The PSOE of Juan Lobato, candidate for the presidency of the Autonomous Community of Madrid in the May 28 elections, intends to extend metro line 8 from Nuevos Ministerios south of Puente de Vallecas when it reaches Puerta del Sol after the elections. The new facility, the design of which EL PAÍS has approved, would cost 750 million euros and would include a route south of Madrid with a stop at the existing Gregorio Marañón stations; Ruben Dario; colon recoletos; Bank of Spain; art station; Palos de la Frontera and Mendez Alvaro. They would be joined by another five new stations, for a total of 12, located near the intersection of Méndez Álvaro Street and Comercio Street; at Abroñigal train station; near Amós Acero Park; in the Madrid assembly (which would link up with the Renfe commuter services); and at the end of the Ronda del Sur.
The Social Democrats have salvaged and updated a project that was already being considered in the early 1970s, to create a “backbone of Madrid”, according to the slogan they have chosen for the initiative. His idea is to build from south to north. The project consists of two phases; The first goes from Ronda del Sur to the Estación del Arte and will run from 2024 to 2027. This extension connects the southern area of the Puente de Vallecas district, which has been demanding improvements in metro service for years, with stations such as Palos de la Frontera, in line with line 3 and soon with line 11; with Méndez Álvaro, where line 6 and the Renfe commuter lines 5, 10 and 1 also pass; and with Estación del Arte, connected to metro line 1.
Some play classical music in the subway, many others are waiting for a sad subway station to be built in the neighborhood. https://t.co/AHaZVOeIcl
— Subway to Vallecas Sur NOW! #VallekasExiste (@MetroAEntrevias) August 18, 2022
The second phase, leading from Estación del Arte to Nuevos Ministerios, would take place from 2027 to 2031. The route, which runs through existing train stations, aims to reduce congestion on the other lines and connect the south of Madrid to the north and Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport. In the specific case of the Banco de España train station, it is also intended to open to the public the connecting corridor between the commuter stop and line 2, which also crosses this station, creating a new connecting corridor linked to the Renfe service for the line 8. The initiative also proposes a third phase of the project, to be carried out in the 2030s, to connect the metro network to the Valdecarros area, already covered by line 1.
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According to calculations by the PSOE technicians who developed the proposal, it would cost almost 750 million euros to build. The budget was calculated using the method of comparison with similar works based on data from Metro and Adif. The first 450 million are earmarked for the Ronda del Sur-Estación del Arte phase, the remaining 300 million for the stations that run through the city center. The approximately 10.7 kilometer long tunnel would cost 267.5 million euros, including the route to the depot; 330 million would be for the construction of the stations, 17.8 million for the train depot and maintenance workshops; 81.2 million for tracks, overhead lines, signaling systems; and 54.1 million for connection work to existing lines. In order to raise the budget, which does not include trains, the Socialists intend to apply for a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB), which provides financing for projects that support EU goals, particularly measures to mitigate climate change.
The person in charge of the project, the Secretary for Sustainable Mobility of the Madrid PSOE, Isidro Barqueros, specifies that “the underground infrastructures in the area and their condition have been analyzed and the routing has not caused many problems”. “We had to increase the depth of the Paseo de Recoletos car park, which has three basement levels,” he explains. “The impact on the trees will be minimal. The place where a tree could be affected is in Rubén Darío because we do not yet know if we will place the station 15 meters to the left or to the right to avoid the basements in the square and depending on what we are comfortable decide, an affected tree can be seen,” he adds.
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