The reopening of the Manacor-Artá Train requires the construction of 40 km of new bylanes.

The construction of the whole infrastructure is equivalent to 91 cuarteradas (1 cuarterada= 7.103 m2)

The Anti Train Association has analysed the plans to open the railway from Manacor to Artá and the corresponding information about the environmental impact. Whilst the Government provides arguments on the supposed benefits of the train / tram in Manacor, the Anti Train Association wants to denounce the destruction that this pharaonic infrastructure would cause in the Llevante region.
One of the principal impacts of the project is to have to construct 40 bylanes to provide access to all of the affected properties that lie adjacent to the path of the railway. These new bylanes will occupy more than 200,000 m2. This is equivalent to a highway of more than 40 km long and 5 m wide. In comparison, this equivalates to constructing an extra lane on the Palma to Manacor motorway. In other words, to open 33 km of railway it’s also necessary to construct 40 km of access roads and bylanes.
On top of this it would be necessary to build 17 bridges and tunnels. The repositioning of 45 electrical installations and lines and 7 water lines. This is without counting the three electric transformers needed for the electric train / tram.
In study, an expropriation of at least 411,000 m2 would be necessary. This space plus 231,000 m2 owned by SFM – Servicios Ferroviarios de Mallorca (management and operations) add up to the equivalent of a finca of more than 91 “cuarteradas”. This whole area would be occupied by access roads, infrastructure, ramps, drives, garbage skips and functional structures in a state which, according to the study of GRUSAMAR-INECO of Julio 2008 (taken from the study of environmental impact simulation of this project, page 72 and others) would be permanent, irreversible and non-recoverable.
To give a visual idea, the 91 cuarteradas in total that are necessary to reopen the railway line from Manacor to Artà, is comparatively equivalent to the area occupied by the four lanes and central reservation of the motorway from Manacor to Palma.

Anti Train requests a comprehensive public transport and rejects work that causes an irreversible, unrecoverable and permanent negative environmental impact.

Anti Train is not against a new transport system, it’s actually in favour of one, but not one that reaches only 5 urban nuclei – actual itinery of the train project – abandoning the rest of the coastal towns and other dispersed areas in the Llevant.
We are in favour of the conservation of the island as it is, we don’t want more motorways nor more destruction of our territory with new infrastructures, whether they be new roads, new access bylanes or new railways.
We believe the region can have a punctual, efficient, clean and ecologically sound transport system using a network of buses and minibuses, operated and managed by serious and efficient concessions. Like it or not, to connect the coastal population and dispersed areas of the Llevant region we will still need an auxiliary network of transport anyway to connect to the 5 urban nuclei that have a train station.
We are a pioneering nation in renewable energies, we must also try to be so in ecological transport taking advantage of all the existing technology, utilizing the resources we have but without destroying anymore of our surroundings nor harming the landscape, the flora, the fauna or the fragility of the countryside.

Antecedents
In 1993 by means of R.D. 2232-93 the C.A.I.B. transferred the competition of Transporte ferroviario. In 1994, according to S.F.M company, it was decreed 10-94 on 13th January (B.O.I.B-15/94) the idea of uniting Palma with Artà by means of the train, in force from 2003 with the initial phase, Estacio d Enllaç – Manacor. This was determined by political forces with the support of particular interests initiated through illogical propaganda with unasserted and incomprehensible indications as to whether there was approval or rejection to this idea, or to the study of environmental impact and the project data of 2008 July. Today we only present the more recognizable environmental impacts to them by showing that the project published in July of 2008 and set out to public exhibition in November of the 2008 differs to the report of environmental impact at the beginning of 2009. Until now the public had not been informed on the environmental cost of this project and therefore the option to be in favour or against was an illogical and irrational one.
Now, with this information at hand The Anti Train Association considers that this project is detrimental to the Llevant region and offers very little ecologically nor would it benefit in efficiency because the proportion between the investment and the transport coverage is immensely out of proportion.

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

To enforce such an ambitious project , we know , that we need the support of a wide social mass . Therefore we need help from everybody . The Membership is free , but we hope you cooperate in various activities , which allow to us , to get a public transport which stands for all citizens and tourist at the Comarca Llevant (region from the east coast) from Mallorca.

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The Anti Train Association organises a meeting organised for Transport without Trains.

The best way to prevent the train passing through Manacor is to not build the train to Artá but to provide a fast and flexible public transport system.

The Anti Train Association - Xarxa de Mobilitat del Llevant - has organised a meeting for the “Transport without Trains” campaign on Monday 20th at 19.30 hours in Manacor station. During this meeting we shall be looking for ways to add public pressure and to highlight the inefficiencies of the planned transport projects.

The Anti Train Association’s principal object is to raise awareness to the population of the Llevante region in order to create an efficient public transport system that can be used by all of the population areas of the said region. A train / tram could only travel at around 30km/h around the urban district of Manacor and would make difficult the transport for people from different population centres in the Llevante region to Inca or Palma. The Anti Train Association does not agree with some of the proposed solutions like putting buses from Plaza Madrid to the train station, or making the train travel the outskirts of Manacor. Both these ideas, like the idea of the train / tram, would make the public transport route to Palma impossible simply because it would take too long, This would make using public transport unviable for people needing to travel from the Llevante areas to Palma every day for work or study.

The train / tram in Manacor is a public service for the people of Manacor that lacks global vision for the for the real transport needs of the city.

The tram that the Manacor Council proposes will not really be a public service for the people of Manacor because it won’t connect all areas and, therefore, lacks a global vision of the transport needs of the population Manacor. The proposal is an erroneous solution to the problem of connecting two different types of train, the electric tram in the Llevante areas and the diesel train to Palma.

In addition neither the Government nor the City council have presented / displayed a mobility study to analyse the effects of the passage of this train / tram to the other types of transport in and around Manacor. Neither have they presented any type of project or plans on how it will affect the flow of traffic and pedestrian or bicycle access on the Paseo del Ferrocarril or the surrounding areas. In addition, there is no study or project on how the passage of the train / tram would affect public areas (land) or the consequences thereof.

The Anti Train Association considers the train to Artà, as well as the tram between the two stations of Manacor, to be deficient projects founded without proper research or foundation and demand that it provides public access and opinion to the mobility studies on which they are based. We also demand a comparison of possible alternatives like a bus network for all areas of the Llevant region, that connect with a joint station in Manacor and the construction of a dual carriageway to Inca to increase speed and flexibility. In this way public transport coverage of all 20 population areas of the Llevant could be attained (over 200 stops) rather than just the 4 stations provided by the train route. Only in this way can we make it worth using an efficient public transport system around the Llevant region rather than using the car.

We propose a study on the upgrading Manacor station to accept buses and of upgrading to a dual carriageway Manacor-Inca to increase speed, safety and flexibility.

The Anti Train Association proposes an alternative public transport system to the train considering that the government plans for the train project do not fulfil the expectations of a public transport system for everyone. In addition, by dividing the urban area of Manacor, this project destroys the rural territory that it divides because it will not be sufficient to build only on existing lines or routes but will also need 33km of track plus access and fencing.

The regions of the Llevante are dispersed and have low population densities. Trains are fine for moving large numbers of passengers but not for running half full considering the amount of energy needed to move them. A train running half full uses much more fuel per passenger than any other type of transport.

The Anti Train Association believes that the train / tram for Manacor and Artà project has many unsolved flaws and that some of the 19th century ideas of this project are intolerable for a 21st century society. The association members have not had access to information on the study of the transport needs of the people of the Llevant region to justify this pharaonic project.

The Balearic Railway Transport Plan indicates that the Llevant line is the least viable of the railroads that it wants to re-open or create, and only becomes viable if it doesn’t end at Artà but continues to Cala Ratjada. If it were to continue to Cala Ratjada it would negate the justification of this line, being not to create but to re-open, because a railway between Artà and Cala Ratjada doesn’t, and never did, exist.

The Spanish Strategic Plan of Infrastructures and Transports (PEIT) of the Ministry of Public Works and Economy does not recommend the development of railway in the Balearic islands but indicates explicitly that because it is a fragile territory there must be thorough analysis on how to provide the best method of public transport that complies with all of the different social needs.

For more information you can consult the Association’s web-page (http://alternativaaltren.blogspot.com), write to alternativaaltren@gmail.com or contact the president of the association, Claudia Gelabert (+34630173791)