Monday, July 29, 2024, 2:07 PM
A maximum period of two more years. This is the period that the City Council of Murcia and the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility have given themselves to sign the agreement for the financing and arrival of the Tram to the Carmen Train Station in the Murcian capital. This is specified in the fact that both administrations will soon sign the extension of the protocol that expired last April for a period of 24 months, which, however, they hope not to exhaust.
This was explained by municipal sources after the meeting held on Monday morning in Madrid between the Mayor of Murcia, José Ballesta, and the Secretary of State for Transport and Sustainable Mobility, José Antonio Santano, which was also attended by the Councillor for Mobility, José Francisco Muñoz, and the Deputy Mayor and Councillor for Development, Rebeca Pérez.
The meeting was not delayed after Santano showed his willingness, at the beginning of June, to extend the agreement and the councillor Muñoz, as well as the mayor, took up the challenge, urging them to arrange a meeting in which they could address what they had already requested from the Ministry through various letters.
Muñoz himself emphasises that this step does not represent a step forward, but that both parties have urged each other to work “intensively” from now on to make this agreement a reality, which should materialise the financial contribution to the project by the central government, if possible, before the end of the protocol.
In fact, the councillor explains that a longer period has been set with the intention of being able to work with a little more peace of mind, since “a period of one year does not seem to be the most appropriate for a project of this magnitude”, but also that it is hoped to complete the agreement much sooner, given the willingness shown by both parties. The protocol maintains the contribution by the Ministry of one third of the project, without emphasizing, on this occasion, the limit of 32 million that had been set until now.
Logical layout
They also point out from La Glorieta that, in a certain way, the ball is now in the court of the Ministry, which is the one that must guide the City Council of Murcia in the needs of the proposal, in view of the formalization of the agreement. “We have presented the feasibility study, both technical and economic -with the increase in demand-, which we had already sent through other channels, of the proposal to extend Line 1 of the Tram, not only to El Carmen, but also to El Palmar, as well as the preliminary project that we have,” Muñoz emphasizes. Therefore, he considers that it is now up to the Ministry to analyze and review it, in view of the introduction of possible corrections or the expansion of the required information.
This documentation maintains the route of the infrastructure that has been considered until now as the most logical or natural; the one that runs through Gran Via and the Puente Viejo. Until now, it had been pointed out that the mobility works – with the new segregated bus and bike lanes -, which are financed with European funds, could be an impediment to the commitment to this route, given the possible return of aid. But the City Council is confident that this issue will not ultimately be a special impediment, according to the willingness shown by Santano during the meeting on Monday.
The same sources point out that, for the moment, the protocol is limited, as after its initial signing, to the landing of the tram in El Carmen, but they underline that the documentation relating to the extension to El Palmar has been provided as a first step for the development of this project as well, which has been considered integrated into the future line 2.
According to the agreement, the Council should seek funding for the remaining two thirds of an investment which, according to the technical reports presented, after updating the costs and demand, estimates the investment needed to carry out the extension to the railway station at 92.7 million. However, municipal sources are confident that the willingness shown by the Autonomous Community to participate in this project – a circumstance expressed in the Regional Assembly – will also end up materialising financially.
This extension will have 5 stops and will increase the tram line by 2 kilometres, “constituting an essential action to structure the city and turn the Carmelite station into a true intermodal node that will return centrality to the southern neighbourhoods with its connection through train, tram and bus, which will contribute to revitalising its commercial and cultural fabric”, according to the same sources. In fact, municipal calculations indicate that this project will double the number of passengers on this means of transport to reach 14.9 million annually.
Meanwhile, the investment required to launch Line 2 to El Palmar amounts to 104.9 million euros, and will increase the number of passengers by 1.8 million annually. In a later phase, the extension of this tram line 2 to the Western Industrial Estate and the municipality of Alcantarilla is planned, thus reinforcing the Metropolitan Area.
Underground bus station in El Carmen
Both parties will meet again in September during the meeting of the Board of Directors of Murcia Alta Velocidad. There they will not only be able to discuss progress, but it is also hoped that the urbanisation works for phase 0 of the underground railway in Murcia can finally be put out to tender. These projects include the construction of a pedestrian boulevard at the height of the old Santiago el Mayor level crossing and its extension, in the form of a greenway, to Senda de los Garres.
The Council also hopes that the development of an underground intermodal bus station, located next to the new Carmen train station, will be approved at this meeting. To this end, Ballesta presented Santano with a needs study that supports this proposal, requesting its inclusion in the agenda of the September meeting. Municipal sources indicate that this initiative represents an improvement with respect to the proposal initially formulated for this bus terminal and hopes that it will receive the approval of Murcia Alta Velocidad.
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Podemos believes that the enlargement is nine years late
The municipal spokesperson for Podemos in Murcia, Elvira Medina, stated that Mayor José Ballesta “is nine years late” with the extension of the tram. The spokesperson for the purple party indicated that “it is outrageous that a mayor who was elected for a first term in 2015 has taken almost a decade to meet with the Secretary of State for Transport to study this project.” “All this –she recalled-, after years of deceiving the citizens with botched jobs such as the tram bus.”
On the other hand, Medina regretted that the “bankrupt city council” that “Cámara, Ballesta and Serrano have left behind cannot take on this work alone.” For this reason, Podemos continues to defend that “the only realistic option to extend the tramway is to include this investment in the general budgets of the State and the Autonomous Community.” “However,” he pointed out, “in Madrid our amendment to the budgets was vetoed by the PSOE.” [en el Congreso] and in the Region with that of López Miras.”
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