrastructures fails to ensure sufficient funding in the short and medium term. This is why one must move rapidly towards a Law on Transport Funding.

The opening of the market
The appearance of the single European market in public transport and the need for modernisation in order to deal with environmental problems and traffic congestion are leading to a revision of the current community regulations to favour operators, authorities and the general public.

The starting point for the proposals being made by the European Communities Commission is the introduction of "controlled competition" as against other instruments of public transport regulation such as deregulation, a situation in which there are no exclusive rights, or closed markets, in which transport operators have protected exclusive rights and never face competition from other firms.

The studies carried out for the Commission, and in particular the research report ISOTOPE 1, reached the conclusion that with controlled competition, in which exclusive rights are held for established periods and are awarded by competition, one can obtain more attractive services with lower costs. The report considered that deregulated services were unattractive (the case of Britain) because there were no exclusive rights, so the service was unstable and the level of integration was low. Closed markets were attractive for passengers but the price was higher.

The fact that society demands an affordable service of a higher level than that which the market can offer means that public funding is essential in public transport. Exclusive rights are also very widespread in the public transport sector. From this it may be deduced that access to the public transport market depends, in fact, on access to public funding and exclusive rights, and in order to avoid excessive compensation one must, as the Commission suggests, introduce stricter conditions in the procedures for awarding public funding. In particular, the use of public and non-discriminatory equitable procedures ensures that the level of aid is as low as possible.

The Regulation proposed by the Commission is based, as stated above, on the principle of controlled competition. This is an approach based on the experience acquired in the member states. (Later in this article we will see the experience that MTE has had in this field in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona.) It also takes into account the recommendations of the political and legal analysis that the Commission requested from the consortium head by NEA Transport Research and Training, which supported the idea that controlled competition was an effective method for fostering efficiency and making public transport attractive.

The proposed Regulation, which is pending approval, will have a clear impact on operations and on relations with the competent authority for transport in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona. I will deal with the most important aspects of this impact below.

As a general rule, the Regulation of the Commission establishes competitive tender as the method for awarding public transport service contracts, though in certain circumstances it allows direct, non-competitive awarding: in conventional railways, for reasons of security or in cases in which the annual value of the contract is lower than one million euros; in the Metro and the Light Railway, if it can be demonstrated that direct awarding may achieve better results in the use of public funds and also if the value of the contract is below a certain amount; in buses, only if the annual value of the contract is less than one million euros.

Safety provisions are established for contracts awarded directly. According to these, the competent authorities must take their decisions to award directly in such a way that public debate is possible. Furthermore, the hypothetically competing companies may present alternative plans.

If the competent authorities provide the bus services themselves or through operators owned by them, the Regulation provides for a transition period of eight years, and the progressive elimination of such services need not begin for four years. After this period, the authorities may only continue to provide the services if no exclusive rights are granted. This means that other operators may offer additional services that are commercially viable to the citizens of the zone.
As can be seen, the European Commission clearly wishes to introduce controlled competition between operators through the awarding of exclusive rights through competitive tender. It wishes to avoid public transport services receiving financial compensation that has not been the result of a competition.

Another important question in the case of metropolitan areas is the management of the network, i.e. all activities other than providing public transport services to passengers that are necessary in order to form an integrated network. These are activities such as introducing general operating regulations, coordination and dissemination of information to real and potential users, coordination of timetables and services, integrated design and administration of the fare system, distribution of income between operators, security regulations, organisation of special services to meet specific and extraordinary demands, and supply of rolling stock. All these functions, which in metropolitan areas are of great importance and complexity, may be carried out by the authorities, and may be delegated to public-owned operators or other agencies; some or all of them may be included in contracts that are awarded in accordance with the tender procedure.

Another aspect that has been established in the Regulation is the duration of the contracts. Contracts that are too short or too long have certain disadvantages. Short contracts may lead to problems of continuity in the service, investments and stability of the personnel. Long contracts may clause a closing of the market for a longer period than is necessary, and may therefore threaten the benefits of competitive pressure. In normal circumstances the maximum period is eight years for buses and fifteen years for railways. The competent authorities thus have a margin for manoeuvre to adapt the duration of the contracts to the local circumstances.

It is also established that contracts may have provisions that protect the competent authorities and the passengers from an inadequate service provided by the operators. If necessary, incentives may be provided to the operators according to the fulfilment of certain quality objectives.

In the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, and more specifically in the area of the eighteen municipalities of the MTE, a strategy for transport operation consisting in introducing competition between companies to provide the bus service was introduced some time ago. It was considered appropriate to correct the tendency of concentrating the whole service in one public company, and to foster the appearance of new bus operators through competitive tender for the different services. This initiative, which now seems logic and natural, was at the time polemic because providing private companies with public funding was considered unacceptable. Public companies were subsidised companies, and all services that were not commercially viable were reserved for them. This approach would have left the private companies in the sector outside the metropolitan area, because the urban and suburban services of this area were not self-funding for obvious reasons of fares, level of occupation and commercial speed. This approach, which would not be understood today, corresponded to a time when there was little relation and great mistrust between the authorities and private companies. It was an intermediate period between a past of connivance and a present of collaboration.

The bus services that have been awarded through competitive tender include the night-time bus service, Nit Bus, of Barcelona and the remaining municipalities of the MTE; the services of the North Barcelonès, L'Hospitalet, the Baix Llobregat, and the Barcelona-Airport service, Aerobus. On the whole, measuring the services in parameters of supply, vehicles per kilometre or units in service, practically a third of the bus network has been awarded through competitive tender to different companies. In my opinion the experience has been positive, and progress has been made in a few years towards the initiative now being proposed by the European Commission in its Regulation.

Most of the awards by the MTE have been made following the interested management system, which is an indirect type of management in which the authorities and the company participate in the results of running the service.

The interested management contracts entered into by the MTE today bear little resemblance to those of the early 1980s. The first contracts were awarded through competitive tender on the price per km of service. With this approach, the only commitment made by the entrepreneur was to maintain the costs. A reduction in costs would be to the benefit of the entrepreneur, who would still receive the price laid down in the contract. With this type of contract it was in the entrepreneur's interest to minimise operating costs. This was also positive for the contracting authorities, but insufficient to achieve other objectives related to quality of service and commercial results.

To avoid these limitations, thanks to the flexibility provided by contracts of three to eight years the operators now make greater commitments. There has been a progressive introduction of cost risk and a commitment to an annual number of passengers. The operator thus agrees to gain new passengers for public transport, which is an important objective in any sustainable mobility policy. The contracts include commitments on the quality of service offered and the quality perceived by the user. There is a system of incentives and penalties related to meeting certain commercial objectives (increasing the number of users, managing extraordinary income) and quality of service. It is planned to modernise the technology of the service by incorporating new technical instruments to improve effectiveness and efficiency (a new system of validation and sales, systems to aid production and inform users, interconnection with the traffic control centre, etc.).

The incorporation of all these aspects in the new interested management contracts has transformed the relations with the operators. Instead of being a document of rights and duties, the contract is now a useful instrument of public transport policy. I think that this type of contract, which so far has been used for bus services, is also useful for other modes of public transport, regardless of who owns the operating company.

Concluding summary
As we have seen in the course of the present article, transport in the metropolitan area of Barcelona is undergoing a very dynamic process full of challenges and opportunities for the future. In conclusion, I will attempt to summarise from different viewpoints the most important questions that must be dealt with in the future in order to develop a sustainable mobility policy in a metropolitan Barcelona that is constantly subject to profound transformation:

o The Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, the city of cities, lacks its own instruments of government. This leads to great difficulties in attempting to establish strategies that are coherent with this metropolitan reality.
o The current county division is not functional in the metropolitan area. A new regional organisation of this area is required in the framework of a new regional planning law that takes into account the decentralisation of the Generalitat and the future role of the provincial councils.
o In the field of public transport the current institutional organisation must be redefined. The MTE was maintained when the MTA was set up, but the way in which they are complementary was not determined.
o An effective mobility policy requires the ability to act simultaneously on private transport, public transport and parking. At present all these disciplines are dealt with by different bodies.
o One must move towards incorporating compulsory and regulated analysis of impact on mobility in all urban development schemes of a certain importance. The possibility of a Mobility Law must be considered.
o The future funding needs of public transport, infrastructures and services are far greater than the funds that are currently available. A profound restructuring of the financial framework is thus required along the lines of a Transport Funding Law to seek new funds.
o Priority must be given to providing public transport in the first and second metropolitan ring, where private vehicle mobility is dominant and growing.
o The tramway projects that are underway should facilitate greater involvement of town councils and increased coordination with the bus network.
o The advantages and disadvantages of awarding the management of new rail services such as Line 9 of the metro and the new Castelldefels-Sarrià rail corridor to private operators must be carefully analysed. The financial situation may lead to decisions that have not been fully assessed in the medium and long term.
o The improvement of public transport is a necessary but not sufficient condition for achieving sustainable mobility. Measures must also be taken to dissuade the use of private vehicles.
o The approval of the European Regulation on procurement and awarding of public service contracts for passenger transport will open a door to competition and will limit the possibility of local authorities providing the service directly. The role of public operators in this new scenario must be redefined.
o In this new scenario, which opens the way for competition, greater participation of the private sector and internationalisation of companies, the authorities responsible for the services will gain importance as regulating bodies. They must therefore be provided with the necessary instruments to adapt to this new framework.

Page 58
Two centuries of collective transport at the service of Barcelona
by Marc Andreu journalist
co-author of the book 'la ciutat transportada' (tmb, barcelona, 1997)

The first regular stage coach service between Barcelona and Madrid was established in 1815, but the first omnibus lines between the capital of Catalonia and the surrounding towns was not established until the mid 19th century. In fact, coinciding with the opening of the first railway in Spain (the Barcelona-Mataró line), the first strictly urban collective transport began to operate in 1848: an omnibus line linking the Barceloneta railway station with the Rambla. Until the beginning of the 20th century, rented traps and carriages were the most common means of transport on the plain of Barcelona. The only limitations to transport were imposed by the poor state of the tracks and roads and -before their demolition in 1854- the city walls, which closed their gates at seven in the evening.

With the beginning of the urban development of the Eixample (expansion area) designed by Ildefons Cerdà, in 1859, the road conditions for carriages and omnibuses began to improve. In the same year the Companyia Central Barcelonesa was founded and opened an omnibus line between Barcelona and Gràcia, and a year later Catalana Graciense was founded. In 1876 the City Council established the routes that omnibuses had to follow within the city. Around 1882 there were 120 omnibuses in Barcelona, some of them offering special services to the baths of the Barceloneta (the journey cost twelve centimes), to the cemeteries, to the bullrings (25 centimes) and to the hippodrome in Can Tunis (one peseta). As with the early trams, these fares could not be afforded by the working class, who normally travelled on foot. The less wealthy families only allowed themselves a treat on Sundays, when they rented a trap to go out into the country.

The first train
The first railway in Spain was opened on 28 October 1848 between Barcelona and Mataró. It was promoted, with the aid of British capital, by Miquel Biada, a merchant from Mataró who had made his fortune in Cuba. According to popular legend he had seen railways in Cuba, and he decided to build a railway when in 1843 he failed to obtain a seat in the carriage from Mataró to Barcelona. At that time this new means of transport led to great expectation and also fear. The women of the Barceloneta neighbourhood, outside the city walls where the rail terminal was built, soon protested because they thought that the train drivers were kidnapping their children to use their fat to lubricate the engines.
The government imposed a gauge of six Castilian feet (1.672 metres), which was larger than the most common international gauge (1.435 metres) but similar to the British gauge.

In a period of a few years other train lines converted Barcelona into an important rail hub. On 23 June 1863 the Sarrià railway was opened, and it can thus be considered as the second urban railway in the world after the London underground. With the terminal in Plaça Catalunya, it linked Barcelona to the then independent towns of Gràcia, Sant Gervasi and Sarrià, where a large part of the Catalan bourgeoisie lived. The train ran along the middle of Carrer Balmes and divided the Eixample into two halves: the right and the left. Though a protective fence was placed around the line, it caused many accidents and led to protests by the neighbours.

The first tram line
On 27 June 1872 the first tramway of Barcelona came into service between the Rambla and Plaça dels Josepets, in the town of Gràcia. It had a double-decker tram with an open upper deck drawn by animals and owned by the British company Barcelona Tramways. It was built by Alejo Soujol, who obtained most of the licences for the first tram lines in Barcelona. In fact, Soujol recovered an early tramway scheme by the engineers Vila and Rafael de Luna, dated 1864.
After the first line and the first company, there followed others: the tramway of Poblenou (1874) the tramway of the Docks (1877); the tramway of Sants (1875), which introduced a working class fare; the ring line (1877), also called the "poor man's carriage"; the steam tramway of Sant Andreu (1877); the tramway of Sarrià and Sant Gervasi (1878); the steam line of the coast, which in 1885 reached Badalona; the tramway of Barcelona, Eixample and Gràcia; and the tramway of Horta. Drawn by animals and steam, and in some cases both, these lines used two gauges: the normal one (1.435 metres) and the narrow one (one metre).

In the early period, the tramway was a very middle class means of transport that was mostly used for leisure. The price of the ticket was 20-30 centimes. This was too expensive for the working class, who travelled on foot, in old omnibuses and traps or in riperts, horse-drawn vehicles similar to trams but without rails, which reached Barcelona in 1882 from Marseilles and were very popular for several years, especially those run by the La Catalana company.

Tram accidents and the fear that the new means of transport aroused among the population were two major features of the period. The most ignorant called it a vehicle "driven by the devil", and the City Council had to limit its speed to eight kilometres per hour. Collisions with pedestrians were common, and led to popular uprisings of protest and some very significant nicknames: "King Herod" referring to the tramway of Sants, and "the guillotine" referring to the line of Sant Andreu. On the positive side, there were original advertisements of the companies on the tickets, on cards and on lottery tickets. A popular form of transport was the jardinera, a type of open tram without an upper deck which was ideal for the summer and for the lines going to the baths in the Barceloneta.

Electrification and popularisation of the tramway
The first electric tram ran officially in Barcelona on 26 January 1899, on the ring line. In a few years, the rest of the lines had been electrified, and the last animal-drawn tram disappeared in 1907. During the first few years of the 20th century new electric tram lines were built, such as the popular Tramvia Blau of the Tibidabo (a bourgeois residential and leisure zone where the first funicular railway in Spain was built in 1901), the Vallvidrera line (1906), the Arrabassada line (1911), the Horta line (1901) and the Morrot line (1905). Following the trams, in 1905 the Sarrià train became the first electric railway in Spain. However, this modernisation did not put an end to the accidents or the protests by the neighbours. On 19 November 1913, for example, after a child was run down, a furious crowd tried to burn the Catalunya station of the Sarrià train; in the attempt by the police to control the crowd, the then police inspector of Barcelona and later founder of the Legion and general of the Franco regime, José Millán Astray, was injured by a stone.

With electrification and the turn of the century there appeared several plans to rationalise a tram network that had grown in the hands of private entrepreneurs and with no general control. This was the aim of Carbonell's County Tramway Plan, of the Parrish network and of the Municipal Links Plan by the French town planner Jaussely. However, the tramway structure of Barcelona was in fact modernised by the private companies themselves, which after a period of financial struggles merged to form the powerful Belgian-owned company Les Tramways de Barcelone, under the direction of Mariano de Foronda (1873-1961). After the unification of the tramway companies, the charismatic Marquis of Foronda introduced improvement such as the installation of fixed stops (until then the stops were at the discretion of the tram driver and the passengers) and the numbering of the lines. Though the restrictions imposed by the First World War limited this modernisation, Foronda's trams became very popular, as is shown by the songs referring to them and the coining of the term "Forondotelia" to describe the hobby of collecting tramway tickets.

The dark side of Foronda as the director of Barcelona's tramways was his social policy. His paternalistic attitude towards the workers brought the company into conflict with the revolutionary trade union movement, which was increasingly strong in Catalonia at that time. From the foundation of the Sociedad de Locomoción Electro-Animal de Barcelona (Society of Electro-Animal Locomotion of Barcelona) in 1900, affiliated to the International Workers Association, until the foundation of the Sindicat Únic del Ram del Transport (Single Union of the Transport Sector) in 1918, affiliated to the anarchist CNT, there was a continual increase in industrial conflict. On some occasions it was linked to the general unrest in Barcelona at the time, such as the Tragic Week in 1909 and the general strike in 1919, and on others it was a direct response to the heavy-handed policies of Foronda, who did not hesitate to hire blacklegs to keep his trams running. He also used his contacts with the press and the right-wing government. He resigned in 1931 when the Republic was proclaimed and had to face trial for corruption, but was found not guilty.

Despite the social unrest, it is nonetheless true that in the late twenties the tram was already a means of mass collective transport. Whereas in 1887 each inhabitant of Barcelona took the tram on average only fifty times a year, in 1913 the figure was 150 and in 1923 it had reached 280. An important factor in this was that from its creation in 1872 to the year 1918 the price of the ticket remained the same. The mass use by the working class of a means of transport designed for the bourgeoisie had made the company rich. This was undoubtedly an influential factor in Primo de Rivera's decision to "nationalise" the companies in 1925, with the International Exhibition of 1929 on the horizon. In practice, this nationalisation consisted in replacing the Belgian capital of Les Tramways de Barcelone with private Spanish capital and a change of name to Tranvías de Barcelona.

The first buses
In late 1905 the rippert company La Catalana made the first trials with double-decker petrol-driven buses rented from the Compagnie Générale des Omnibus de Paris. On 12 August of the following year these first buses started to run officially on the route between Plaça de Catalunya and Plaça de Trilla in Gràcia for the price of ten centimes, which was less than the tram fare. The tramway company of the Marquis of Foronda, then in a period of great expansion, was not prepared to tolerate this competition, and used all types of pressure and legal ruses to put a spoke in the wheels of the buses. Manipulated by Foronda, on 23 December 1908 the City Council ordered the suspension of the bus service; shortly afterwards La Catalana went bankrupt.

Though before 1920 some towns around Barcelona set up interurban bus services known as burres (donkeys), buses did not run in the streets of the capital until October 1922, when the Compañía General de Autobuses (CGA) imported traditional red buses from Great Britain. This time the tramway company neutralised the competition by taking a shareholding in the CGA. As with the tramway, a song devoted to the bus indicated the popularity of the new means of transport, and some of its lines joined working class neighbourhoods, thus avoiding the need to take two trams and pay twice. However, the CGA did not cover all the transport needs, so in outlying neighbourhoods such as Horta and El Carmel independent companies appeared, the most popular of which was Autobusos Roca. In 1929, when the International Exhibition brought a funicular railway and a cable car to Montjuïc, the bus had a market share of 13.7% of all public transport passengers, far below that of the tramway but double that of the Metro.

The Gran Metro and the Metro Transversal
In the early 20th century, while a small underground electric railway was being built on the hill of Vallvidrera as a leisure attraction (el Mina Grott), the enginyers Paul Müller and Fernando Reyes presented two different projects for underground railways in Barcelona. Following these plans, after the First World War two companies were created to build the first Metro lines. On 31 December 1924, Gran Metropolitano de Barcelona, with a shareholding of the tramway company, opened the first line of the Gran Metro between Lesseps and Plaça de Catalunya, followed shortly afterwards by the Fontana and Liceu stations. Two years later, Gran Metro opened the second line, between Passeig de Gràcia and Jaume I, which was extended to the end of Via Laietana (the Post Office), taking advantage of the tunnels that the City Council had already built with foresight when this street had been opened in the heart of Ciutat Vella.

The other company, Ferrocarril Metropolitano de Barcelona, with a municipal shareholding, opened the Metro Transversal line on 10 June 1926 between La Bordeta and Plaça de Catalunya. In the thirties it was extended to Santa Eulàlia at one end and Estació del Nord and Marina at the other. Though the Metro Transversal was designed as a link between the different railway stations of the city, with a tunnel diameter and gauge suitable for normal trains, the latter only used the line during the Civil War, and thereafter on very exceptional occasions. The Sarrià railway was covered between the Catalunya and Muntaner stations in 1929. It thus formed the third underground line of Barcelona. As of 1916 it ran trains to the Vallès.

The construction of the Metro, which coincided with the preparations for the International Exhibition of 1929, brought a large number of immigrants to Barcelona. It also caused great traffic chaos, which was satirised in the press, and there were some accidents such as the one that buried eleven workers in Gran Via in April 1924. Perhaps because of fear of travelling underground, until after the Civil War the number of Metro passengers was only 50 million per year and it had a 10% share of collective transport, which was still dominated by the trams.

1931-1939: the transport revolution
The proclamation of the Republic, on 14 April 1931, marked the end of Foronda's period at the head of Barcelona transport and led to an outbreak in the trade union unrest that had accumulated in the sector. This resulted in a general strike, in November 1933, and over one hundred assaults and sabotages against transport companies took place between 1933 and July 1936. The Republican City Council, which wished to draw up a general public transport plan and awarded new bus licences to the Torner company in order to resolve some communication problems between some neighbourhoods of the city, met with the opposition of the de facto monopoly of the CGA, of the expanding automobile industry and of the regionalist right-wing forces, which paralysed all Republican projects to improve collective transport.

On 18 July 1936, when the Civil War and revolution broke out in Catalonia, the transport trade union of the CNT, with nearly 20,000 members, collectivised all the transport companies. Only Autobusos Roca, where the Socialist trade union UGT had a majority, remained outside the control of the anarchist trade unions. The self-management by the workers introduced labour measure tending towards libertarian communism, but was very ordered and effective. Until September 1937, when it began to lack spare parts and sundry materials, the public transport of Barcelona maintained and even improved the quality of service. The Metro and the trams provided their normal and regular service until the spring of 1938, when the bombing of Barcelona became intense.

However, the war of course affected transport. Communists and republicans on the one hand, and anarchists on the other, fought to control this very important strategic sector. The CNT, which until at the end of the war maintained its hegemony in the sector, manufactured in the workshops of Tranvías Colectivizados the arms that the Republic failed to provide it with. The People's Army used the tunnels of the Sarrià train as a wartime depot, and the Metro Transversal was used to transport arms. The civil population used the Metro stations as air-raid shelters. The consequences of the war were tremendous: on 26 January 1939, when Franco's troops entered the city, it had lost all its buses and almost the whole tramway network.

The precarious situation of the post-war period
The restrictions of electricity, the lack of material for repairs, the queues at the stops and the agglomerations of people in the trams were the symptoms of collective transport in the post-war period. The Metro was put back into operation without too many problems, but the railways had been sabotaged and the network had been destroyed. It therefore took a long time to return to normality, and there were a few serious accidents. In 1941 the Government unified all the wide-gauge railway companies in the newly created RENFE, which also managed the Metro Transversal for two years. Tranvías de Barcelona took over the CGA bus company and signed a collaboration agreement with the City Council. In 1941 it introduced the first trolley buses as an autarchic response to the shortage of fuel. This autarchic attitude went so far that during the Second World War workers of the transport companies went to the Canary Islands to buy rubber for tyres, which the fishermen collected from the hulls of allied ships sunk by German submarines.

In 1947 the 316 million users of the Barcelona trams travelled like sardines in rickety vehicles with a high accident rate. Meanwhile, the struggling company tried to reduce its deficit by increasing the fares. In January 1951 the Government authorised an increase in the price of the ticket in Barcelona from 50 to 70 centimes, whereas in Madrid it was frozen at 40 centimes. The discontent of the public was expressed on the street. During the first six days of March 1951 a spontaneous mass strike of tram users faced the dictatorship with its first challenge. On 6 March the Government cancelled the increase in fares and the civil governor Eduardo Baeza and the mayor of Barcelona, the Baron of Terrades, were dismissed.

However, by then the protest had turned into a general strike encouraged by the communist opposition. To control the first major protest against the Franco regime, 4,000 policemen and the naval infantry were sent on 15 March 1951. And it had all started because of the trams!

Municipalisation and Porciolism
In January 1957 a new rise in the tramway fare led to another strike of users. Though less forceful than that of 1951, the result of this protest was that the mayor Simarro was dismissed and replaced by José María de Porcioles. Porcioles oversaw the "development" period of the Franco regime. He completed the municipalisation of urban transport that had started in 1951, and promoted the extension of the Metro and bus networks to the detriment of the trams. However, more importantly, he organised the growth of Barcelona on the basis of private transport (this was the period of the Seat 600), without establishing measures to compensate for the imbalances and inequalities that this was to cause.

In 1957, with the Law on Urban Transport of Barcelona, the Spanish Government approved the municipalisation of the Metro and surface transport. At that time, the City Council already controlled most of the shares of Tranvías de Barcelona and of the Gran Metro and the Metro Transversal, which were merged in 1961 to form the private municipal company Ferrocarril Metropolitano de Barcelona. The tramway and Metro companies had a corporativist social policy that was very characteristic of the Franco regime. They became major public service companies that were transformed but have survived to the present. The mandate of Porcioles saw the publication of Historia del transporte colectivo en Barcelona (History of Collective Transport in Barcelona) and the first issues of a monthly magazine; the festival of the tram drivers was institutionalised and schools were set up for the children of the workers; also, in the outlying neighbourhoods the City Council used old wagons as makeshift schools.

The expansion of the Metro
The surface transport was clearly insufficient to meet the needs of Barcelona in the post-war period, which was undergoing a demographic explosion. Thus, in 1948, coinciding with the centenary of the railway, the authorities extended the Metro Transversal towards Sant Andreu and built tunnels for the train that went along the Meridiana. The railway on Carrer Aragó and the upper section of the Sarrià railway, with the new branch line of Avinguda of the Tibidabo, were also covered in the fifties.

The municipalisation of transport gave rise to ambitious plans for expansion of the Metro, which were only partly carried out. In 1959 the Transversal Alt was opened from Sagrera to Vilapicina, and was later extended to Horta. It was the first completely automated underground railway in the world.

Ten years later the other end of the current Line 5 was opened between Collblanc and Diagonal. In 1970 general Franco in person opened the link between Diagonal and Sagrera. The former Line 1 of the Gran Metro, now renamed Line 3, went down the Rambla, along the Paral·lel and in 1975 reached the University Zone. The other branch of the Gran Metro, now Line 4, was extended upward to Guinardó (1974) and (solving problems of water seepage) along the coast towards the Barceloneta and the Poblenou (1977). Though the tunnels of a new line, Line 2 (Paral·lel-Sagrada Familia), were completed in the early seventies, it was not opened until 1995.

The end of the tramway
After the municipalisation, Tranvías de Barcelona, which changed its name to Transportes de Barcelona, gave priority to extending the bus network. In 1964, for the first time the number of petrol-driven public vehicles was greater than that of electricity-driven ones. The last trolley buses were withdrawn in 1968 and at that time the remaining trams only ran on peripheral lines joining neighbourhoods to the city centre. These included about a hundred second-hand (but modern) trams that had been bought in 1963 from the city of Washington. The economic pressure of the Pegaso company and the oil multinationals, a false impression of modernity that saw the tram as being outdated and was skilfully exploited by the press, and the personal decision of the mayor Porcioles marked the death sentence for the tramways of Barcelona, with which the public had long had a love-hate relationship.

The City Council and the press accompanied the withdrawal of the last tram lines by stimulating nostalgia and organising parties and farewell ceremonies. The public authorities also appealed to the base instincts of the population by inciting them to literally destroy the last trams under the slogan "Barcelona, at last free of trams!". It was on the morning of 18 and 19 March 1971 that the trams of the two last lines (Nº 49, Drassanes-Horta, and Nº 51, Drassanes-Via Júlia) made their last journey to the sheds. The Tramway Museum designed to be housed in the Sants tram sheds was never built because the incipient neighbours' associations wanted it for other uses. Only a few enthusiasts and the Association of Friends of the Railway preserved the memory of a means of transport that failed to reach its centenary by only just over a year. Only the Tranvia Blau running to the Tibidabo continued to run as a nostalgic attraction rather than a serious means of transport.

The democratisation of transport
In 1979, after the end of the dictatorship and during the transition to democracy, the Generalitat of Catalonia acquired responsibility for most forms of land transport. RENFE was still owned by the central government, but the narrow-gauge railways-including the Sarrià railway-came under the public entity Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat. The democratic town councils took charge of their respective municipal transport companies with a view to promoting and rationalising the public service. Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) was created in 1979, and since then it has managed both the Metro and the buses.

The social movements that emerged with force from the struggle against Franco also made demands on transport. The trade unions achieved improvements in working conditions and pay for their workers, and the neighbours' associations demanded the extension of the Metro and buses running to the neighbourhoods that were still without public transport. To achieve this they did not hesitate (as in Nou Barris, Santa Coloma and Badalona) to hijack vehicles or build symbolic Metro stations in rough masonry (in Nou Barris, El Carmel and towns so far from Barcelona as Sant Boi de Llobregat). The citizens' movement also organised itself against increases in fares, and called for fare integration (finally achieved in 2001) and the promotion of collective transport, as the only way to reduce the traffic and pollution caused by private cars.
The 1977, the 266 million passengers of the Metro exceeded those of the buses for the first time. The number of users of the Metro (280 million in 1990; 294 million in 2000) has far surpassed that of the buses, which between 1990 and 2000 maintained the number of passengers at 203 million per year. Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat had 53 million users in 1990 and 95 million in 2000, and the local lines of RENFE had 45 million passengers in 1990 and 61 million in 2000. The total number of journeys on public transport was 653 million in 2000 in Barcelona and almost 800 million in the whole metropolitan area.

One of the reasons for this increase in the use of the public transport network, especially the Metro, is that it has been progressively extended. In fact, it has been extended fairly slowly in comparison with the Metro of Madrid, which has 150 kilometres compared with the 81 kilometres (111 stations) in Barcelona (seven kilometres and thirteen stations more if one adds the two lines of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat). The Metro of Barcelona is still suffering from the failure to carry out the ambitious plans of 1966 (seven lines) and 1974 (121 kilometres of network), which were shelved in the first Plan drawn up by the Generalitat in 1984. Nevertheless, Line 2 was finally opened (in two stages, 1995 and 1997), and Line 4 has been extended from Guinardó to Roquetes (1982) and Trinitat Nova (1999) at one end, and to La Pau (1982) and Badalona (1985) at the other end; Line 1 has been extended to Santa Coloma de Gramenet (1983 and 1992) at one end, and to L'Hospitalet (1983) and Bellvitge (1987) at the other; Line 5 has been extended to Cornellà (1983), and Line 3 has been extended to Montbau (1985) and Canyelles (2001).

The fleet of buses, which carries 203 million persons per year, has been completely modernised. In 1997, of the 882 vehicles covering 77 routes, 772 had air conditioning and 272 a low floor and access platform for the disabled. In 2002 there were 972 buses serving the 2,167 stops of the 90 lines in the city, which has 92 kilometres of bus lanes. The local railway lines of RENFE (four lines) and the Generalitat (two lines and thirteen stations) long ago lost their image of unpunctual "mule trains", and now provide a modern regional Metro service.

Present and future challenges
Public transport in Barcelona, which successfully met the challenge of the 1992 Olympics but (unlike private transport) did not benefit from its investments, is now looking towards the Forum of the Cultures of 2004 as a first stop on the way to 2010. This is the date laid down as the end of the spectacular Master Plan of Infrastructures (MPI), which was approved in April 2002 and assigned 7,300 million euros to the public transport network in the whole Metropolitan Area. This investment is to provide 251 new kilometres of Metro and railway (mainly Line 9, from Badalona and Santa Coloma to the airport through Bon Pastor, La Sagrera, El Carmel, Sarrià and the Free Zone, and Line 12, between Sarrià and Castelldefels) and 29.5 kilometres of tramway. The latter include the euphemistically named "light metros" of Can Cuiàs and Can Ruti, the tramway that is to connect the neighbourhoods on the banks of the River Besòs, and the Trambaix, which is already being built at the northern end of Avinguda Diagonal. This will involve the construction of 230 new stations and 235 new trains, making up for the low level of from Barcelona as Sant Boi de Llobregat). The citizens' movement also organised itself against increases in fares, and called for fare integration (finally achieved in 2001) and the promotion of collective transport, as the only way to reduce the traffic and pollution caused by private cars.

The 1977, the 266 million passengers of the Metro exceeded those of the buses for the first time. The number of users of the Metro (280 million in 1990; 294 million in 2000) has far surpassed that of the buses, which between 1990 and 2000 maintained the number of passengers at 203 million per year. Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat had 53 million users in 1990 and 95 million in 2000, and the local lines of RENFE had 45 million passengers in 1990 and 61 million in 2000. The total number of journeys on public transport was 653 million in 2000 in Barcelona and almost 800 million in the whole metropolitan area.

One of the reasons for this increase in the use of the public transport network, especially the Metro, is that it has been progressively extended. In fact, it has been extended fairly slowly in comparison with the Metro of Madrid, which has 150 kilometres compared with the 81 kilometres (111 stations) in Barcelona (seven kilometres and thirteen stations more if one adds the two lines of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat). The Metro of Barcelona is still suffering from the failure to carry out the ambitious plans of 1966 (seven lines) and 1974 (121 kilometres of network), which were shelved in the first Plan drawn up by the Generalitat in 1984. Nevertheless, Line 2 was finally opened (in two stages, 1995 and 1997), and Line 4 has been extended from Guinardó to Roquetes (1982) and Trinitat Nova (1999) at one end, and to La Pau (1982) and Badalona (1985) at the other end; Line 1 has been extended to Santa Coloma de Gramenet (1983 and 1992) at one end, and to L'Hospitalet (1983) and Bellvitge (1987) at the other; Line 5 has been extended to Cornellà (1983), and Line 3 has been extended to Montbau (1985) and Canyelles (2001).

The fleet of buses, which carries 203 million persons per year, has been completely modernised. In 1997, of the 882 vehicles covering 77 routes, 772 had air conditioning and 272 a low floor and access platform for the disabled. In 2002 there were 972 buses serving the 2,167 stops of the 90 lines in the city, which has 92 kilometres of bus lanes. The local railway lines of RENFE (four lines) and the Generalitat (two lines and thirteen stations) long ago lost their image of unpunctual "mule trains", and now provide a modern regional Metro service.

Present and future challenges
Public transport in Barcelona, which successfully met the challenge of the 1992 Olympics but (unlike private transport) did not benefit from its investments, is now looking towards the Forum of the Cultures of 2004 as a first stop on the way to 2010. This is the date laid down as the end of the spectacular Master Plan of Infrastructures (MPI), which was approved in April 2002 and assigned 7,300 million euros to the public transport network in the whole Metropolitan Area. This investment is to provide 251 new kilometres of Metro and railway (mainly Line 9, from Badalona and Santa Coloma to the airport through Bon Pastor, La Sagrera, El Carmel, Sarrià and the Free Zone, and Line 12, between Sarrià and Castelldefels) and 29.5 kilometres of tramway. The latter include the euphemistically named "light metros" of Can Cuiàs and Can Ruti, the tramway that is to connect the neighbourhoods on the banks of the River Besòs, and the Trambaix, which is already being built at the northern end of Avinguda Diagonal. This will involve the construction of 230 new stations and 235 new trains, making up for the low level of investment in the public transport network of Barcelona in the last twenty years and raising the number of journeys from the current 800 million to 1,200 million per year.

The Metropolitan Transport Authority, created in 1997 and composed of the Generalitat, Barcelona City Council and the Metropolitan Transport Entity, with the State and RENFE as observers, must face this challenge, which includes the arrive of the high speed train to the city. If the MPI is to avoid staying on the drawing board, like its predecessors, the collaboration of the institutions will be necessary. But if the new collective transport culture is to win the battle against private cars, it will require the collaboration of the authorities, the economic actors and the general public. To take a lesson from history, the challenge is to consolidate trials such as that of Avinguda Diagonal in 1997 in order to reintroduce the tramway, and above all to demand a quality service in the Metro and buses and suitable investments and measures to provide a public transport adapted to a modern and sustainable city.

Page 68
Knowledge for improvement: the BEST project
by Manuel Villalante director of studies, coordination and presidential advisor. transports metropolitans de barcelona

In all the cities and metropolitan areas of Europe, the persons in charge of public transport are considering how they can increase the quality of the collective transport service. This increase in quality must make public transport competitive with private transport in terms of time and cost.

With this common aspiration, the European Union expresses the need to promote public transport as a basic alternative for urban and metropolitan mobility.
The White Paper of the European Commission European Transport Policy for 2010: Time to Decide is an example of this political will. In this context of standardisation of transport policies, several actions aimed at exchanging experiences through the process called benchmarking have been carried out.
One of these experiences is the BEST Project (Benchmarking in European Service of public Transport), which I will deal with in this article.

Firstly, I will briefly define a process of benchmarking: it is conceived as a process for identifying and adapting habits (exceptional and outstanding practices) of organisations of any part of the world in order to help any similar organisation to improve its action (performance), with a continual willingness to admit that someone is best at something and to learn from them.

A complete benchmarking process must go through four stages which form the "Deming Wheel". These stages are related continually; the process does not end because one must improve continually.
Briefly, each of these stages includes:
1. Planning: Determining the objective and the procedure
2. Gathering: Gathering information and investigating to discover the objective and the procedure in detail
3. Analysing: Identifying the deviation between the action and the objective
4. Adapting: Revising and improving the objective and the procedure

From here one starts again but with a new improved planning, and so on, in a permanent process of continual improvement.
The metropolitan areas of the four Nordic capitals (Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Oslo) started this process of benchmarking, the BEST Project, in 2000, in order to share information and experiences among public transport experts of the four metropolitan areas.

The BEST Project started on the initiative of the Metropolitan Transport Authority of Stockholm, Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (SL), with the technical support of the Swedish Institute of Opinion, TEMO, which carried out the surveys and the research work.

The main objectives of the BEST Project are:
o To increase knowledge of the needs, demands and expectations of public transport users.
o To create learning processes among the professionals involved.
o To establish a network of professional work in the field of public transport.

In fact, the main objective of the BEST Project is to foster an increase in the use of public transport in metropolitan areas, with the conviction that a high degree of satisfaction with the public transport system will favour an increase in its use.
As stated above, the Nordic countries, and specifically the metropolitan areas of Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Oslo, started the BEST Project as a pilot test in 2000. This first pilot test of the BEST Project started an annual consultation of each of the regions on the degree of satisfaction with their public transport system. This characteristics of this survey are described in the technical details presented below.

Technical details:
o Universe: citizens of over fifteen years of age.
o Area (of Barcelona): Central Agglomeration (35 municipalities).
o Technique: telephone interview.
o Sample distribution: proportional to population.
o Sample selection: random among the members of the home.
o Dimensions of the sample: 1,000 interviews.
o Field work: performed in Barcelona by the ÁREA INVESTIGACIÓN institute from 12 to 30 March 2001.

The BEST Project was established in 2000 as a project for long-term continual improvement. This is why it was decided to make annual measurements of all the areas in order to share experiences, always bearing in mind the opinion of the citizens -whether or not they are users- on the public transport system (modes of public transport in each area). Therefore, the survey had to be carried out each year with the same methodological characteristics in all the areas.
The survey determines the state of satisfaction of citizens with the public transport system according to the following aspects: recommendation of use of public transport, value for money, social image, comfort, personal safety, behaviour of the employees, information, reliability and services offered, and general satisfaction.
The results presented in these charts analyse the percentage of citizens who agree or disagree with the different aspects, which are broken down into different items that will be explained beside each chart.
In the BEST 2000 study, Helsinki obtained the best score in five of the nine aspects that were examined, in addition to the best general level of satisfaction, and Copenhagen obtained the best score in the four remaining aspects. The other two regions did not come first in any aspects. (Refer to page no. 70.)

The participants of the benchmarking in 2000 were joined in 2001 by four more metropolitan regions: Barcelona (TMB), Munich (SWM),Turin (MTA) and Vienna (WL, VOR). The eight regions participating in BEST 2001 have characteristics that make them comparable, but there are considerable differences, as can be seen in the table. (Refer to page no. 70.)
The BEST Project is also being carried out in 2002, this year with the following participating regions: Stockholm (SL), Oslo (Sporveien/ SL), Helsinki (HKL), Copenhagen (HUR/ DSB), Vienna (Wienerlinien/ VOR), Barcelona (TMB), Geneva (OTC), London (TfL) and Manchester (GMPTE).

As stated above, BEST 2001 was carried out in eight regions. The surveys were carried out in March in each area, with the results shown below. (Refer to page no. 71.)

Comments on the results of BEST 2001
Barcelona obtained the best score both overall and in five of the nine aspects analysed.
This reinforces the good image that the citizens of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona have of their public transport system, which we already detected in other studies.

It must, however, be taken into account that at the time when the survey of BEST 2001 was carried out there was a very positive and well publicised scenario with regard to the present and future of the public transport system. It was a time of consolidation of the fare integration system and of definition and debate on the future growth of the public transport network in the framework of the new Master Plan of Infrastructures (2001-2010), and more specifically the extension of Line 3 of the Metro.

Furthermore, the survey covered not only users of the public transport system, but also the general public. Also, the growing level of demand of advanced societies has a great effect on the levels of satisfaction. In other words, one may have high quality public transport services, but if the level of demand is high, the levels of satisfaction will be low. This would explain the fact that some metropolitan areas, particularly the Nordic ones, obtain lower levels of satisfaction than Barcelona, though they have balanced transport networks with a highly consolidated integration.

Quality studies at TMB
As I stated at the beginning of this article, and as can be seen in stage 2 of the Deming wheel (gather), it is very important to have the best information available, not only on each process and on other organisations, but also on the system, and particularly on the customers.
TMB (Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona) carries outs studies to determine the satisfaction of users with the service and the level of fulfilment of the quality objectives:
o The CSI (customer satisfaction index) for the Metro and the bus analyses the desired quality (expectations) and the quality perceived by the customers (perceptions). The CSI is an indicator that determines the level of quality perceived by customers. It was first introduced in 1991 and has been carried out annually, covering the degree of satisfaction of Metro and bus users. This index is not based only on the direct level of satisfaction of the customers, but also takes into account the importance that each customer gives to the different aspects of the service. This importance is used to weight the level of satisfaction of each aspect and thus provides the general CSI.

o In addition to the technical indicators of the running of the service, in 2000 the objective quality index (OQI) was introduced as an indicator of the objective quality offered in the different aspects of the service. It considers aspects of the service that are very relevant for the customers, on which it is desired to know the level of quality objectively and comparably. This study is carried out using the "mystery customer" technique through objective and standardised personal observation using specialised external personnel, with results that are strictly for internal use.

These two studies meet the need to connect as far as possible the four rings of the "quality circle"; one can thus bring the area of desire as close as possible to the area of reality and the area of organisation to the area of the customer.
Thus, with regard to the area of the customer, there is:
- The desired quality, which is located in the area of desires
- The perceived quality, which is situated in the area of realities.
With regard to the area of organisation there is:
- The objective quality, which is located in the area of desires
- The offered quality, which is located in the area of realities.

The final and ideal objective is to achieve the maximum correlation between the offered quality and the perceived quality, and at the same time a minimum difference between the perceived quality and the desired quality. Also, the objective quality must be correlated as far as possible with the offered quality.
The results of the CSI 2001 for the Metro and bus show that, measured as a level of importance, the expectations of the users of the Metro and bus are considerably different due to the different characteristics of the two modes of collective transport.

For the Metro the most important aspect is security and for the bus it is waiting time. There is thus a certain correlation between the strong/weak points of each service and the expectations of the customer. In other words, the emotional aspects of the Metro (personal safety, environment, cleanness…) have high levels of importance and low levels of satisfaction and the same occurs with the service aspects in buses (waiting time, fulfilment of timetables, speed of journey…).

The general index of the CSI is thus obtained with all the scores of satisfaction of each aspect weighted by the importance of each one. One thus obtains a very sensitive general index: it not only takes into account the customers' evaluation of the service offered, but it does so according to the same customers' expectations.
As stated in all the indicators and studies presented, at TMB there is a great and growing concern to know as accurately as possible the perception of the citizens and particularly that of the users of public transport services.
Far from causing self-complacency, the results obtained -some of them very positive like those of the BEST Project- should spur us on to continually improve public transport.

Page 80
A fundamental element in urban transformation
by Xavier Casas first deputy mayor. chairman of transports metropolitans de barcelona

In recent years, the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, an authentic city of cities, has undergone an increase in mobility, mainly due to internal migration, the consolidation of a single labour market and the reinforcement of the polarity and capacity of attraction of the city of Barcelona. These and other reasons have consolidated the role of the metropolitan area as the basic scenario in which mobility must be analysed and planned.

This area of influence is gradually being extended, and currently includes almost all of the seven counties that surround the city of Barcelona and form the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona (RMB).

As shown in the latest survey of the Region of Barcelona drawn up by the Institute for Regional and Metropolitan Studies, and the studies made for the Pact for Mobility, hundreds of thousands of persons travel in the area for work, study or leisure. This is an increasing phenomenon, particularly in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, which operates for all purposes as a single urban reality, with a single labour market and a central city that acts as a pole of attraction.
Taking this into account, there is an obvious need to plan the mobility of the whole Metropolitan Region of Barcelona homogeneously and logically in order to achieve a rational, comfortable, affordable and sustainable system that helps to improve our quality of life whilst respecting nature and the environment as far as possible.

If we analyse the current situation, we find that of the 3.1 million journeys that are made every day only within the city of Barcelona, 59% are made on public transport. In other words, it is the most popular means of transport. If one analyses the internal-external journeys, i.e. those that start or end in a town other than the city, private vehicles are the most widely used means of transport, representing 64% of the total of 2.1 million journeys.

Public transport is used for 39% of the daily journeys within the city of Barcelona, compared with 25% for private vehicles. These percentages are accentuated in favour of the car as one moves away from Barcelona through the rings of the Metropolitan Region, so the average level of use of public transport is only 18% of the journeys. The figure falls to 2% for journeys between municipalities of the second and third ring that do not cross Barcelona.

These figures clearly show the need to provide the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona with a public transport system that is competitive with private transport in terms of quality, time and cost. The promotion and development of collective transport is a key element in a policy aimed at sustainable mobility such as that applied by Barcelona City Council.

The necessary metropolitan planning
The disappearance in 1987 of the Metropolitan Corporation, which was responsible for public transport and urban planning in the 27 municipalities of the area of Barcelona, marked the loss of an instrument for integrated planning of metropolitan mobility and regional development. The creation of the MTE (Metropolitan Transport Entity), with responsibilities for a smaller area and only passenger transport, failed to compensate for the loss of this necessary local framework of integrated planning. In 1997, as a result of local demands, the MTA (Metropolitan Transport Authority) was created as a consortium composed of the Generalitat of Catalonia (51%), Barcelona City Council (25%) and the MTE (24%). The main aims of the MTA are the planning of the metropolitan public transport network, the organisation of an integrated fare system and the concertation of the subsidies to collective public transport.

At that time, public transport in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona had two major shortcomings: economic penalties in the use of different modes of transport, and physical penalties in the exchange between non-integrated modes and networks of transport.

A suitable framework was required to extend the cover of public transport and to form an authentic system by integrating the different networks at a functional and physical level and with regard to fares.
It was not until 10 years later that the local authorities once more had a say in the planning of the metropolitan public transport system.

In 1997, as a result of municipal demands, the MTA (Metropolitan Transport Authority) was created as a consortium composed of the Generalitat of Catalonia (51%), Barcelona City Council (25%) and the MTE (24%). The main aims of the MTA are the planning of the metropolitan public transport network, the organisation of an integrated fare system and the concertation of the subsidies to collective public transport.

At that time public transport in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona had two major shortcomings: economic penalties in the use of different modes of transport and physical penalties in the exchange between non-integrated modes and networks of transport. A suitable framework was required to extend the cover of public transport and to form an authentic system by integrating the different networks at a functional and physical level and with regard to fares. The MTA has developed two lines of action to compensate for these shortcomings: fare integration and the Master Plan of Infrastructures 2001-2010 (MPI).

Fare integration
Fare integration was introduced progressively in the course of 2001 in the whole area of the MRB and the process was completed on 1 January 2002 with the integration of the local network of RENFE.
The new tickets, T-Trimestre, T-Jove and T-Familiar, were also introduced at this time to favour the more frequent users of public transport. The incorporation and funding in the framework of the integrated fare system of fare concessions, which are currently funded by the local authorities, is still pending. The results of the process of fare integration show that in the MRB the use of public transport has increased by 6.9% overall. The total number of journeys in the MRB in 2001 was 759 million, including both journeys made with integrated tickets and journeys made with the tickets of each operator and single-mode tickets. Journeys combining different modes of transport represented about 19% of the total number of journeys, whereas before fare integration they only represented about 8%.

The master plan of infrastructures
The other major line of action of the MTA was to plan the extension of the public rail transport network in the area of the MRB, which is known as the Master Plan of Infrastructures (MPI).
The MPI was agreed by the Authorities responsible for transport to meet the needs for public transport infrastructures in the area of the MRB between now and 2010.

Its basic objectives are:
o To significantly increase the number of journeys on collective public transport and to increase the use of public transport in comparison with that of private vehicles in all areas of the MRB.
o To ensure that the availability of collective public transport with a fixed infrastructure is a driving force for the functioning of the metropolitan area, the introduction of activities in the MRB and the international competitiveness of Barcelona.
o To guarantee the highest economic and social efficacy of public investments in the metropolitan transport system through integral planning and by distributing the investment among the different modes of transport according to the expected demand in each area.

The main aim of the MPI is therefore to promote rail infrastructures, though it also takes into account the infrastructures associated with road passenger transport: bus stations, dissuasive parking and modal exchange.
The aim of the MPI is to remedy the historic deficit that the MRB has had up to now. As stated above, there is an increasing decentralisation of economic activity, especially industry and services, but Barcelona still maintains its polarity, which generates an increase in mobility and in the length of journeys. The total investment necessary to carry out the MPI is 7,295.746 million euros.

The most emblematic work of the MPI is the construction of the new L-9 Metro line that will connect the higher area of Barcelona and the Barcelonès, and will increase the network effect, with a total of 14 new interchangers and transfer with all the Metro lines of TMB, the FGC and RENFE. The combination of these two factors will lead to an increase in demand of 90 million passengers per year. L-9 is the longest Metro line being designed in Europe, with 46 new stations and a length of 41 km.

The approval and execution of the MPI will resolve a historic deficit of Barcelona and its metropolitan area, and if it is continued it will ensure quality of life and competitiveness in the area of the MRB.
Despite the investments that will be made through the application of the MPI, which are still to be specified, and the major improvements in infrastructures that it will involve, it has been late in coming. Over a ten-year period until 2010 it will involve investing each year the same amount that has been invested in the last 10 years.

activity, especially industry and services, but Barcelona still maintains its polarity, which generates an increase in mobility and in the length of journeys. The total investment necessary to carry out the MPI is 7,295.746 million euros.
The most emblematic work of the MPI is the construction of the new L-9 Metro line that will connect the higher area of Barcelona and the Barcelonès, and will increase the network effect, with a total of 14 new interchangers and transfer with all the Metro lines of TMB, the FGC and RENFE. The combination of these two factors will lead to an increase in demand of 90 million passengers per year. L-9 is the longest Metro line being designed in Europe, with 46 new stations and a length of 41 km.

The approval and execution of the MPI will resolve a historic deficit of Barcelona and its metropolitan area, and if it is continued it will ensure quality of life and competitiveness in the area of the MRB.
Despite the investments that will be made through the application of the MPI, which are still to be specified, and the major improvements in infrastructures that it will involve, it has been late in coming. Over a ten-year period until 2010 it will involve investing each year the same amount that has been invested in the last 10 years.

In the last 7 years, 20 km of new rail infrastructure (Metro and regional urban FGC) were created, and with the application of the MPI it is planned to build approximately 280 km of railway lines and tram lines in a period of ten years.
In parallel to the investments that have been made to date to extend the rail network, within the programme to improve surface transport the Nit Bus service of the MTE has been extended to meet the demand for night-time mobility. In 2001 the use of the public transport at night increased by 14.5% in comparison with 2000.

Night-time mobility has specific (quantitative and qualitative) characteristics that differentiate it from daily and non-daily daytime mobility, and the planning of the cover and frequency of the night-time bus network must therefore also be differentiated.

Plaça Catalunya has become the central point of exchange for the different modes of night-time transport. Night-time transport also forms part of the integrated fare system, with the advantages that this involves for intermodality.
Furthermore, at the end of last year, the MTA put into service a night-time network of buses to connect Barcelona to the towns in the Metropolitan Region. This service has 17 lines that operate between midnight and 5 am and also form part of the integrated fare system. This service is the result of the demand of the citizens of the MRB for night-time services, because after the extension of the Metro timetable the rail services left a time bracket (midnight to 5 am) without public transport service.
Thanks to the creation of this service, Barcelona and its area of influence have collective public transport 24 hours a day.

Actions of TMB to improve the network
Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) is the main collective public transport operator in the conurbation of Barcelona, and 70% of the journeys in the MRB are made on its Metro and Bus networks.
In September 2001, with the opening of 3 new stations of the L-3 Metro line, the Metro network of TMB was extended by 2.4 new kilometres to reach a total length of 83.6 km.

The timetable was also extended to midnight on all working days in four lines (1, 2, 3 and 5) that have already been adapted by the installation of rigid catenaries. In Line 4 this system is being installed, and will allow the timetable to be extended at the end of this year.

Another major effort made by TMB is the application of the Improvement Plan for its bus network. This Plan has two lines of action: an improvement in frequency with the incorporation of 100 new buses, the creation of new lines of the Neighbourhood Bus, and the extension of the routes of some conventional lines.

Of the 100 new buses, 35 run on natural gas, which is the first step towards the incorporation of this less polluting fuel in the fleet of TMB. In the next few years the target is to have 250 buses running on natural gas.
Barcelona is also participating as a pilot city in the European project for the future fuel cell bus known as the "hydrogen bus". The first buses of this European pilot test will be seen in Barcelona in 2003.

The improvement of the network of buses of TMB falls within the Plan of Transport Services for the MRB, which is currently being drawn up by the MTA and will lead to the improvement of the cover of the surface network in the whole metropolitan area.

All these medium- and long-term actions of growth and improvement of the transport network form part of a process of transformation of the city in which public transport is considered as an essential element for the major actions of urban transformation that the city is facing.

The extension of the airport, the arrival of the high-speed train in the Sant Andreu - Sagrera area, the extension of the Port and the development of District 22@ in the Poblenou are some of the actions that would not be viable if public transport were not considered as a key element for their accessibility.

The objective of a mobility model that does not prejudice future generations, i.e. a model of sustainable mobility, cannot be achieved only by improving public transport. A competitive, high-quality public transport is a necessary but not sufficient condition for achieving sustainable mobility.

One must first find a formula of regional organisation for the integral planning of mobility and regional development. However, it is also very necessary to achieve the participation and consensus of the social and economic actors and of the general public with regard to the development of sustainable mobility. The Pact for Mobility reached between the City Council and over 40 citizens organisations, and its fulfilment, mark the path to be followed.

The establishment of the Metropolitan Transport Authority, a consortium between the local government and the Generalitat, has been a very important step towards the coordination of the different systems of public collective transport in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona.

However, one more step forward must be made. A good planning and management of mobility must bear in mind all the aspects that may be involved, such as urban planning and the location of activities and services. There is a need for an overall design of all the needs, and this can only be done coherently through a metropolitan body with the necessary powers to take decisions to provide a coherent, rational and sustainable growth of the region of the main urban agglomeration in Catalonia.