Barcelona City Council and Port of Barcelona sign an agreement to reduce the number of cruise terminals and improve mobility

Barcelona City Council and the Port of Barcelona signed a new agreement to reorganize cruise activity and render it more sustainable. The agreement will reduce the number of cruise terminals at the Port of Barcelona and will roll out a series of projects to improve passenger mobility and make it more sustainable, moving forward in the responsible management of cruises and improving the coexistence between port activity and the city.

The central plank of the new agreement, signed today by both administrations, involves reducing the number of cruise terminals from seven to five by demolishing current terminals A, B and C, and building a new terminal on the site of terminal C. The resulting terminal will be public, in other words it will be open to general use with capacity to serve 7,000 passengers at any given time.

In addition to this reorganization and progressive reduction in the number of terminals, there will be a comprehensive overhaul of a 610-metre-long section of wharf, corresponding to current terminals A and B, to which end the Port of Barcelona will invest €50 million. These actions will make the Port's cruise facilities some of the most modern and sustainable globally, offering the essential quality of service to accommodate home port operations (where the trip begins and ends), which provide the most added value to the city and have better airport connectivity.

This transformation will configure the Adossat wharf with five cruise terminals: four are privately owned (current terminals D, E, G and H) and one will be public (the new terminal C), all of which meet the most demanding quality and sustainability standards. The new terminal will prioritize home port cruises and small vessels.

The agreement signed today with the City Council accelerates the Port's timetable to renovate the oldest terminals —current Terminals A, B and C—, which were nearing the end of their useful life, and to build new facilities that are better suited to the current requirements of the cruise industry. Furthermore, the wharf overhaul will facilitate the installation of the onshore power supply (OPS) systems for connecting ships to the electrical grid, supplying them with green energy so that they can turn off their engines and avoid emissions from their operations.

The agreement also includes an ambitious sustainable mobility plan, comprising three key actions:

• Doubling the Porta d'Europa bridge to improve mobility on the Adossat wharf and its secure connection, incorporating cycle and pedestrian paths. This action involves an investment of €90 million.
• Building an urban corridor along the Montjuïc coastline for public transport, taxis, minicabs, bikes and pedestrians, which will connect Plaça de les Drassanes with the Marina del Prat Vermell and the Zona Franca. This strategic infrastructure will help to connect the residents on both sides of Montjuïc mountain and will help to channel the flow of passengers travelling south with minimal impact on the adjacent urban infrastructure. The investment planned is around €10 million.
• Drafting a study to evaluate the mobility generated by cruise ships, which will feed into a sustainable management plan for land mobility of cruise passengers. This will include such features as a regular shuttle service with the main public transport nodes, an ongoing monitoring system with data shared with the City Council and installing information screens at all terminals to provide real-time information on the influx to the city's main tourist spots to improve the distribution of people and help to ease congestion in the busiest areas, in accordance with the policies deployed in High Footfall Areas.
• Rolling out all of these actions, which will involve renovating and improving cruise traffic facilities, optimizing spaces and adapting them to the most stringent environmental requirements, will involve a public-private investment in the Port of Barcelona of €185 million, in addition to the €265 million of public-private investment already undertaken through the raft of actions rolled out under the previous agreement signed between the City Council and the Port in 2018 to reorganize cruise activity. The Port of Barcelona has fully complied with this agreement, transferring the activity of the Drassanes and Barcelona Nord wharves to Adossat wharf and opening them up to the city.

José Alberto Carbonell, president of the Port of Barcelona, explained that “the signed protocol culminates the modernization plan for the Adossat Wharf, which began a few years ago with the goal of upgrading port infrastructure and strengthening the competitiveness of the Port of Barcelona. This new phase includes the demolition of three old terminals and the construction of a new state-of-the-art terminal; the rehabilitation of the wharf and the incorporation of OPS electrification systems, as well as improvements to access and mobility through the expansion of the Porta d’Europa bridge. These actions represent a public-private investment of 185 million euros, which adds to the investments made under the 2018 agreement, and confirm the Port of Barcelona’s commitment to the sustainable development of cruise activity.”

“For the first time in history, a limit is being placed on the growth of cruises in the city,” emphasized the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, who also expressed gratitude to the Port for “its effort in understanding and empathy” in recognizing that the growth of this activity cannot be infinite and needed to be reduced. The mayor also recalled that from 2018 to 2024, the number of cruise passengers increased by 20%, since the last protocol signed between the Port and the City Council did not set capacity limits. “The current management of tourism involves setting limits and managing better,” Collboni concluded.

The planned timetable for undertaking the actions included in the agreement signed today is as follows:

2026:

• Closure of the Barcelona South wharf terminal at the end of the year.
• Demolition of the current terminal C (Adossat wharf) at the end of the year.

2027:

• Start of construction of a new public terminal on Adossat wharf to serve ships simultaneously with a maximum total capacity of 7,000 passengers.
• Study to evaluate the mobility generated by cruise ships on Adossat wharf.
• Opening Terminal G (Adossat wharf), currently under construction and part of the implementation of the 2018 agreements.
• Start of the work to double the Porta d'Europe bridge.

2028:

• Entry into operation of the new Terminal C.
• Demolition of terminals A and B in the second half of the year.
• Start of the comprehensive overhaul of the section of the Adossat wharf where terminals A and B are currently located and installation of the OPS system for the electrical connection of ships.

2029:

• Entry into service of the urban corridor that will connect Plaça de les Drassanes with the Marina del Prat Vermell and the Zona Franca.

2030:

• Terminal C fully operational with a maximum capacity of 7,000 passengers.

The agreement signed today acknowledges that maritime tourism is an economic sector with a significant weight in the city, but specifies that it requires planning and management measures, just as is already happening in other tourism sectors such as accommodation, mobility, public spatial planning or taxation. This agreement consolidates the joint commitment of both the Port and the City Council to move towards a more orderly and efficient maritime tourism model that respects the urban and environmental setting of Barcelona.