The imminent traffic cuts at the entrance to Madrid on the A-5, planned for the month of December as part of the burying of this road, threaten to collapse the majority of public transport in the southern corridor. west if the few reinforcement plans are maintained. foreseen. A study by the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility estimates that the 50% reduction in lanes reserved for cars will lead to a transfer of thousands of travelers to the metro, but also to buses.
The study estimates that the work on the A-5 will result in the transfer to public transport of around 62,300 private vehicle trips recorded each day, due to the reduction in road capacity and also the increase associated travel times. to the traffic jams that will be generated.
According to these calculations, 39% of the trips eliminated will replace the car with the Madrid metro, while urban and intercity buses will take 37%. The suburban lines which will accommodate the most passengers will mainly be number 10 (11,900 trips), followed by number 5 (9,300), circular (8,500) and Metrosur (4,600). As for interurban lines, the most affected lines will be 563, 574, 561B and 567.
The current increase in service planned by the Community of Madrid for the metro and intercity buses would not be sufficient to absorb all this demand, since the unilateral plan presented by the City Council in agreement with the Ayuso Government provided for a maximum reinforcement until 9% (two trains on line 10 and one on line 5). As for intercity lines, no reinforcement is planned, although most of the lines that so far reach the center of Madrid will disembark their passengers at Cuatro Vientos, for which conditioning works are necessary that the City Hall should carry out. These travelers could take the suburban service (line 10) or the Cercanías C-5.
The Cercanías will absorb 24% of trips by private vehicle that will shift to public transport, according to the same study cited and that the ministry has prepared to evaluate the necessary increase in its service through the C-5. In this case, it would be the line most affected, although part of the car trips would also end up on the rest of the network due to connections at Atocha. The Ministry led by Óscar Puente is studying the strengthening of the C5 Cercanías line during the works, with an increase of between 25% and 40% in service.
The report to which Somos Madrid had access was prepared for INECO, has 57 pages and was written during the month of October, working with the almost 750,000 daily trips in the southwest corridor. The analysis makes its main calculations based on mobility studies with Bigdata technologies prepared by the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, which provide abundant information on population mobility patterns.
This analysis estimates that travel times due to increased traffic jams on the A-5 will increase by at least 10 minutes on average per trip, which will also be transferred to urban or intercity buses that operate this route, since for the At the moment, the Town Hall excludes the maintenance of the existing bus lane in the neighborhood so as not to harm the circulation of private vehicles. The cities with the highest number of trips by private vehicle that turn to public transport are Madrid itself (22,400), Alcorcón (8,400) and Móstoles (4,500).
The effect on freedom of R-5
One of the requests from Madrid City Hall to minimize the impact of the works is that the ministry opens the R-5 to all vehicles free of charge. The radial, which had to be saved years ago due to its economic unviability, could especially benefit residents of surrounding towns, thanks to its ability to distribute traffic on the M-40 or M-45.
This same Wednesday, the municipal delegate for Mobility, Borja Carabante, reiterated the request: “We see that it is a very good alternative, according to the technical studies carried out by Madrid City Hall – which we will share with the technical services of the Ministry – because they can accommodate a significant part of the vehicles that cannot access via the A-5,” he explained.
However, other technical studies managed by the Ministry of Transport show less optimistic data. Concretely, the analysis to which this newspaper had access estimates that the drop in private vehicle traffic would only be 6% if the R-5 toll were liberalized. However, Puente’s team assured a few days ago that it was studying this possibility “if an agreement is adopted between all administrations.”
The ministry’s analysis also calculates what would happen if the A-5 were suddenly interrupted due to a specific need, a fact it considers “not to be excluded,” the text says. In this scenario, the number of private vehicle trips switching to public transport would increase to 108,000, with a similar percentage distribution as in the previous scenario described.
