With climate change such an urgent topic, transitioning to sustainable practices is the need of the hour. The travel and hospitality industry has been aiming to set sustainability goals as well. One of the threads up for innovation and transition is transport, with cities switching gradually to the least polluting and environment-friendly modes of transport.
In Spain, the Andalusian city of Cadiz has launched Spain's first tram-train service. The Bay of Cadiz tramway, popularly known as Trambahia, was started on October 26.
Cadiz, a city of 117,000 inhabitants, wants to enhance travel experiences with the Trambahia which will play a fundamental role in the sustainable mobility of the city&rsquos metropolitan area and reduce polluting emissions and noise.
The name of the service, Trambaha, refers to the words baha (bay) and tranva (tramway) to represent how the scenic bay, where the city of Cadiz and the adjacent villages are located in. It is being called a tram-train as the service has the features of a tram, but its supra-urban route is like that of a regional train and will operate on the Spanish 1668mm-gauge network.
The Trambahía has a 24-kilometre route with 21 stops, and connects the municipalities of Chiclana de la Frontera, San Fernando, Puerto Real and Cádiz. This is Spain's first tram-train service, which operates for a distance of 24 km while making 21 stops on the Adif-managed 1668 mm national network. A brand-new 14 km light rail line connects to the Seville-Cádiz main line at Ro Arillo from Pelegatos via Chiclana de la Frontera and San Fernando. On a 10 km stretch of Adif infrastructure that is also used by commuter, freight, and long-distance passenger trains, tram-trains go on to Cadiz.
