Public transport in Barcelona has not only recovered its pre-pandemic levels, but is exceeding them. The users of the central sections of lines 1 and 5 go like sardines at rush hour. The same happens in the buses that run along the Gran Via. There are times when the situation is suffocating and the heat at this time of the year only aggravates a sensation that is confirmed by the data: for the first time, the metro has exceeded a million and a half validations in a single day. At Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) they take it for granted that it will be an absolute record year for the use of public transport.
Sources from the company – which accounts for 60% of the trips in the integrated fare system in the Barcelona region between metro and bus – attribute the increase in fares to the reduction in fares, which allow Barcelonans to make all the trips they want by public transport for 20 euros per month with the T-Usual at 50%. They also attribute it to the recovery of face-to-face work to the detriment of teleworking, once the pandemic has been considered overcome, and to the increase in mobility for leisure, giving as an example that the record number of passengers on a holiday was reached on Saint Jordi, who fell on a Sunday this year, with 1.2 million validations.
Given this panorama, the question arises: where is the limit? How far can public transport grow in the Catalan capital? The Autoritat del Transport Metropolità (ATM) rules out making an approximation and passes the ball to the operators. In turn, neither these nor the experts in the sector dare to predict a maximum capacity figure. And it cannot be a closed fixed number. It depends on variable factors such as demand at rush hour. What they are clear about is that with the existing infrastructures there is not much room for manoeuvre. For this reason, the only short-term solution is to flatten the rush hour by making the hours of entry to the workplace more flexible. It is a question that was put on the table during the pandemic, when masks were mandatory and it was a question of guaranteeing interpersonal distance at all costs.
At that time, the then Councilor for Mobility, Rosa Alarcón, even started an agreement with employers’ associations, unions and social agents so that everyone would do their part and it would be easier to allow not everyone to enter the office between eight and nine in the morning. Words did not become deeds and all that remained in borage water, like teleworking in so many jobs.
Faced with this difficulty of social change, only the completion of works in progress and the promotion of new projects can help to give air to the crowded carriages at rush hour. The best example of this is the L9 metro. When the central section is finished and fully operational, forecasts suggest that it will become the most used line in the Catalan capital, with 117 million validations per year. It will then free many passengers from lines 1 and 5, replicating the role that the Dalt ring road played 30 years ago in terms of car traffic, when many drivers went from crossing Barcelona through the center to going through the ring road.
The new mayor, Jaume Collboni, promised in his campaign his commitment to expanding the metro in the city itself and at the metropolitan level. Among the priorities is the expansion of L1 from Santa Coloma to Badalona, ??with two new stops, L3 from Zona Universitària to Esplugues with another two stops and L4 from La Pau to the future Sagrera station, with three new stations. subway.
All this will be a reality if the Government complies with the commitment that the Republicans reached with the Socialists so that Pere Aragonès could approve the budgets, since the metro extension works are the responsibility of the Generalitat.
It does seem to be quite clear in the Department of Territory that there is money for the extension of the Llobregat line of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC) from Plaza Espanya to Gràcia to allow the interchange with the Vallès line there and create two new stops (Clínic Hospital and Francesc Macià). The works will begin this summer and will not be ready until the end of the decade. When it becomes a reality, FGC aspires to double the number of passengers that L8 will move, converted into a true metro line in the image and likeness of the improvements made to the Vallès line with the incorporation of the new trains.
The Sant Cugat line was precisely one of the biggest examples of crowding in recent years, with occupancy levels that far exceeded 100% at rush hour. The situation has improved considerably with the introduction of the 15 new convoys and the reformulation of the schedules to offer frequencies every two and a half minutes between Sant Cugat and Plaza Catalunya. Since then, in December of last year, the line’s maximum capacity has gone from 80 million annual trips to 110. However, at FGC they know that it is a temporary respite. They have reached the maximum capacity of the line, there is no more room for improvement, and the upward trend in passenger traffic leads them to think about the need for a second tunnel through Collserola that the then president of the company, Ricard Font, already reflected in the strategic plan for the coming years. This action would make it possible to gain 150 million trips per year from 2030, more than double the current capacity.
For its part, Rodalies aspires to go from the 400,000 average daily users it currently has to 600,000 with the set of improvements included in the Rodalies 2020-2030 plan led by Pere Macias. A third of the investment planned for the first five years has already been awarded and the rate of investment that the Ministry of Transport is reaching has not been seen for more than ten years. One of the most symbolic works of this plan is called to be the doubling of the Vic line, the R3, still at this point on a single track. Other actions that are also very showy, such as the burying of Sant Feliu, do not represent a great improvement on a functional level. On the other hand, there are other almost invisible ones that will allow important advances, such as the installation of the ERTMS security system in various sections of the network that do not yet have it. For beyond 2025, the Torrassa ball joint remains within the framework of the burial of l’Hospitalet, which will mean significant improvements at the railway level, as well as the arrival of 101 new trains that are already advancing in their manufacturing process.
