Viewing the Past: El tranvía del Arenal, Mallorca

Opening day on the Arenal Tramway at Pont de Sa Siquia, 1921

The Arenal Tramway had such a short life that it is largely unknown and only a few photographs remain to tell its story. In 1920 El Arenal was a small fishing village that was just starting to develop as a summer resort. The village already had a station on the Ferrocarril de Mallorca line to Santanyi but the service was very sparse; so to improve connections with the island's capital Palma, local businessmen proposed a tramway along the coast to connect with the Palma town trams instead.

Opening in October 1921 the line started at the new elecric tramway terminus at Coll den Rebassa, opened in April that year, before running along the road to Can Pastilla, where the promoters also hoped to sell development plots. Leaving Can Pastilla the line struck out along the unspoilt sand dunes along the sea to El Arenal. The new line sported several up to date features such as reinforced concrete viaducts over the drainage channel of St Jordi in Can Pastilla and the Torrent d'Jesus in El Arenal, together with the first internal combustion locos in Mallorca - two locotracteurs from the French manufacturer Campagne of a design used in the trench railways of WWI.

Campagne locotracteur and ex-Palma mule tram in the dunes

Passenger accomodation was provided by secondhand mule trams from the Palma system, made redundant when the lines were electrified a few years before. I cannot find any references to the gauge of the line but it is likely to have been the Mallorcan standard of 3ft, particularly as the promoters had plans to haul wagons of coal to El Arenal from Palma which would have necessitated through running over the Palma tramway system. The Campagne locotracteurs certainly look wider than the usual 2ft gauge design (see below) however there is a reference to the tramcars being "adapted in the workshops of Pieras and Cabrer in Palma with new wheels and axles manufactured in Valencia, as well as new boxes of grease made in Palma, to be able to circulate on the Arenal Tramway." This may have been just new railway profile wheels to suit the tramway's flat bottomed rails or, as the tramcars had been out of use for a few years, they may simply have been bought as bodies only. Another two Campagne locotracteurs were imported into Mallorca at the same time for the Ferrocarril de Alaro and these must have been 3ft gauge as this line connected directly to the Ferrocarril de Mallorca.

Rebuilt locotracteur with tram body

The original Ballot motors in the locotracteurs gave trouble and were replaced by Benz versions. Possibly at the same time, the locotracteurs were rebuilt by mounting one of the tramcar bodies on the previously open cab section, presumably in an attempt to reduce operating costs. Sadly the comany entered bankrupcy and services ceased around 1935. The line was sold to the Palma tramways company and it is thought that they subsequently extended their electric services through to El Arenal until 1941.

In the dunes, 1934

Nothing remains of the line today and in the post-war tourism boom the entire coast from Palma to S'Arenal was developed with high-rise hotels and resorts. The line of the tramway between Can Pastilla and S'Arenal is now a broad promenade along the beach.