A recent holiday in Mallorca gave me the opportunity to travel over some bits of the network that I've not done before, specifically the Manacor branch line. This and the Sa Pobla line are being electrified. Lots of masts and gantries are in position but
not much actual wire.

For the moment, the basic train service remains EMU from Palma to Enllac. There are five departures each hour. Two call at all stations to Marratxi, another is all stations to Inca, and two run fast to Marratxi, then call at all stations to Enllac. This
is north of Inca and is the last station before the junction. The EMUs run into one side of an island platform and DMUs from the branches run into the other side. There is then a short period of frenzy while passengers swop trains. The detailed timetable
can be found at <https://www.tib.org/documents/30683/132106/M2-T1-T2-T3%2C%20des%20de%202017.12.11.pdf>.

Serveis Ferroviaris de Mallorca have gone in for gating in a big way. I wasn't surprised to find ticket barriers at a comparatively big station like Inca, but astonished to find it at unstaffed halts like Petra. (Petra is actually a new build station -
the re-opened line has been diverted around the town instead of through it, and the old formation is now a sort of linear park.) The new station platforms are completely fenced in and passengers are expected to pass through a big metal box containing
barrier gates and some ticket machines but no staff. It's not a great system. The ticket machines are all on one side of the barriers, which is fine for people starting their journey, but no use to anyone arriving without a ticket or with one that's not
valid. But as we found out, the barriers aren't too fussy about which tickets they accept, or how many people they let through on one valid ticket. And if you find yourself trapped, you can just climb down onto the track and walk to the nearby level
crossing. For future reference, the barriers don't like you breaking your journey, and there's no day rover ticket or anything gricer-friendly.

The EMUs seem to be all fairly modern three car units. DMUs are still two car units but in good condition and sometimes operating in multiple.

Manacor station seems to be a complete dead end although there's still talk of extending the line to Arta, where it ran in days of old. They would have to knock down a lot of buildings to do that.
--
Joyce Whitchurch, Stalybridge, UK
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