The tracks of the Vallès de Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC) line can no longer absorb more trains. A train leaves the Plaza Catalunya station every 112 seconds at rush hour (32 per hour) and, even so, the carriages approach the limit of their capacity at rush hour, when they circulate every five minutes from Sabadell and Terrassa and every two minutes and a half between Sant Cugat and Barcelona.
As the existing infrastructure is no longer sufficient, the only way the Generalitat sees to improve supply is to build a new railway tunnel under Collserola. It would be a new corridor designed as a more direct alternative from side to side of the mountains, without stopping at the stations in the neighborhoods located in the mountain. This would allow the creation of semi-direct trains and reduce the travel time from the two large cities of Vallès and the Catalan capital by 15 minutes, which has increased since the reformulation of the service by stopping at each and every one of the stations.
It is not a new invention. The Infrastructure Master Plan (PDI) 2021-2030 already includes it as one of the priorities in terms of public works for the next decade. Furthermore, FGC's strategic plan presented four years ago already pointed to it as a more ambitious idea with a horizon set in 2030. The then president of the company, Ricard Font, commissioned a functional and feasibility study of the possible alternatives, convinced that In addition to absorbing demand, only by reducing travel time could we convince all those who travel by private vehicle on the C-58 every day despite having a good alternative in public transport.
That document that seemed condemned to sleep the sleep of the righteous with the departure of Junts from the Territori department, has been recovered by the Republicans, who now support in those papers the first firm step taken, consisting of the tender for the drafting of a informative study. This is a process that will take around two years, cost two million and will produce the necessary document to one day be able to undertake the construction project that defines the layout and carry out the corresponding works.
This informative study should discern what is the best alternative to cross Collserola underground. If in the first report up to nine alternative entrances to Barcelona were analyzed, now only two of them will be developed, and both go through the same place: through Vallvidrera, next to the existing tunnel. The two options start from the same place from Sant Cugat and enter Barcelona at the same point, although then one of them would continue to Plaza Catalunya like the current route and the other would go towards Arc de Triomf. According to the first report, they are the two alternatives that have greater socioeconomic profitability and a lower cost, around 900 million euros.
“We must continue expanding the Vallès metro, it is essential to take on new challenges,” defended the Minister of Territory, Ester Capella, when announcing the impetus for the project in a conference given at the Cercle d'Infraestructures, where she defended that it could be multiplied. by 2.5 the current transport capacity of the Catalan public company on the Vallès line, going from 60 million annual trips to 150.
Thus, the alternative of building a railway tunnel through Horta is put on hold, connecting the Vallès through the area of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Parc de l'Alba to Mundet and finally arriving at the future intermodal station of La Sagrera. As it would serve another area of the city, it is considered that it would not serve to decongest the existing tunnel, which has led those responsible for Territori to rule out this option in the informative study designed exclusively for the current Vallès corridor.
The Horta tunnel remains at the bottom of the drawer as an option for the future, for the day that the Territori department observes the public transport map in its entirety, with a broader vision, such as that projected by the Metropolitan Urban Master Plan (PDUM) instead of only what concerns Railways.
During the conference at the Cercle d'Infraestructures, Minister Capella also assured that before the end of the year the agreement will be signed with the Ministry of Transport to build, through a management commission, the two railway interchanges between the FGC Vallès line and the R8 of Rodalies in Sant Cugat, a work that will improve connections between Baix Llobregat and Vallès.
