The Alicante Tram, trademarked as Alicante Metropolitan TRAM (, ), operates in the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

city of

Alicante Alicante (, , ; ; ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean port. The population ...

(

Valencian Community The Valencian Community is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid wit ...

) and its surrounding area. Like other

narrow gauge railways A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curv ...

in the Valencian Community, it is run by

Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valenciana Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valenciana (, "Valencian Government Railways") or FGV is a Valencian Community, Valencian public railway company which operates several lines, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valenci ...

(FGV). It was inaugurated on 15 August 2003 replacing narrow-gauge diesel trains between Alicante and

El Campello El Campello (; ) is a town on the Costa Blanca of Spain, within the Valencian Community. It is a 20-minute tram ride from Alicante city. There is a busy marina and fish market. The tower overlooking the harbour was built in the 16th century as ...

. The Alicante Metropolitan Tram

light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...

combines different modes of rail services: a partially underground tram way through Alicante city centre, a

tram-train A tram-train or dual-system tram is a type of light rail vehicle that both meets the standards of a light rail system, and also national mainline standards. Tramcars are adapted to be capable of running on streets like an urban tramway but a ...

from Alicante to

Benidorm Benidorm ( , , ) is a municipality in the province of Alicante, Valencian Community, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Known as the “New York City, New York of the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean”, Benidorm has been a tourist destinatio ...

, and conventional

commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

from Benidorm to

Altea Altea (, ) is a city and municipality located in the Valencian Community, Spain, on the section of Mediterranean coast called the Costa Blanca. At present, the economy of Altea is based on tourism, which started to grow in the 1950s because of ...

Calp Calpe (; ) is a coastal municipality located in the ''comarca'' of Marina Alta, in the province of Alicante, Valencian Community, Spain, by the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of and a population density of . The city lies at the foot of the ...

and

Dénia Dénia (; ) is a historical coastal city in the province of Alicante, Spain, on the Costa Blanca halfway between Alicante and Valencia (city in Spain), Valencia, and the capital and judicial seat of the Comarques of the Valencian Community, ''c ...

History

There has been a long history of urban rail service in Alicante. The tram service began on 13 July 1893 and the network was rapidly expanding to

Mutxamel Mutxamel (; ) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Alacantí, Alicante, Valencian Community, Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring ...

(1902),

Elche Elche (, ; , , , ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality of Spain, belonging to the province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community. According to 2024's data, Elche has a population of 234,800 inhabitants,

and

Crevillent Crevillent (; ) is a town and municipality located in the Alicante province, part of the Valencian Community, Spain. It is situated in the ''comarca'' of Baix Vinalopó, and lies at the foot of the hill range known locally as Serra de Creville ...

(1905) and

San Vicente del Raspeig San Vicente del Raspeig (Spanish) or Sant Vicent del Raspeig (Valencian), or simply San Vicente / Sant Vicent, is a municipality located in the ''comarca'' of Alacantí, in the province of Alicante, Spain, inside the conurbation of Alicante city ...

(1906). Initially, the streetcars were horse-drawn. From 1903 the trams were powered by steam engines, leading to the disappearance of the horse-drawn trams by 1924. The electrification of tram lines began in 1923. In the 1920s and 30s the network was further expanded throughout the city and was extensively used in the 1940s. In the 1950s, due to the high cost of electricity, trams were gradually losing the competition against growing automobile services and by 14 November 1969 they completely disappeared from the streets. Thirty years later, on 13 March 1999 the trams returned with the inauguration of an experimental route between Plaza del Mar and Albufereta that was extended to El Campello in 2003.

Lines

The network comprises the following lines: Notes: What is now L3 was opened initially in 1999 as an experimental service between Porta del Mar and Albufereta, and was extended to El Campello in 2003. 4L no longer operates as of 2013 and instead has had its service replaced by L5. L9 was originally taken over by FGV in 1987, and was incorporated into the tram network upon its opening.

L1

L1 is a limited-stop service from Alicante city centre to Benidorm taking 70 minutes journey time. In Benidorm, it connects with line L9 to Denia.

L2

L2 starts from the city centre to the General Hospital of Alicante, the University of Alicante and San Vicente del Raspeig, with a journey time of 28 minutes.

L3

L3 is a stopping service from Alicante to El Campello.

L4

L4 runs from the city centre to a loop in ''Playa de San Juan'' district.

4L

4L ran from Porta del Mar to Sangueta. The section is now replaced by the longer L5 that additionally runs through the shared L4 loop though the ''Playa de San Juan''. 4L was previously an extension of the old L1 built to facilitate passengers to the core of the city but due to the diversion of all lines through the urban tunnel to Luceros, the tracks were connected to the new diversions and established as 4L (Puerta del Mar - Sangueta , ''Lanzadera Puerta del Mar''), later closing in 2013 but reopening as a part of the then new L5.

L5

L5 starts at Porta del Mar to Sangueta, then following the L4 loop in ''Playa de San Juan'' district. It was opened in 2019, using former alignment from Porta del Mar and Sangueta that was used prior to the opening of the city centre tunnel to Luceros.

L9

L9 is diesel powered commuter rail service from Benidorm along the coast to Denia, stopping at other important tourist towns like Altea and Calp. Services are subject to disruption due to engineering works as the line is prepared for electrification.

Shared Central Section

Lines L1, L2, L3 and L4 share the city centre underground section between MARQ and the city centre Luceros station. The Mercado station on the segment was opened on 10 May 2007 and the Luceros was opened on 18 June 2010.

Utilisation

In 2022, the network served more than 13 million passengers. The busiest stations were ''Luceros'' (2,110,810 passengers), ''Mercado'' (1,367,514), ''Benidorm'' (731,051), ''San Vicente del Raspeig'' (686,983) and ''El Campello'' (540,622). L9 en 2023

Future expansion

The underground section is planned to continue westward to ''Estación Multimodal'' serving the Adif station (and a possible relocation of the bus station). This was originally delayed, but in April 2022 President of the Valencian Government

Ximo Puig Joaquín Francisco Puig Ferrer (born 4 January 1959), known as Ximo Puig (), is a Spanish politician who served as President of the Valencian Government from 2015 to 2023. He was also the leader of the Socialist Party of the Valencian Country ...

committed funds to progress this extension. On the other hand, there are plans to extend the tram-train service in different places: * New Line 6, from ''Estación Intermodal'' to Hospital of San Vicente del Raspeig * New line to the neighborhoods in the south of the city * New line to ''San Juan'' and ''Muchamiel'' * New line between ''Torrevieja'' and ''Orihuela'' * New line between ''Elche'' and the Airport

Gallery

Luceros1.jpg Alicante Tram 4.jpg Estació del MARQ del TRAM, Alacant.JPG Underground stations ParadaLONalc.jpg ParadaMUCalc.jpg ParadaGAalc.jpg Ground stations

Network map

Notes

References

External links

Tram Alicante official website
(English) {{Coord, 38, 21, 55, N, 0, 26, 40, W, region:ES-VC_type:landmark_source:kolossus-cawiki, display=title Transport in Alicante Light rail in Spain Regional rail in Spain