The Director of Infrastructure of the Ministry of Transport, Miguel Núñez, met this Tuesday with the representatives of the neighbors and some experts who advise them to listen to their proposals. It’s the second meeting in the eight months the neighbors have fought to stop logging. During the meeting, neighbors insisted that Madrid Río station could not be built within Arganzuela Park and proposed a new location on Paseo de Yeserías between numbers 33 and 41. This new alternative would only cost, according to the experts advising the neighbors, the felling and transplanting of 40 specimens, compared to the 178 that the Community of Madrid’s project envisages. This new location requires a slight change to the line layout.
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The Ministry of Transport agreed to hold this meeting with residents after they visited the European Parliament to call on the organization to take action on the matter. They are already moving there. After accepting your request for processing, the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament has agreed to send a letter to the Community of Madrid and the City Council “in the same spirit as our request,” says Susana de la Higuera, spokesperson for the No to Petition movement. Cases Green MEP David Cormand has also written to the director of the European Investment Bank Werner Hoyer, which is financing much of the subway work, to inform him of the clearing involved in carrying out the subway expansion project become. Line 11 is still standing. The project that this entity sought to finance did not include all the logging that is now to be carried out, and all initiatives in which the European Investment Bank participates must be consistent with the fight against climate change.
During the meeting, residents protested against the enormous number of trees to be felled in Comillas Park, the only green area in the neighborhood of the same name that the tunnel boring machine will invade. Instead of entering through Conde de Casal as planned in the original project, the Community of Madrid wants to take advantage of the fact that it will build a new station in the Comillas district to place the tunnel boring machine there. The space required for ancillary facilities will destroy almost 200 trees.
They are also concerned about the Atocha train station, which will remove the centuries-old cedars from Jimena Quirós’ garden and rows of shade trees just to build the necessary ramps to clear the dirt in the middle of the sidewalk instead of along the street. Atocha residents expressed concern about the lack of detail in the hydrogeological study of the soil.
They fear the station will have a barrier effect and raise the water table – the soil’s ability to absorb it. According to experts who advise residents, in this case water would have to be repeatedly pumped out of the ground, which could have an impact on the surrounding buildings.
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The Director General of Infrastructure maintained the same response throughout the meeting, said the No to Logging spokesperson. Núñez has reiterated that they are studying the allegations regarding the project and that they will respond when they are finished with all the allegations and that this response will not arrive at least not until November. The Ministry of Transport has not confirmed an exact date either. According to the neighbors, during the review of the allegations, the general manager informed them that they were making changes to the project, but did not specify what these changes were.
The members of the “No to logging” have yet to meet with the Arganzuela district council or the Madrid city council, which is responsible for approving logging. Neighbors feared that deforestation would begin after the meeting with the ministry, but it appears there will be no progress until the allegations are addressed. Famous collector Tita Cervera, also known as Baroness Thyssen, has advocated finding alternatives to the current project in order to save as many trees as possible. Cervera has taken part in other protests to save specimens, such as when he chained himself to a tree in 2007 to save the trees on the Paseo del Prado, which are still standing thanks to another no to logging.
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