MAH-laga

The fact is that this system can just upgrade the vehicles and then it becomes a Light Metro system

Starting up a escalator or large conveyor belt from zero takes a ton of energy and is hard on components so sometimes idling them at low speed its better then stopping and starting them. Its also much better then leaving them running at full speed.

They should have made it all underground except for the city center like Buffalo

This reminds me of the O Train in Ottawa. The downtown stations are all large underground metro stations, but cater to 1 or 2 tram cars. If you want to roast a transit system you should check it out when it’s running

Another system you can speedrun on just one train is the Newark Light Rail as on weekends, service on the two lines operate jointly! Their Alcazaba is pretty cool! It was built starting in the 11th century and then was modified or rebuilt multiple times up to the 14th century. Their big cathedral was constructed between 1528 and 1782, following the plans drawn by Diego de Siloe, who was also the primary architect of the Almería, Granada and Guadix Cathedrals in Spain, Guadalajara Cathedral in Mexico, and the cathedrals of Lima and Cuzco in Peru! Famed traveler Ibn Battuta passed through the city in 1325 and praised it for its beauty, ruby-colored pomegranates, and pottery! The María Zambrano that the city's main station is named after was a Spanish essayist and philosopher associated with the Generation of '36 movement or a group of poets and playwrights who worked during the Spanish Civil War. After the Second Spanish Republic lost in 1939, she went into exile and lived in many places like Italy, Switzerland, France, Mexico, and Cuba. She finally returned to Spain in 1984 after Franco passed away and passed in February 1991 at age 86.

As you mentioned the Phoenicians, it is obligatory for me to reference "Thank the Phoenicians" from Epcot's Spaceship Earth! Andalusia comes from the Arabic name for Muslim Iberia which was "Al-Andalus". Málaga got its name from the Phoenicians who named it Malaka. Besides Belgrade and Málaga, other systems that have used Urbos 3s include Oslo, Antwerp, Mauritius (yes, the African island nation of Mauritius actually has a light-rail system!), the Coast Tram (an interurban tramway along the Flemish coast), Lund in Sweden, and Cuiabá, Brazil. The eye being a reference to the boats there having eyes on them is such a cool reference! Maltese boats (luzzus) have eyes on them because of the Phoenicians as well! Here are some interesting Pablo Picasso facts: Picasso had such a difficult birth and was such a weak baby that when he was born, the midwife thought that he was stillborn so she left him on a table to attend his mother. It was his uncle, a doctor named Don Salvador, that saved him. Because of his father who worked as a painter, Picasso's first word was lapiz, or pencil! His father, who specialized in naturalistic paintings of birds, began teaching him to create artistic works from the age of seven! In all his life Picasso produced about 147,800 pieces, consisting of: 13,500 paintings, 100,000 prints and engravings, 300 sculptures and ceramics and 34,000 illustrations, quite the impressive career for nearly 80 years!

Presumably the platforms were built with the intention of lashing together multiple trams when the traffic demands it. I also noticed a bunch of NaviLens markers around the station, a big plus for accessibility. (The black, cyan, magenta, and yellow tiles that sort of look like multicolor QR codes.)

the slowing down escalators are a cost saving measure. we have them too in vienna. the reason is, that it is more taxing to the escalator to start it up from 0 to regular speed than to start it up from a very slow speed. it's essentially saving them on mainenance, more than saving them on energy. still cost saving.

More Málaga history: After being founded by the Phoenicians in 770 BC, the city was under the hegemony of Ancient Carthage from the 6th century BC, and from 218 BC, it was under Roman rule, economically prospering owing to garum production. In the 8th century, after a period of Visigothic and Byzantine rule, it was placed under Islamic rule. But in 1487, the Crown of Castile gained control in the midst of the Granada War. Málaga is known for its Holy Week and Feria de Agosto festivities. The Feria de Agosto commemorates the taking of the city by Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon on August 18, 1487, five years before the completion of the Reconquista. During the fair, the streets of the city center are adorned with paper lanterns and floral displays, verdiales (which is the most characteristic local variant of flamenco) and decked-out horses and carriages.

I don't know, platforms are long, stations are spacious, tunneling is done, it seems quite future proof. It's easy to add more capacity by using longer sets, pairing units, wtv, or even evolve into a light metro. The surface parts can be an issue though, but not the tunnel sections. It reminds me of Porto's Metro. That said, Europe is full of awkward or poor transit systems...as well as lack of them!

As you mentioned, the ridership has doubled since last year. Last February, I took a few rides on the metro on a Sunday afternoon and it definitely didn't feel empty anymore. In fact Atarazanas station (in the city centre) definitely feels cramped, since the only platform is quite narrow and both disembarking and embarking passengers have to stand very close to each other. Spanish authorities love to call tram systems "metropolitano" or "metro" since it sounds more prestigious, but in reality their services resemble those of a light rail or a tram (same goes for the metro systems in Granada or Seville). It is also widely believed that trams aren't as good as metros since they run overground, so they would rather build "metro" systems that don't interfere with road traffic. This is a huge misconception that has prevented the construction/reconstruction of proper tram lines, so there is a serious lack of tram infrastructure in many medium-sized cities, unlike other European countries. The situation has been improving in recent times, but changes are slow. In spite of its issues, I think the metro expansion has been quite beneficial for Málaga and the price is reasonable (€0.33 per ride). Further expansions are desperately needed, but I wish local authorities (and people) were more open to building more tram lines instead of spending a fortune on the construction of tunnels and underground infrastracture.

In Southern NJ, there's a town also named Malaga, though that one is pronounced "Malla-guh", the first syllable rhyming with "pal", by locals. Malaga has no trams. Though, it does have a Wawa.

1:33 When it comes to accents, Caleb DID do his research!

I really like the trams' livery. It's a very unique design, and I like that it taps into elements of the city's cultural heritage.

Fun Fact, there is EU wide regulations which enforce the speedlimit of escalators

I'm sure having underground tramways is not unique to Malaga, look at Valencia and Porto (Oporto) for cities with trams that go underground. However, it is unusual to have a fully underground tramway, but this would save on having a shared fleet of vehicles - if the width of the tunnels is large enough it might be possable to switch to a full size train later.

The trams look very similar to the CAF Urbos 3 trams we have in Edinburgh.

It seems like in Europe there are a lot of mass transit systems that are hybrid light rail and metro systems and hybrid metro and commuter rail systems.

2:10 It'a a cost-saving measure common in many countries in Europe

In 2023, I think, they opened a two station-extension to the historic city centre.

I've been to Malaga this month and I never used the metro. Only the commuter rail. I found it very convenient. I do find it really odd that Malaga central is just one rail.

Awesome!

This looks like some sort of pre-metro as it is called

I rode this system. It’s pretty nice but is indeed quite odd. I couldn’t help but think about just how large the stations are. Like they’re a bit too large than they need to be, although I’m sure this is just a bit of forward planning for when the system eventually expands. I also couldn’t help but think this project must’ve been a bit controversial as the construction of this system must’ve been quite expensive for what it is; a tram. I’m sure it would’ve been feasible to just build it as a normal at grade/grade separated tramway. But alas this is what it is. I’d love to go back in the future as I quite enjoyed my stay in Malaga.

2:09 I believe it serves as an energy-saving measure, because, you know, why does an escalator need to move if there's no one currently on it? Exactly. That's why these sorts of escalators have started to become mainstream.

I stayed in Malaga for a few months, years ago, and always wanted an excuse to take this tram because I honestly loved the design of the stations (and I like anything rail related). The only use I found for it was to take it the the local university (which had a really nice library) and to the very end of the line. I used the circanas way more often, because it actually... went places. I now live in Nice and there is a surprisingly similar situation, making the TER 90% of my train travel. I agree with exactly what you said in the intro because even though the Western Europeans mindset is much more positive about transit than your average American, there are these total oddities everywhere! Edit: After watching this video it's awesome to see you do all the things I did haha. I remember how much I love the design language of these Spanish rail systems!

Aaahhh now I see where you got the community post idea from

10:02 You said it yourself, in the end it doesn't matter how it's built or what kind of public transport is, what matters is the ridership, and Malaga wins that point, even more with the extension to Atarazanas and will be more with the Hospital extension. Amazing review, greetings from Spain!✌

Reminds of a certain project in Toronto...

It reminds me of the Cologne U Bahn.

Did you use a common farecard for both systems or were you required to use a separate card for the Cercanias?

But how do you see the difference between a Tram and a Metro?

What's the difference between a tram and a train? Trains are just bigger?

Light or pre-metro. Brussels has them too.

First of all, the current system is small but (very slowly) developing. Currently the system is 13.6 km and it carries almost 14 million people in 2023, with single tram car, and there are similar systems that carry much more. The stations are built for the future to allow larger capacity and longer trains and tunneling allows higher frequency. It´s also possible to convert this in the future to full metro service. Apart from that, this is Spain. Our cities (certainly the central parts) are far more dense with much narrower streets and the costs here are not as high as in the US. The complicated extension to the center was way over budget at the cost of 160 million Euros. Construction of the extension of L2 has started and future extensions will not necessarily by all underground. One more thing about your pronunciation. It is pretty good but you forget the one thing many do, the accented letters. Málaga has one above the "a" so there must be en emphasis on the Má -laga. Andalucía as one above the i so you emphasis the cí Andalu -cí -a, the same goes to Cercanías. Also, CAF is read like a word and not C.A.F by letters. This is usually the case when it can be read as a word, and I believe that in many cases this also applies to English (at list in the US). If it's not cannot be read as a word than it will be by letters like B.B.V.A (a bank).

The thing is that a city with the population of 500,000 people isn’t going to have a huge metro system let’s see how many metro systems a city like Malaga size has in USA

Similar system up the road in Granada

I have a question for you: Do you share posts?

Classy🐳 😃

I'm very conflicted about these types of systems. I understand that it's cheaper and easier to get regular metro trains for the same capacity as the trams. But the low-floor trams require much smaller tunnels and are easier to bury underground if you're doing cut and cover construction. And how much capacity do you lose with a two-three of the seats in the way? 5-10 standees? Sure, but you do get a few extra seats. It's not like we don't have metro systems with waaaaaaaay too many seats taking up space from standees. All in all, I do think that the future of metros is probably low-floor and tram-like. These systems are just so much cheaper to build and extend. And you can easily do a temporary surface alignment if you run out of money or can't tunnel some place. These things may still seem exotic now, but at rate that they're spreading I think that even in 10-15 years they will be perceived as just another type of standard metro/subway.

porto had one for years and no one is talking about it

It fells like i am in nordkorea seeing empty station that looks like north Korea station

Premieres in 6 days???? Ok I’ll see everyone in 6 days :P

The slow escalators when there hasn't been a rider recently are a recent thing to save electricity, not money. Some even stop but I think that was deemed too disconcerting for wide adoption.

It’s a tram-tro

It’s not a German fizzy drink, it’s a Spanish city! Try pronouncing Malaga properly. The stress is on the first vowel and it’s one word. I lived there for years, spending a lot of time avoiding the construction work for the metro.

Interesting that they use "elevator" instead of "lift" for the english subtext for the elevator

Brilliant video sir.

This is a year overdue

One thing what is a bit of a pity is that you didn't show the surface sections. I've looked it up on the map and the surface sections run besides the street if at all so installing high platforms isn't much of a problem outside of potential residents who don't like seeing proper railway platforms in their eyesight and the only other "justification" are manifacturers (and even they can be convinced to build high-floor vehicles, considering that there still is a demand for them). I wouldn't even call it a tramway outside of the use of tramcars with how off-street it is. Line 2 is even more extreme (total grade separation) and should have used a separate technology with the only justification there being the reversal at El Perchel (which I believe get cut after the line 2 extension) and maintenance facilities but these could have been avoided had line 1 be built high-floor... And I as mentioned last week, with how much of it is grade separate, it should have either been a branching system or fully grade separated (or at least most of the crossings removed on the surface sections).

I like your videos do you have an Instagram page

I love them and I have a folder about them come take a ride! (at folder 2) :)) 🚅🚈🚞🚝🚂🚃🚄 trains, trams, aren't they all beautifull

Odd use of 5-car Urbos 3s but on reflection, reasonably future-proof. Long platforms, mostly dedicated right of way and incorporating Alstom Urbalis CBTC from day one, means they could feasibly upgrade to 6 or 8 car 100km/h metro sets with screen doors and automated operation on the underground section, as demand increases. Platform height would need to be increased too.

Trams in tunnels yuk

Sorry dude, couldn't watch your video just because of the annoying botched city name.

YOU CANT SWEAR ITS CLASSY WHALE