Seville the Second- 20/02/16
So, in the final Spanish instalment, I bring you my trip to Seville, the second time! This time, I was keen to sample the high speed offering which was the 0915 from Malaga, requiring an earlier start from Benalmadena, and indeed, I was catching the 0734 to Malaga Centro Alameda as far as good ol’ Maria Zambrano with duds
464218/464718 getting me in there for bang on 0802, where I now had a while to try my luck on the Metro and get my final tram (I captured 3110 on the Thursday, on a brief trip to Malaga in order to buy my tickets for this trip!) which was 3070. I was most bemused to head for the Palacio de los Deportes service, open the door, only for it to open halfway and bang shut in my face before departing! Guess I was off upstairs then! Dud
3030 took me along to Portada Alta, my bizarrely unrecorded shack, so I was just being extra sure that it was done! Sadly, it was then dud
3120 taking me along to La Isla, where for the last time I’d be walking along at sunrise into the main Maria Zambrano station, having my bag checked, and heading onto a busy waiting area. This morning we had the 0840 AVE to Barcelona, the 0900 AVE to Madrid, and my train, the 0915 AVANT to Seville. It was here that I noted exactly why AVEs are so punctual, as the 0840 to Barcelona Sants left half the train behind with doors locking shut at 0837! It didn’t leave until 0840 but it was still a very bizarre choice to leave everyone behind, especially as they were queuing to have tickets stamped! The next train to Barcelona Sants? 0840. Monday.
Meanwhile I caught sight of my train, which was to be winner
104011, a 4 coach Pendolino type train (the bodysides are very similar) and in all honesty inside I was underwhelmed! I was reserved in seat 10B, an aisle seat in a bay of 4! Which had no tables! A more expensive train, yet it lacked tables! ‘Oh never mind, I’ll just plug my phone in…wait what?!’ It also lacked plugs, wifi, information screens. This was not something anyone should be forking out more for. Lack of a table on a high speed service is just plain pathetic! 3 others joined me in the bay, making it very cosy and when I noted that the carriage was practically empty, I went and sat at the back in a very spacious pair of seats. I’ll give it that, if you want speed, even more legroom and a soft, springy seat then catch the AVANT. Departure was punctual and we quickly joined the high speed line, only to plunge into tunnel most of the way to the first station, Antequera Santa-Ana, before reaching speeds of up to 160mph, absolutely hammering our way to the positively gigantic Cordoba Central, where the train filled (and I prepared to move as reservation screens simply don’t exist!) Bizarrely though, I was in the only pair of seats NOT occupied by somebody from Cordoba, and we proceeded to switch direction and blast our way non stop to Sevilla Santa Justa, for around 1103, an amazing 7 minutes early!
Interior, 104011 by
Richard Green, on Flickr
104011, Sevilla SJ by
Richard Green, on Flickr
AVE, Sevilla SJ by
Richard Green, on Flickr
I now had plenty of time to buy a Zone 1 return on the Cercanias network, before jumping on winners
465203/465703 on the 1117 to Utrera, as far as shack 45, Virgen del Rocio. This was a nice move as winners
465233/465733 were directly behind on the fairly sporadic Line 5 service, which was terminating at the next station, shack 46, Jardines del Hercules. I was amazed to find that the entire 5 carriage train was deserted! Makes a change, as services operated by these Civia trains tend to be quite busy! I realised why we were so quiet. JDH serves future developments. I had 17 minutes until my train back to the city, so I left the station in order to cancel my outward portion of the ticket and put it straight back through to activate the return leg, before joining winners
465234/465734 back to San Bernardo. Now, time to complete the Metro network! Loading another day pass onto my smartcard, I tapped in and joined dud
107 all the way to the end of the line, which was shack 47, Olivar de Quintos. I was amazed at the sharpish turnaround here for a 7 minute service, which was basically, you arrive, the driver instantly jumps out, power walks to the other end, keys in, and closes the doors before leaving, all in around 2 minutes! The shack scratching could now begin as I was taken back down to shack 48, Montequinto. Winner
113 was up next to take me to the rather cavernous Europa, shack number 49, where it was then winner
103 to shack 50, Pablo de Olavide, another shack where photography was possible of the little trains.
465233/465733, Sevilla SJ by
Richard Green, on Flickr
465233/465733, Virgen del Roco by
Richard Green, on Flickr
465234/465734, Jardines des Hercules by
Richard Green, on Flickr
Seville Metro, Pablo de Olavide by
Richard Green, on Flickr
On joining winner
121 to shack 51, Contequinto, I noted a sign on the platform detailing the byelaws of the railway in Spanish! Turns out photography, recording, eating and drinking are completely banned! Seemed unreasonable but nobody had prevented me taking shots, although it turns out that this network had some nasty tricks up its sleeve. Oblivious to this however, I was soon joining dud
106 to shack 52, La Plata. I was under the impression that I had about a +2 here to change platforms, but oh no! It was a dead zero connection, resulting in me diving across the bridge and somehow jumping onto winner
115 as the doors were closing. Shack 53 was the amusingly named ‘Amate’ which was the last one on this end of the line. Dud
103 would now take me all the way to the other end of the line, shack 54, Ciudad Expo. Same quick turnaround here and I was soon back at shack 55, Cavaleri. One more in the central section and I was done! However, I held that one back until later as I was tempted by a run on the City Loop Line before my train north on the suburban network. Winner
109 had me to San Bernardo in good time where I went to tap out and…nope! It was having none of it! ‘Exit prohibited’ said the gates! Excuse me?! Panicked, I ran off back onto the platforms, picking up dud
113 to the next station, Nervion, in the hope that the gates were just faulty. Why didn’t I ask for assistance? The gates are unstaffed and not ones you’d want to try to leap over, being made of glass!
I go to tap out and nope! Exit not allowed! Was I seriously trapped in the sodding network? I search out a metro staff member who rolls his eyes at me, sarcastically taps my pass on the machine in the hope that I was out of credit, instead finding that it said ‘Day- All zones’. So that’d be the end of it, right? I indeed had a valid ticket? Nope, the guy starts probing me for answers. ‘You were on the Metro for a very long time?’ ‘About an hour and thirty, sir, yes’, I reply, not wanting to become the next poster on the disputes and prosecutions forum for failing the attitude test! ‘Not allowed. Maximum journey is one hour, and next time I fine you. 1000 Euros.’ Seething, I say to him ‘Yes, well if you’d just detail that in English then maybe I’d take a note of it. It’s a day ticket offering supposedly unlimited travel!’ He just rolled his eyes at me, and with that, he let me out. Slightly speechless, I walk out and attempt to get back on track by walking to San Bernardo, having had enough of what was clearly a metro system that hated tourists. The last time I checked, a day ticket was a day ticket, not a one that you had to tap in and out of every hour! Besides, a full line trip is about 42 minutes, max wait is 13 minutes, and it can take a minute or two to reach the platforms. All of a sudden there’s every chance that you’re going to get caught out if you manage anything other than a smooth, uneventful journey on longer trips! And the natural response of the gates is to trap you in a largely unmanned system?! That’s utterly insane!
I was now thoroughly ticked off and thirty minutes behind schedule, catching winners
465228/465728 on the loop line via Palacio des Congresos. This line is thirteen miles long, and has a remarkable lack of stations and places of interest. We called at Santa Justa before peeling off and calling at two stations that were relatively close together in the east of the city, in turn trundling along through a vast expanse of nothing, and calling at Virgen del Rocio, San Bernardo once more and into Santa Justa for 1522, 31 minutes after calling at San Bernardo the first time! I do get the feeling that the service would get far higher patronage (as for a half hourly 5 car service, it gets about two or three dozen people, imagine that on a 5 car train here, day in day out? Anyway, I was now back on track as there was a scheduled +3 connection onto my next service (yes, a +3 at a station the size of Manchester Piccadilly!) which was the 1525 to Cazalla Constantina This was a Line 3 service, meaning that I’d sampled all three lines, and this is an odd one. It gets 4 trains per day (yes on a suburban network) and it’s operated by Series 598 Mediadistancia trains, making it strangely luxurious with curtains at the windows and seats that recline. It even had a vending machine, and the electronic screens indeed acknowledged that it was a Cercanias service. Winner
598010 was working today and I was on as far as shack 56, La Rinconada, where I could make a linear move onto the more regular Line 1 train behind. This was a pretty decent station for observing some fast moves with the high speed line alongside, and indeed I caught a shot of an AVE and my dud
465234/465734 alongside, with the latter taking me to shack 57, El Canamo.
465228/465728, Sevilla SJ by
Richard Green, on Flickr
598010, Sevilla SJ by
Richard Green, on Flickr
598010, La Rinconada by
Richard Green, on Flickr
Serie 130, 465234/465734, La Rinconada by
Richard Green, on Flickr
Next up, I took winners
465227/465727 all the way back through to San Bernardo. I was going to get that one final metro shack, no matter what. 30 minutes later, I was making my way down to the platforms and boarding winner
119 to my final shack on this Spanish adventure, shack number 58, Plaza de Cuba. A +3 here and I was on dud
106 back to Nervion. Job done. I tapped out without issue and enjoyed a sunny stroll back to Santa Justa, the clock now approaching 5pm and the temperature hitting 22 degrees. Very pleasant indeed. I picked a McDonald’s from the station, before boarding waiting duds
599083/599084 on a beautiful journey back through the slow countryside route to Malaga. This was definitely the way to travel to and from Seville. I picked up another bag of nuts from the vending machine as well as a can of coke to sustain me until I picked up dinner later on. We arrived into Malaga Maria Zambrano 11 late at 2010, meaning that I had a sprint on my hands with the last validation of my 10 journey pass in the gates on the Cercanias platforms, duds
464212/464712 were sighted arriving, with me securing a single facing bay for the final final run to Benalmadena. And that was me done at 2040. ‘TITULO AGOTADO’ was printed on the back of the tickets by the gate and my adventure was complete.
465227/465727, El Canamo by
Richard Green, on Flickr
599083, Sevilla SJ by
Richard Green, on Flickr
An amazing few days.
Total Mileage: 412mi 48ch
Total Winners: 19+15 shacks
Total Cost: £56.45
TOTAL SPANISH
Total Mileage- 894mi 76ch
Total Winners: 51
Total Shacks: 67
Total Cost: £132.57
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YTD Mileage: 3975mi 57ch
YTD Winners: 134
YTD Shacks: 131
YTD Cost: £397.21
