The Community of Madrid has approved the start of expansion work on metro line 11. He did this at the last government council, which took place last Wednesday, November 15, 2023. The minutes of the meeting indicate that this is being done “for reasons of urgency and general interest” and that it will involve “interference with certain conspiracies.” The Environment Ministry has approved the related felling and replanting of trees after neighborhood groups fought for nine months to protect them. According to the latest proposal for the Community of Madrid project, 880 trees will fall in Comillas Park in Carabanchel; Madrid Río and the surroundings of Palos de la Frontera in Arganzuela; at Atocha train station and in Conde de Casal, in the Retiro district.
Although the work is already underway, the project does not yet have approval from the Madrid City Council to fell the trees, according to a spokeswoman for the city council’s mobility and environment department. The Ministry of Transport has said it will begin logging as soon as it has permission from the city council. The final modified project, scheduled to last six months, will add a hydrogeological study to determine the conditions of the site where the work will be carried out. The neighbors behind the no to deforestation had already pointed out that the hydrological study that included the previous project was not complete and did not take into account some aspects, for example that there is a lot of groundwater in the Atocha area, which was not the case with the project. State how it went. The construction of a station affects the groundwater level, i.e. the ability of the soil to absorb rainwater. Neighbors have argued that the station could act as a dam and cause groundwater levels to rise. This means that the water needs to be pumped out from time to time to remove it, which can impact the floors and buildings.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Transport justified the urgency of starting the work by saying that “the complexity of the work requires it to start simultaneously and as quickly as possible at different workplaces in order to comply with the planned schedule and deadlines.” After a process of accusations against the project and response to the 355 proposals from residents and government bodies, the Community of Madrid has not given in and the location of the Madrid Río station remains within the Arganzuela Park, an area with a type of protected area that allows the construction of No railway infrastructure inside. The neighbors, in a meeting with the Ministry of Transport, proposed locating the station on Paseo de Yeserías street, between numbers 33 and 41. This location, which is further west than the original location and outside the park, does not coincide with a pipeline of the canal de Isabel II, who is making the effort to build the station in the original location and in the latest proposal of the Community of Madrid. The Ministry of Transport is considering not locating the substation of the Palos de la Frontera train station under the Palestine Gardens, following the recommendation of the Ministry of Environment. This would save 45 trees.
The project to expand subway line 11, which will extend its route from Plaza Elíptica to Conde de Casal, is under the control of the European Union. The European Parliament agreed to examine the initiative after residents of the No-to-Logging movement went to the European Parliament’s Petitions Committee in September and asked to monitor the project. The European Investment Bank, also known as the climate bank due to the environmental nature of the projects it finances, will contribute three quarters of the 500 million euros that the work will cost. The neighbors complain that the Community of Madrid submitted the original project to the climate bank, but then did not communicate the changes made. This original project required much less logging; Comillas Park was not to be destroyed and only 20 trees were lost in Madrid Río, compared to the 250 planned in the current proposal.
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