Palma's new coach station to open mid March

STAFF REPORTER THE new coach station, located at the intermodal transport hub in Plaza Espanya in Palma, is to start operating from mid March this year. The Majorcan Railway Service (SFM) said yesterday that construction on the project was in fact technically finalised in October of 2007 but the many leaks in the roof of the building at Parc de ses Estacions made it impossible to consider opening the installations to the public until now. The contract for the new coach station had been awarded in 2005 to the joint venture company Llabrés Feliu-Azvi who have spent almost a year and a half making good the deficiencies. The total cost of the new station has been 65 million euros. SFM is highly satisfied with the outcome and expects use of the inter-urban coach system to exceed the 10 million passengers registered in 2007. The new premises which has 29 embarkation bays, was originally going to have ticket offices built but the coach operating companies insisted that their drivers take money for the journeys from passengers on board. The space will instead be used for public services including refreshment and information points. The total area of the new coach station covers 12'000 square metres in comparison to the 4'000 currently in use behind the Parc des Estacions. Integral travel tickets will enable passengers to economically combine coach travel with train journeys.