There are coexistences as profitable as they are complicated. That of trains and urban centers is one of them. They know it well in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, where the Government plans to undertake one of the burial and railway integration plans most ambitious in Spain. By dimension, by schedule, by cost and above all by the transformative impact to which it aspires. For now, the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda The Basic Project is already on the table, a 21-volume report that gives an idea of the scope of the initiative.
Its deployment —and complexity— is of such magnitude that it transcends L’Hospitalet de Llobregat or even Catalonia itself and invites attention.
What does the project propose? A sweeping transformation. Basically, the project contemplates burying and covering 5.1 kilometers of the commuter lines R-2 and R-4 as they pass through the urban center of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat. Not only that. The plan also provides for the construction of an intermodal station in the neighborhood of the torrassa prepared for the passage of around 45,000 daily passengers, and an articulated connection —knuckle joint, in railway slang— that will allow you to play with the configuration of the lines and increase their connection possibilities.
“It will help improve the mobility and quality of life of citizens”, note the Ministry of Transport on the future railway burial.
And how much will it cost? From the outset, it is said that the investment in the railway urban integration project will exceed 1,000 million euros, although Raquel Sánchez’s own department acknowledges that the amount is “estimated” and must still be defined with the informative study. What the Administration already has on the table is the Basic and constructive Project of the burial, a design that was in charge of presenting in Torrassa the minister barely a month ago.
Proof of the magnitude of the initiative is that the study covers 21 volumes and the technicians have been working on its writing since March 2020. It is now time to prepare the informative study, the next “stop” on the complex path of its administrative processing, in addition, of course, to completing a phase of works that must be made compatible with rail traffic. The councilor, Núria Marín, already recognizes that at the very least there will be wait a decade to finish the project.
What defines the Basic Project? The works that must be carried out to bury and cover the tracks on which the trains of the lines R-2 and R-4 circulate as they pass through L’Hospitalet. The objective: better urban and railway integration, with more space for citizen use, greater cohesion between neighborhoods and a lower carbon footprint. As Transportes acknowledges, the goal is twofold.
At the railway level, “greater flexibility” is sought to improve the operation of the lines and incorporate a new station in La Torrassa, linked to the metro and capable of operating as an interchange. In the urban aspect, it is expected that —by taking traffic underground— the city will eliminate the barrier that commuter lines now represent and gain green areas. In summary, to reduce the visual and architectural impact and the noise and vibrations of the trains.
Section of the R-2 circulating through the underground.
How much surface is gained? When shelling out the basic project, in February, Raquel Sanchez explained that the work will allow 5.1 km of lines R2 and R4 to be buried. It will not be an easy task and those responsible will have to face notable challenges, such as working in a densely urbanized area, with traffic, services and other infrastructures, but it will allow a radical change in the municipality.
The tracks now —Regrets Marin— “they divide and isolate the neighborhoods and create a problem of internal mobility.” By burying the tracks, the city will gain 120,000 m2, a wide strip that the City Council wants to take advantage of with an “ideas contest.”
How will that change be achieved? Weeks ago Transportes published an extensive explanation of your Basic Project. The scheme is divided into two major points: the railway solution and the urban solution. The first is roughly based on an interchange in La Torrossa, a station in Bellvitge and the railway ball joint, an articulated connection that “will make it possible to maximize the flexibility and functionality” of access to Barcelona from Sants. What is sought is to gain movements thanks to the use of new layouts and an increase in the number of routes.
“The goal is to re-weave and connect neighborhoods historically separated by the railway,” write down from the Ministry of Transport on the second dimension of the project, the urban one, with which it aspires to generate a new linear park that gives continuity to the one that already exists on the roof of Calaix de Sants, increase the green areas and improve the “transversal permeability between neighborhoods.
And is there a calendar? During his visit to L’Hospitalet de Llobregat to present the Basic Project for the burial, Sánchez suggested that the informative study could be finished by the end of the year. He would then submit it to public information to activate the administrative machinery that allows bidding and finally adjudicating the works. “Now yes”, celebrated the ministerwho, yes, avoided specifying when the works could start in situ: “We will not feed the frustration of the citizenry by giving dates that we still cannot know.”
The lack of specificity, especially in a year marked by the electoral agenda, with an appointment with the polls already in May and another general one that will probably be held in December, generated skepticism between opposition political groups and even neighbors, who have been demanding the development of the project for more than two decades. His request: that the project does not remain on “leaf paper.”
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