The popular Spanish city of Seville is set to expand its multi-million-pound metro system after 14 years of delays.
The city, capital of the Andalucia region, will start extending line 3 of its metro system to Pino Montano as early as Monday, April 8.
The expansion, which was announced by President Juanma Moreno earlier this week, will see the construction of new stations known as Pino Montano Norte, Los Mares, and Pino Montano.
The first extension – for which no completion date is set – will be just one of three new additions to Line 3.
The cost of the expansion is due to cost around £282m. The second extension planned will go from Ronda Urbana Norte to San Lazaro which will be paid for with a budget of £113m.
Meanwhile, the final extension will run from San Lazaro to the Virgen Macarena and cost £178m to construct.
Despite the cost of and time to build the project, President Moreno was confident that the new metro extensions would be good for the city.
The Olive Press reported that the president said the development was happening in “one of the most popular and populated neighbourhoods” in Seville.
President Moreno added that the need for an expanded metro system in the area was one that the “regional Executive is going to comply with”.
As well as helping the people of Seville, the Metro expansion will make it easier and quicker for the thousands of tourists who visit the city every year to move around.
While the expansion of the metro will make travelling faster and easier, there are concerns that Seville itself will become more expensive for tourists as well.
In recent weeks, the city council has announced that it is introducing a new charge that applies only to tourists and not to locals.
The charge in question concerns the city’s famous Plaza de Espana. Under the new rules, locals won’t have to pay to enter, but tourists will be charged three euros (£2.58), to enter.
If brought in, the new charge could raise as much as €9.5million (£8.16m) for the city. Defending the new scheme, José Luis Sanz said that money was needed to improve and preserve the buildings around the square.
He claimed that as a city Seville was under-financed and that taxes paid by locals did not go towards the upkeep of the city’s heritage.
