As of Thursday 13 March, Serveis Ferroviaris de Mallorca (SFM) is introducing more trains in its regular working hours schedule, from Monday to Friday, to extend connections between Palma and Inca and on the metro to the UIB, in addition to the reinforcements incorporated since September, with an increase in capacity by 3,500 seats at peak times.
These new services will reinforce the train and metro timetable at peak times, providing users with more frequencies and more capacity at times of high demand. This reinforcement is a continuation of the improvements implemented last year, with an increase in the number of special services on the train and reinforcements in the metro since September.
"A new step forward in the improvement of public transport and to reinforce the train and metro service", stressed Regional Minister for Housing, Territory and Mobility of the Government of the Balearic Islands, José Luis Mateo, during a press conference with Director General for Mobility, Lorena del Valle, and the manager of SFM, José Ramón Orta.
The new metro reinforcement, between 13:35 and 14:35, and maintenance of the reinforcement implemented in September between 7:15 and 9:15, increase service capacity by more than 2,500 seats in high-demand sections. New train services are provided, increasing capacity by around 1,000 seats in the early hours of the day.
Three new services have been added to the daily train schedule from Monday to Friday: two Inca-Palma trains departing at 6:08 and 6:38, and one Palma-Inca at 6:00. Thus, the first train from Inca is brought forward by 10 minutes, arriving at the Intermodal station at 6:42; and adding a second train from Inca at 6:38 frees up the Manacor-Palma train at 6:16, which is currently very busy.
As for the metro, two new services will be added between the Intermodal and the UIB, one in each direction. The metro that until now left the Intermodal at 13:55 is brought forward to 13:50, and a new metro is added at 14:00. In the opposite direction, the metro that leaves at 14:15 from the UIB will now leave at 14:10 and a new metro is added at 14:20.
This will increase frequencies between 13:35 and 14:15, a time with high occupancy on the metro, and 840 more seats will be made available in this time slot. This reinforcement is in addition to the one introduced in September, with four new services at peak hours, two Intermodal-UIB and two in the opposite direction.
SFM maintains this improvement, which involved doubling frequencies at peak times and providing 1,680 seats in the 7:30 - 7:40 and 8:30 - 8:40 time slots. Thus, in just over five months, six daily services have been added to the metro line, with an increase in capacity of more than 2,500 seats.
Increased special services and reinforcements during 2024
Reinforcing train and metro frequencies is one of the Government's commitments and one of the measures to improve the service that it intends to implement progressively. During 2024, the addition of new reinforcements and more special services already represented a significant increase.
Since the end of November last year, SFM has been offering reinforcement trains and special services on an almost continuous basis, in an additional schedule unprecedented in recent years. During every weekend from 30 November to 19 January this year, the service was reinforced with sixteen additional trains from early afternoon until the end of the service in the evening every Saturday and Sunday.
In addition, last summer, the regular service was maintained for the whole month of July for the first time as the winter timetable was extended to the second half of July, when previously the summer reduction of frequencies began in this period, which was limited to the month of August in 2024.
Special night trains were also scheduled during the Christmas holidays and for the celebrations of Sant Antoni and Sant Sebastià, as well as special trains for the Three Kings' Day parade, the Correfoc de Sant Sebastià, the Rueta and the carnival street parades.
Incorporation of the new trains into the service
Likewise, as of 5 March, the new trains acquired by SFM began to operate on the Sa Pobla line, with eight daily services. Two of the new quadruple units started running on the metro line last September and now, with the other three, they are starting to operate on the train network.
SFM plans to introduce these new units on the train lines progressively in order to improve service safety. The five new trains that arrived last year completed their testing period at the end of December.
Train drivers also had to receive practical and theoretical training in the operation of the new units and we must remember that practical training cannot begin until the trains have passed the test phase.