by Staff Reporter
THE train will run as far as the bus station (behind the Plaza España station) while the tracks are being put underground.
The Majorcan Railway Service (SFM) awarded the contract last Tuesday and the company which won suggested maintaining the train service as far as the bus station, which is just 250 metres from the Plaza España.
Mabel Cabrer, the public works minister, said that her department is still studying the proposal in order to guarantee its viability.
Cabrer went on to explain that in the initial stages of work, the train will continue to run to the Plaza España, and afterwards to the bus station.
She has already stopped the work which had begun in Son Fuster, at the ring road, to prepare a parking area for the buses which were to ferry passengers to the city centre.
The train will reach the bus station on an alternative track which in some stretches will run very close to blocks of flats and at a very reduced speed (the speed will drop from 90 to 20 kilometres per hour).
This alternative, Cabrer admitted, would be even cheaper than ferrying passengers by bus.
A wayside stop will be built in Calle Balmes.
The bulk of the work and the construction of the underground transport depot and car park will start after Christmas and will be carried out in two stages.
The depot and car park will take 22 months to complete and will cost 63 million euros, putting the tracks underground will take 18 months and cost 29 million. Both projects will be built simultaneously.
As to the other major transport project, the underground to the University, plans will be posted for inspection today.
According to a study for demand, presented by Cabrer yesterday, the underground will be used by between 2.8 and 3.2 million passengers in its first year.
Within 20 years, it will be used by between 3.9 and 4.5 million passengers.
It will be used by more people than the train service it was claimed.