Rubí will only get the second FGC station if the city council develops the area

BarcelonaFor 15 years, Rubí has been demanding a second FGC (Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya) station in the north of the municipality, and this Friday marked another key step in the negotiations. The Department of Territory and the City Council met to jointly evaluate the results of the feasibility study commissioned in January, and the Generalitat's position is clear: building a second station (or stop) on the S1 line in Rubí is viable, but with conditions. Before any further study of the project is carried out, they warn, the City Council must develop the area for urban planning purposes. During the meeting—which brought together the Secretary of Mobility, Manel Nadal, the President of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat, Carles Ruiz, and a delegation from the City Council headed by the Mayor of Rubí, Ana María Martínez—the Generalitat representatives linked the profitability of this new infrastructure to the urban development of the surrounding area as outlined in the Municipal Urban Development Plan (POUM). In practice, Territori has passed the buck to the local government and has stated that once this development is completed, the preliminary construction studies will begin. Therefore, the project remains without a start date or budget. Secretary Nadal maintains that "any reasonable improvement proposal is always welcomed" and explained that, according to the feasibility analysis, the best location for this new station would be in the industrial park. "Once the actions planned in the POUM (Municipal Urban Development Plan) are carried out, the possibility of building a second station will be viable," Territori maintains. The location of this new stop, which would be in addition to the Rubí Centre station (two kilometers further south of the municipality), would improve access to the higher part of the city, which has a population of over 78,000. The new station would serve workers in the industrial park, residents of the northern neighborhoods, and those living in housing developments on the other side of the railway tracks, such as Sant Muç, which are further from the city center.

A much-needed infrastructure

The first feasibility study for this new station was commissioned in 2007, and it concluded that the infrastructure was profitable. Since then, the project has appeared in several metropolitan and infrastructure development plans, but the necessary conditions for its implementation have not yet been met. In fact, it has the support of all political parties in the city council and also of a significant portion of the region's economic and social fabric.