The expansion works of Metro line 11 as it passes through Atocha will begin in the second half of August and will do so with the removal of the monument to the victims of 11-M, the interior part of which will be dismantled in the first phase while the exterior -the glass structure with the inscription of the victims- will do so two months later, radically changing the urban profile of the area.
The removal of the iconic monument has been agreed upon by all parties and the relatives have the commitment of the Department of Housing, Transport and Infrastructures of the Community of Madrid to relocate this space for gathering in memory of the victims of the jihadist attack in 2004 in the new 1,900 square meter lobby that will be the backbone of the future new Atocha station.
In that space, in turn, 166 square meters will be set up -which will be separated with a glass partition to make it a seclusion area- where references to the attacks will be included and whose final configuration will be determined in accordance with the proposals that do the victims.
While the urbanization and rehabilitation of the exterior part will correspond to the Madrid City Council who, for the moment, has not reported on the project. Although the repositioning, or not, of the cylinder, will be studied with the victims.
The branch counselor Jorge Rodrigo himself has held several meetings with victims’ associations since the objective of the regional government is that they form part of the monitoring and have participation to contribute ideas. To this end, the creation of a joint working table has been projected, the first meeting of which is scheduled for the month of September.
In statements sent to the media, the counselor guarantees the “maximum respect” to the victims in a project that seeks to “give more dignity to that space” that many citizens “don’t even know about” in its current form.
Currently the monument has two parts, one underground -the gathering space- with the names of the victims laser engraved on the glass bricks, and the outer cylinder on the street and its disassembly will be carried out in as many phases.
The first, in the inner part, the responsibility of the regional Executive, will start in the second half of August and will last for a month. While surface work will not begin before October, while the corresponding permit from the Madrid City Council is still pending.
Once it has been dismantled, the next step will be the work on the new Atocha Station Metro lobby, where the new monument will be integrated and which will serve lines 1 and 11.
By including Atocha in its route, the expansion of L11 “will communicate the north and south of the capital” with the aim of “distributing more evenly the travelers who currently travel on Line 6”. It is estimated that the future Atocha station will double its suburban passengers from 7 to close to 15 million passengers per year.
This 2024 will commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the 11-M attacks. On March 11, 2004, early in the morning, ten of the thirteen bombs planted by jihadist terrorists exploded in four Cercanías trains in Madrid, at the Atocha, Santa Eugenia, and El Pozo stations, and next to Calle Téllez. , leaving a total of 192 fatalities.
