I might actually get a chance to finish off all the Bilbao posts that I wanted to make, rather than leaving matters in their usual half finished state. Anyway, I have a slight obsession with metro systems and I felt the need to use the one in Bilbao.
The network is relatively new, opening on 11 November 1995, but it has developed as a very useful rapid transport system for the city. The first line connected Bilbao with communities along the right bank of the estuary, reusing parts of older suburban railway routes, before later extensions pushed the network further through the metropolitan area. Its most famous design feature is the work of Norman Foster, whose glass station entrances became known as “Fosteritos”, or, in short, an entrance to a hole in the ground.
I rather like this photo and its perspective, it’s rare to be able to get a vantage point such as this. I suspect that I enjoy transport infrastructure a little more than is socially necessary, but it is too late to build a more normal personality now.
The station was functional and clean. My journey was from the central railway station’s metro stop at Abando to Areeta, which was on Metro Line 1.
The trains ran on a regular basis every five or six minutes, so I didn’t have long to wait for this one. There was also plenty of seating for waiting passengers, so it was all sufficiently comfortable. It did feel like a transport system that was designed on the radical assumption that people might want to use it.
The network felt relatively busy and it took me a little while to get a seat.
And safely at Areeta station which serves the Getxo area of the city, near the transporter bridge which is what I was aiming to visit. It was all efficient and organised, but perhaps the main thing to note is that the journey cost just over €1 which is a third of the price that it would be on the overpriced London Underground. There’s a wider question about why London transport pricing is now almost out of control, people should be able to afford to use public transport although this is perhaps a little political for this blog.