Metro Barcelona promises more accessible trains from 2022

Serious commitment to equitable mobility

At the end of this week, TMB, the operator of the Barcelona subway, informed the public that there will be drastic improvements in terms of accessibility on its trains running on lines 1 and 3, starting in 2022. This was announced in conjunction with the relevant authorities from the City Council concerned with social improvements, as well as with organizations representing the interests of disabled people in the city.

The interior design of new convoys takes into account the needs of maximum diversity of users

TMB has contracted, by public tender, the supply of 50 trains to Alstom, which is manufacturing them at the Santa Perpètua de Mogoda plant with the commitment to deliver them between the summer of 2021 and November 2022. The initial delivery will consist of 42 units and in 2023 of 8 additional units. There will be 26 of international width standard, which will form the 7000 series and will be destined for Line 3, and 24 of Iberian width standard that will form the 8000 series and will service Line 1.

The new trains will have the following characteristics:

• Wider corridors and doors. Externally, the doors will be differentiated with the red colour that is being implemented throughout the fleet to contrast with the white of the sides.
• The first door of the train ('access doors') will have an automatic opening by default at each station, without the passenger having to press the button or make any request. They also have a light and acoustic warning, which will emit a recognizable sound differentiated from the sound of warning of opening and closing the doors, to facilitate their location to people with visual impairments.
• There will be no vertical bars facing the access doors, which will avoid an obstacle for wheelchair users. Instead, support bars will be placed on the roof and in the vertical walls of the environment to ensure the safety of passengers.
• The train has twenty seats reserved for people with reduced mobility distributed in rows of four seats per car, located in the central sector. They will have a contrasting colour in relation to the rest of the seats and a custom signage design integrated in the same reserved seat. 
• Each group of reserved seats has two stop request buttons (with light and sound confirmation), which will send a warning to the driver indicating that a person with reduced mobility will get off at the next station.
• Free seating spaces have been designated to accommodate four wheelchair user passengers, two in each end car of the train and in the vicinity of the first doors. All reserved spaces will have the same mechanisms and devices that passengers can use in other areas, such as the stop button, the emergency handle and the intercom, located at a height that puts them within reach of wheelchair users occupying the reserved space. 
• The train has video screens located on each of the doors, as well as speakers in the room, to inform the next station visually and acoustically. A magnetic induction loop system has also been implemented in the first and last car to make it easier for people with cochlear implants to hear.

In order to determine the access facilities to be implemented in the new trains, the criteria set by TMB's Universal Accessibility technicians have been taken into account.