
Barcelona’s Line 9 – Inspiring Montreal’s Pink Line - luu
http://www.cat-bus.com/2017/10/barcelonas-line-9-inspiring-montreals-pink-line/
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janlaureys
I live in relatively small city with a pretty extensive "pre-metro" network.
Our trams ride part underground, part on seperate lines above ground and part
on tracks embedded in the road. Visiting cities like Barcelona, Paris or
London always annoys me because of how awesome the Metro system is. Trains are
usually on time, frequent and very fast.

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maxcan
I used to live in Tokyo and Singapore before moving to a crumbling city which
aspires to developing world levels of corruption, blight, and bureaucratic
ineptitude called “San Francisco”. Completely agree with how amazing well run
transportation systems are. Also amazes me how consistently SF can fail
miserably at even the most basic transportation projects. (SFO is a notable
exception. No idea how that happened but we are so lucky to have it)

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simonebrunozzi
I moved from Singapore to San Francisco in 2012. Same shock. And yet, tons of
interesting things happen in San Francisco, which is why I guess I'm still
here.

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maxcan
I think we met at a few events towards the end of my time in Singapore.
Definitely have a decent number of mutual friends.

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unclesams-uncle
It's quite a cool line. It's the only metro connection to Barcelona Airport,
although if you're going to the center, it's a bit of a detour, as there are
more direct routes.

Since the line is completely automated, you can sit at the front or back and
get an unobstructed view of the tracks/tunnel.

If you're into trains/trams (like a certain founder of Pied Piper), it's worth
checking out.

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gok
FWIW Line 9 construction was started in 2009 and is currently expected to
finish in 2023. Most of it is open already though. It's a very cool
construction technique but it's not fast.

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RustyBucket
Most of it but not most useful, unfortunately. Middle piece is missing - the
one you actually need to connect entire city. Until that is in place - you
still need transfers in city center.

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logronoide
The author is not right about the final cost of the Line 9 in Barcelona. It is
a financial disaster x5 times more expensive than projected, twice expensive
the high speed connection between Madrid and Barcelona!
[http://www.libremercado.com/2015-06-12/escandalo-la-
linea-9-...](http://www.libremercado.com/2015-06-12/escandalo-la-linea-9-del-
metro-de-barcelona-duplica-el-coste-del-ave-a-madrid-1276550332/)

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spanxx
Where is that money? Was it lost to corruption, mismanagement or incompetence?

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narag
Probably all of them. We tend to think corruption first because the guy that
was highest authority in the region for decades (and the capo of
independentists mafia) is charged with accusations of a massive and _systemic_
institutional corruption, that extracted 3% of every public contract.

The guy has been found to hold foreign accounts with astronomical amounts.
That's not even controversial, he's more or less confessed, but he's not
jailed yet after years of investigation and mountains of evidence.

Still that's not 3%, but multiple 100%'s.

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SirLJ
It Montreal, it will cost more... the corruption is more than 3% either...

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bobthepanda
It is worth noting that BART chose to do something similar for its extension
into San Jose, and now the deadline has slipped from 2026 to as late as 2030.

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ape4
That Line 9 is pretty radical. If it works, it'll be cool. Might be best to
wait a bit and see if it works.

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HorizonXP
That's true, but honestly, given the glacial pace of transit infrastructure
development in Canada, it probably will be done by the time this project gets
approved.

(I'm a Torontonian.)

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52-6F-62
Yep. Was waiting for Toronto to chime in on this one. If only... if only...

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xvf22
I'm sure the Ontario line will be a great success... /s

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weinzierl
> One interesting thing to notice is that there isn’t much space for walkways
> inside the tunnels. In the image above, there’s no place to walk between the
> center wall and the train.

I wonder if air resistance becomes a problem with such small tunnels.

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app4soft
Barcelona L2 and L3 available as addons for _OpenBVE_ simulator.[0]

[0] [https://en.bvebarcelona.cat](https://en.bvebarcelona.cat)

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Milner08
It says its the longest metro service in Europe... I assume they are not
including the Elizabeth Line in London that will be 117km in total.

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ant6n
It says it's the longest "metro line" once it finishes construction. The
Elizabeth line isn't a metro line, and it's underground tunnel is only 21km.

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dfcagency
This might be off topic, but I highly encourage anyone to visit Montreal -
ideally in summer, but even in winter. It's the most vibrant city in Canada,
and the 2nd best city in North America (behind NYC).

If you want to discover precisely what the Bay Area is missing when people
talk about "culture" \- Montreal has it.

Note: I'm a 30+ year Bay Area native.

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thbr99
Also good luck getting customer service in English. Its worse if you are not
white.

I am not sure you can call it 'culture', but I find Québec is culturally
friendly to "white French speakers"

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dfcagency
When’s the last time you’ve been? I’ve found everyone to be extremely
friendly, even in the east (French) side of the island.

All you need to do is learn “I’m sorry, I don’t speak French - but I’m
learning!”

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thbr99
Im a temp. resident of Montreal but contemplating on moving out of Quebec
soon. As a non white minority, I don't feel welcome in Quebec at all.

There are more, but here is the latest:

[https://twitter.com/sleeCJAD/status/1192881494689288192](https://twitter.com/sleeCJAD/status/1192881494689288192)

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dfcagency
I hardly think this problem, while absolutely abhorrent, is unique to
Montreal.

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thbr99
You will have to be a resident in Montreal to experience it. Tourist spots
don't count.

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dfcagency
I usually stay in Verdun or Hochelaga... I'm not a stranger to the city.

