Unite and divide are verbs with opposite meanings, but, in the case of the project to link the two trams along the Diagonal, they seem synonymous. And the fact is that the union of Trambesòs and Trambaix through this strategic avenue divides the people of Barcelona more than any other debate in the city.
At least this is clear from the first conclusions of the Tu opinióncuenta macro survey, which La Vanguardia has launched to coincide with the upcoming municipal elections to collect the opinions of its readers on the main problems in Barcelona and the city model of the present and the future .
So far, 53% of the more than 3,600 contributions are inclined to state that the connection of the trams along the Diagonal will help improve mobility in Barcelona, while 47% think it will be counterproductive.
Among the 15 open debates, this is the one with the most polarized opinions. There is no other aspect of the city that has such a close result between those for it and those against it. In a certain way, as already happened in the 2011 elections, the Diagonal is once again in the spotlight, since the union project between the two trams along this avenue is the reflection of two antagonistic models that will resolve their differences in the polls on May 28.
On one side is the mayoress Ada Colau (BComú), who has not only promoted the project in her last mandate, but considers it "an icon of 21st century Barcelona". So much so that, with the works underway, it is expected that the tram will already be running between Glòries and Verdaguer in March 2024, on its way to Francesc Macià.
On the other side is Xavier Trias (Junts), who aspires to return to the mayor's office and has already announced that if he governs the tramway will not pass by Verdaguer. "I don't plan to continue it", he assured, since he believes that the pending section can be covered with buses and that there are other more important needs. It is not the first time that Trias is immersed in an electoral race with the Diagonal as a backdrop. In 2011, when he became mayor, he unseated the socialists in the municipal government after defeating Jordi Hereu, who months earlier had suffered a severe setback with the failed consultation for the reform of Diagonal.
For his part, Colau beat Trias in 2015 by defending the tram connection in his program. Already in the first hundred days of his first mandate, he commissioned the studies to connect Trambesòs and Trambaix. In recent years, the mayor has had the support of the Socialists as partners, while the works to join the trams have been financed by the Generalitat, governed by the ERC, through the Metropolitan Transport Authority (ATM). The former councilor Damià Calvet, now on the electoral list of Xavier Trias, was in charge of signing the works that are now being executed.
In fact, it's almost a unanimous outcry. There is an absolute rejection of the people of Barcelona to mass tourism and low cost. 96% of the readers who contributed their opinion to La Vanguardia's survey consider that Barcelona should bet only on a tourism model based on attracting fewer and higher quality tourists. In other words, less is more, at least in this case.
The latest episode of overcrowding, which is being recorded in the Carmel bunkers and which has put the neighbors on a war footing, seems to prove the readers of La Vanguardia are right. The most significant thing is that Barcelona wanted to bet on decentralizing tourism so that it would not be concentrated in Ciutat Vella and, now, the problems it is causing in this area of Horta-Guinardó show that low cost and mass tourism seem which are much more rooted than was presupposed. "We are not against tourism, but mass tourism", repeat the affected residents of Carmel, statements that are in line with the results of the La Vanguardia survey, which will be open until election day.
