The poor functioning of Cercanías worries the government of Madrid, which also does not miss the opportunity to attack those who manage it. This Wednesday, the Minister of Transport, Jorge Rodrigo, delivered a report to the Madrid Government Council in which he highlights the 2,440 million euros that Metro will invest this year – in new facilities and rolling stock, the modernization of others, the expansion of the network and maintenance – and that it has been faced with the “819 million that the Ministry of Labor has invested in Cercanías in six years”, which, he assures, is the official figure that has been provided to them. Rodrigo stressed that “Cercanías has lost a million passengers in one year”.
According to their data, there are already 700 incidents accumulated in this public transport service that, according to Rodrigo, “is totally abandoned.” Of these millions of lost travelers, he pointed out that 60 percent have turned to intercity transport, 20 percent to the subway and 20 percent to private vehicles.
Rodrigo regrets that Minister Oscar Puente “declared a few days ago in Parliament that the train was living its best moment”, which seems to him “a frivolity that does not respond to reality”.
For this reason, he assures, since “we know that there is a problem, I remind you that we have coordination bodies” to face it and find solutions. Immediately afterwards, he again requested the meeting of the conference of the transport sector and the monitoring commission of the Madrid Cercanías plan.
Renfe has other data
Renfe sources, however, have questioned the Community of Madrid’s complaint. They have noted the data accumulated from January to August 2023 and related them to the same period of 2024. What has been achieved, they point out, is an increase of 4.0 percent in the total number of passengers: 148.5 million in the first year and 15.9 million in the second.
If we only compare the summer data, between July and August, in 2023, they went from 19.8 million in June to 17.3 in July and 14.3 in August, while this year 2024, in June, there were 19.8 million travelers (0.3 percent less), in July 18 million (one percent more) and in August 1 million (2.2 percent less than the same month of the previous year). All this, Renfe insists, is made up of data accumulated from travelers in the center of Madrid.
Metro
Regarding investments in the metro, a public transport service used daily by 2.3 million passengers, this year 2.440 million euros will be invested.
The budget for improving service and facilities amounts to 1,473 million, of which 53 million are allocated to digital transformation, with the launch of the Data Processing Center (CPD) that concentrates all the technological infrastructure of the suburbs; 33 million for the renewal of equipment and work centers and 448 million for the automation and modernization of roads and tunnels. Likewise, the Accessibility and Modernization Plan for Stations provides 94 million and the improvement of rolling stock represents 844 million.
In addition to these amounts, the Government of Madrid will invest almost 866 million euros to expand the network and thus meet the demands of a growing population. The budget for Line 3, which will connect the Villaverde Alto (L3) stations to El Casar in Getafe (MetroSur), amounts to 115 million. This action is financed by the European Next Generation funds.
Regarding the extension of the L11, this is, according to Rodrigo, “the most ambitious work of all those in progress, whose value exceeds 531 million euros”. The new section between Plaza Elíptica and Conde de Casal envisages the creation of two new stations, Comillas and Madrid Río, and a connection with Palos de la Frontera, Atocha and Conde de Casal.
Likewise, progress will be made in the renovation of the L5, which will extend from Alameda de Osuna to terminals T1-T2-T3 of Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport, with an investment of more than 219 million.
In the maintenance and conservation of the network, Metro will invest 101 million euros in 2024. The objective, recalls the councilor, is “to provide the people of Madrid with a service that contributes to a fluid, agile, reliable and frequent mobility and for this” If possible, all administrations must meet their commitments, something that does not happen with the central government regarding the management of the Cercanías.
