The Mataró train has been running in the same place for 175 years, but who knows how many more candles it will be able to blow out if the climate projections are met. The layout of the line next to the sea leaves this infrastructure too exposed to the effects of climate change, as users who have seen more than once how the sea waves burst against the windows of the convoys know well.
The storms of recent years have caused serious problems on the Maresme line and have revealed a problem that Miquel Biada could not even have imagined when he made the first railway service on the Peninsula a reality in 1848. The rise in sea level, in addition, It can turn into structural what until now have been specific problems.
Faced with this situation, there are two solutions: either a shielding of the coastline to prevent the sea from gaining ground on the urbanized space or moving the coastline inland. It is an idea that has never been fully developed in a well-studied project, but sources in the sector speak of astronomical amounts, which would far exceed the 6,000 million euros invested in line 9 of the Barcelona metro, converted into a unit of measurement of that should not be spent on a public work.
For many years, the transfer of the Maresme line had appeared as part of a purely urban debate in cities that have grown separated from the sea by the national highway and the train tracks. Forty years ago it was the hotel sector that led the movement to move the roads, dreaming of gaining that space for visitors and neighbors in front of beaches that then were not in the clear regression that they currently suffer in several municipalities. In recent times, with increasingly frequent storms and other social concerns, the issue has taken on a more environmental aspect, although the complexity of the action and the high cost it would have leave the idea out of all plans.
“Indeed, we must face the effects of climate change, but the most realistic and efficient solution is to adapt the coastline,” say sources from the Ministry of Transport. Engineers and experts in the sector agree on the diagnosis. For Jordi Julià, member of the board of the Col·legi d’Enginyeria de Camins de Catalunya, “the problem is not the railway, but the entire first coastline.” In a cruder way: if the sea one day makes it impossible for the train to pass through there, it will also force the neighbors who live in front of the sea to move, which in some municipalities are even at a lower level than the train tracks. , called to act as a wall. “Shielding the continuity of the train is shielding the city,” Julià summarizes.
The reinforcement of a breakwater between Mataró and Cabrera de Mar two years ago marks the way forward. The works, which involved an investment of more than 12 million euros, have put land in the way and have ensured that the usual incidents that were repeated in that stretch of about two kilometers did not occur again when the waves increased and caused the the railway signaling and safety system was blown up. At the same time, it has given citizens a new walking space that is very frequented by residents who run, cycle or simply stretch their legs in front of the sea, although formally entry is prohibited.
The mayors of the area, despite dreaming of moving the roads inland, demand more actions that will allow the coastal front to be consolidated in the short term. The challenge for the coming years is precisely to find the solution adapted to each place, whether in a breakwater format or with other strategies, thinking about the train track and beaches with constant loss of sand, where marinas have a great impact. .
In turn, another area in which the Ministry of Transport is working is the integration of stations with the urban fabric. The Mataró station remodeling project aims to become a model that could be replicated in other municipalities later, with pedestrian underpasses that link the urban fabric with the seafront in a more friendly way. For the representative of the Promoció del Transport Públic (PTP) association in Maresme, Eduard Truco, if a short-term work must be urgently considered, it is the duplication of the tracks between Arenys de Mar and Blanes, which is not contemplated in the Rodalies plan 2020-2030. Those responsible for the ministry share that priority, although carrying it out will have obvious complications in points like Sant Pol.
With the firm commitment to maintaining the line next to the sea, the inland line project is proposed as a long-term complement. Joan Carles Salmerón, director of the Terminus transport study center, points out two possible options to develop: a line following the layout of the C-32 highway, “with the big problem that it would be far from population centers, as it has been of course in the case of Camp de Tarragona”, or a tunnel beneath the urban fabric that would exceed at least 30 kilometers in length, with “the exorbitant cost that this would entail”. From a service point of view, engineer Jordi Julià opts for this option since “it would be in a more central location and would reach many more potential users than now.” Be that as it may, both agree that under no circumstances should it replace the existing line and Julià, in an exercise of realism, concludes: “We will not see that work in the next 30 years.”
For now, the plan to gain capacity on the line involves the remodeling of the Arc de Triomf station, already underway. When the works to lengthen the platforms to 200 meters are finished, the longest trains, with ten cars, will be able to run on line R1. The ministry's calculations call for an increase in seats offered of between 30 and 35% on a line that already transports 117,000 passengers daily. The objective of the Rodalies plan is to reach one million trips per week, a figure that would far exceed the 600,000 weekly validations registered today, the same figure that this line had in its entire first year in service, in 1848. Also Travel time has improved. At that time it took 60 minutes to go from Mataró to Barcelona compared to the 36 it takes now to go from the capital of Maresme to El Clot with a few more stops than 175 years ago.
