The "tren vertebrado" train

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Memory spaces · Year: 1974-75

This was one of the most interesting and controversial projects ever to come about in the city. A train designed by engineer D. Alejandro Goicoechea was to meet the needs of a hypothetical train track to be laid out between the Port of La Luz and Maspalomas, stopping at Las Palmas, the Airport, Vecindario, Morro Besudo, San Agustín, El Inglés and Maspalomas.

The fundamental idea was to offer a fast, comfortable and modern transport system, as an alternative to the slow and tortuous route all the way down the old South main road, and to join up the three main focal points of the island, namely the city of Las Palmas, the tourist resort of Maspalomas and the Airport of Gando.This operation was to set the pace for investment in infrastructures which would define the minimum requirements to cover the urban sprawl that was snaking its way down the island, and so evident today. 

However, financial difficulties encountered by the promoters, economic pressures by diverse social powers, efforts to promote the product abroad, stinging criticism of the environmental impact of the structure to be used to carry the train along the Avenida Marítima, and finally the huge rejection it met by the media over a number of years, did away with this project, which, for good or bad, would have totally changed the appearance of the city and its links with the rest of the territory.

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