The Mataró train has been running through the same place for 175 years, but who knows how many more candles it will be able to blow if 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 waves of the sea came to burst against the windows of the convoys know well.
The storms of recent years have caused serious problems on the Maresme line and have shown a problem that Miquel Biada could not even imagine when he made the first railway service on the Peninsula a reality in 1848. The rise in sea level, in addition , can turn what up to now have been occasional problems into structural ones.
Faced with this situation, there are two ways out: either an shielding of the coast to prevent the sea from gaining ground on the built-up space or moving the coastline inland. It is an idea that has never been fully developed into 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 measure of what 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 some cities that have grown up separated from the sea by the national road and railways. 40 years ago it was the hotel sector that led the movement to move the tracks, which dreamed of gaining this space for visitors and residents in front of beaches that were not yet in the clear regression they are currently suffering in several municipalities. In recent years, with increasingly frequent storms and other social concerns, the issue has taken on a more environmental nature, although the complexity of the action and the high cost it would have leave the idea out of all plans.
"Indeed, we have to face the effects of climate change, but the most realistic and efficient solution is to adapt the coast", say sources from the Ministry of Transport. The engineers and experts in the sector agree on the diagnosis. According to Jordi Julià, member of the board of the College of Road Engineering of Catalonia, "the problem is not the railway, but the entire first coastline". Put more crudely: if the sea one day makes it unviable for the train to pass there, it will also force the neighbors who live in front of the sea, which in some municipalities are even at a lower level, to have to move that the train tracks, called to act as a wall. "Protecting the continuity of the train is protecting the city", sums up Julià.
The reinforcement of a breakwater between Mataró and Cabrera de Mar two years ago marks the path to follow. The works, which entailed an investment of more than 12 million euros, have put distance there and have managed to prevent the usual incidents that were repeated in this section, of about two kilometers, when the growing wave and caused the railway signaling and safety system to go to pieces. At the same time, it has given citizens a new space for walking that is very frequented by residents who run, ride bikes or simply stretch their legs in front of the sea, even though it is formally forbidden to walk.
The mayors of the area, despite the fact that they dream of moving the tracks inland, are demanding more actions that will consolidate the coastal front in the short term. The challenge for the coming years is precisely to find the solution adapted to each place, whether in the form of a breakwater or with other strategies, thinking of the railway line and beaches with constant loss of sand, where marinas have a large incidence
In turn, another area in which the Ministry of Transport works is the integration of stations with the urban fabric. The remodeling project of Mataró station aims to become a model that could be replicated in other municipalities later, with underpasses for pedestrians that link the urban fabric with the waterfront in a more friendly way.
For the representative of the association Promoció del Transport Públic (PTP) in the Maresme, Eduard Truco, if there is an urgent need to consider a short-term work, it is the doubling of the tracks between Arenys de Mar and Blanes, which is not foreseen in the plan of Neighborhoods 2020-2030. Those responsible for the ministry share this priority, but carrying it out will have obvious complications in points such as Sant Pol.
With the decided commitment to keep the line by the sea, the inland line project is considered as a long-term addition. Joan Carles Salmerón, director of the Terminus transport studies center, points to two possible options to develop: a line following the route of the C-32 highway, "with the big problem that it would be far from population centers, as it has been clear in the case of Camp de Tarragona", or a tunnel below the urban plot that would exceed 30 kilometers for the low end, with "the exorbitant cost that this would entail". From the point of view of the service, the engineer Jordi Julià opts for this option, since "it would be in a more central point and reach many more potential users than now". Be that as it may, both agree that in no way should it replace the existing line, and Julià, in an exercise in realism, concludes: "We won't see this work for the next 30 years".
At the moment, the plan to gain capacity on the line involves the remodeling of the Arc de Triomf station, already underway. When the works to extend the platforms up to 200 meters are finished, the longest trains, with ten carriages, will be able to travel on the R1 line. The ministry's calculations call for an increase in the number of places offered by between 30% and 35% on a line that already carries 117,000 passengers every day. The objective of the Rodalies plan is to reach one million trips a week, a number that would greatly exceed the 600,000 weekly validations recorded today, the same number that this line had in its entire first year in service, in 1848. Also has improved travel time. Back then 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 l'Clot with a few more stops than 175 years ago.
