Palma.SFM said yesterday that four further units of the electric trains ordered for Majorcan Railway Services has arrived on the island.
Under normal circumstances, said SFM Managing Director José Ramón Orta we'd be pleased but we've now got the problem of not knowing where to put the rolling stock.
He explained that there is still a further delivery to be be made but at the moment, the rail line has only been electrified as far as the station of Enllaç near Inca. Apparently there is no room left in the SFM rail yards and workshops to house the rolling stock waiting to go into service.
Orta said that provisionally, a space at the Balearic University (UIB) station is going to be used for garaging. This will mean, he said, that the Metro which also services UIB, will have to run on one track. During the previous Balearic government run by a Socialist coalition, SFM contracted 19 trains, each comprising between three or four carriages. The project envisaged covering the whole of the Majorcan railway network with an electrified service, but budgetary cuts have meant that plans to extend the electrification as far as Manacor and Sa Pobla have been put on hold, and have also grounded the ambitious project of re-establishing a rail link from Manacor to Arta with an electrified tram-style train.
Next month, SFM is planning to set up an express service between Palma and Inca with just a single stop in Marratxi, shortening the journey time to 22 minutes. SFM intends to use some of the new stockpiled trains for the purpose, in order to stop them from deteriorating.
The use of the new rolling stock will mean that modifications will have to be made to platforms en route.
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