Line 1 of the Zaragoza Tramway, which was designed and is being built by a joint venture between FCC and ACCIONA, has won first prize for Best Urban Integration this year from the International Association of Public Transport. The award will be conferred on 9 May in Warsaw, Poland.

The International Association of Public Transport (UITP) is a platform for worldwide cooperation, business development and the sharing of knowledge. It has 3,400 members from 92 countries. The UITP is the global defender of public transport and sustainable mobility and promotes innovation in the public transport sector.

The European jury has picked the Zaragoza tramway because it is an effective, comfortable, cutting-edge project that connects the city's main points of social, economic and cultural interest. The line is 12.8 kilometres long and runs south/north through the city centre. The award stresses the new culture of mobility that the tramway entails, along with the urban renovation the tramway has spurred in Zaragoza, with the strategic development and launching of connections with other means of public transport, the implementation of a bicycle path parallel to the tram tracks, transfer nodes with the bus and local rail systems and intermodal parking facilities.

This transport solution is designed to cover the city in record time quickly, quietly and safely. Also, it boasts the technological advances of Urbos 3, manufactured by CAF, which makes Zaragoza's an example for other tramways throughout the world.

The second phase of Line 1 (Gran Vía to Parque de Goya), in which 340 million euros will be invested, will complete the ambitious project to make the tram the city's backbone and will create Zaragoza's biggest pedestrians-only zone.

The tram makes life easier for more than 40,000 people who ride it every day. Forecasts call for 108,000 passengers when the whole line has been completed. Trams run as often as one every five minutes, from five o'clock in the morning until midnight, and their average commercial speed is 20 km/hour.

FCC's tramway experience

FCC Construcción has built more than 80 kilometres of tram lines in Spain and abroad. Its more recent projects include Trambaix and Trambesòs in Barcelona, the tramway in Parla, Madrid, the Murcia tram and the Alicante tram.

Right now it is involved in the second phase of the Zaragoza tram and the tram in Olsztyn, Poland. The Olsztyn tram line is 11.5 kilometres long and has 19 stops, and FCC won the 62.5-million-euro contract in May 2011.