Notice to users of the train, bus, private vehicle or plane so that the problems are chronicled. Let’s start with the daily mobility that offers two images in rush hour. One is that of overcrowded and unreliable public transport, and the other, that of thousands of vehicles stuck in traffic jams entering the city. I ask the experts if there is a solution and their answer is disturbing: not in the short or medium term. Although there may be palliative actions. And in the long run? Yes, but it will take some time to see, if we do, because in our country it is very difficult for us to execute the works.
Public transport operators note the full recovery of passengers after the pandemic. Now passenger records are being broken every month and they are already nearing the limit of their capacity. In the case of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat, they have already touched this ceiling, while TMB and Rodalies are approaching it at full speed.
Technicians work to offer solutions to avoid dying of success while they dream of the arrival of the expected investments that will significantly expand the public transport offer. That is why today there is talk of creating bus lines instead of railways, because the former are cheaper and can be activated quickly. But everyone knows that this option is a patchwork, because the train or subway is the most efficient transport system. A train carries a thousand passengers on a journey, while a bus only carries 60 people. Therefore, 16 buses are needed to make a single rail journey. Inviable
In view of this reality, citizens continue to hear political promises to increase public transport that are not fulfilled or that their materialization takes forever. Such is the delay in investments that most infrastructure plans that are underway are either old commitments that are now being addressed after years of delays, or they are rehabilitations of aging facilities.
Let’s not forget that eight million people already live in Catalonia and the pity is that there is no big leap on the horizon that will significantly expand the public transport offer to make the change of model viable. We are talking about future projects such as the construction of new railway tunnels in Barcelona or train lines beyond the first metropolitan crown, where the population expelled from the capital because they cannot afford housing live. Nor can the north-south rail connection be tackled without passing through the center of the city.
It does not face all of this exposed, but it continues to talk about decarbonisation and the need to reduce private traffic without offering an alternative. If only 25% of the people who use the car to go to work decided tomorrow to take the train or the bus, public transport would be unable to absorb this demand. “Impossible. The structure of the entire FGC network should be doubled”, say the experts. So what do we do? We only have to manage the meantime and make what we have more efficient while waiting for the arrival of the money manna.
And what about airplanes? The airlines have warned of the risk of congestion at Barcelona airport in the summer because we will be nearing the limit of its capacity. The Government’s response has been to propose an extension of the use of the tracks during July and August. Also in this case, the solution is timely to attend to the urgency and gain time, but it does not attack the structural problem. In addition, it will not be viable this summer, because they previously promised to soundproof the surrounding homes.
Conclusion: let’s be patient, because we will continue to be stuck on public transport and jammed in the car for quite a while longer, while we cross our fingers that the bad omens don’t come true at the airport. We are warned.
