The climb to Tibidabo collapses. Vallvidrera: "The weekend is horrible."

BarcelonaAt eleven o'clock on Saturday morning, the narrow sidewalk on Calle de las Alberes in Vallvidrera is packed to the rafters. The line of people waiting to take bus 111 and go up to Tibidabo stretches beyond the entrance of the Vallvidrera Funicular, forcing other pedestrians to step onto the road and walk between the cars going up the mountain. The scene, residents warn, is repeated every weekend, and now also on some weekdays. "When the weather is good, the neighborhood becomes saturated," says Laia Vila, who complains that the crowds of visitors make it impossible for residents to use public transportation.

After a while, the 111 arrives. It's one of those small neighborhood buses designed to make getting around easier for residents, but now it's been overtaken by the reality of a neighborhood that's also attractive to visitors. The line contracts in the hope of being on the first one. But the bus doesn't have nearly the capacity to handle the entire queue, and many people will have to continue waiting under the blazing sun. "We have to let one or two buses pass before we get on," laments Joan Pujol, president of the Vallvidrera Residents' Association. The scene seen at street level with the bus is repeated underground with the funicular, which is packed to the rafters.

The situation is reminiscent of what has happened in other areas of the city, such as the surroundings of the Park Güell, although visitors here are not predominantly tourists but hikers – many of them from Barcelona – who want to climb Tibidabo to enjoy the views. delete 111 on Google Maps, but they point to another of the transports that go up to Tibidabo: the Cuca de Luz.

The Cuca of Light

The reason is that they believe that if the Vallvidrera Funicular and the 111 line are congested, it's because the only way up to Tibidabo from the other side of the mountain is this funicular that goes to the amusement park. The price—€13.50 for a return ticket if you don't buy a ticket to the park—deters the vast majority of visitors, who find an alternative on the Vallvidrera neighborhood bus and the other funicular. For this reason, residents are asking for the Cuca de Llum line to be included in the integrated transport fare system. That is, that it can be used with a regular transport ticket. But for now, the City Council has always refused.

Despite residents' complaints, municipal sources explain that, "in general, line 111 does not suffer from excess passengers." However, they do admit that on average there are two passenger alarms per day on weekends. This happens when the bus exceeds its capacity of 32 passengers. However, they point out that the line registers around 500,000 validations annually—an average of 1,200 per day—and compare this with the data the 116 had before disappearing from Google Maps: 900,000. They also add that TMB makes "specific reinforcements" during periods when it is expected to experience overcrowding.

As for the Cuca de Llum, they only point out that access to the Tibidabo amusement park is via this funicular and that its ticket is included in the admission. In fact, this is one of the complaints from residents, who lament that the City Council "doesn't understand" that not only people who go to the amusement park get on Tibidabo, but also hikers who stroll through the area or go to watch the sunset from the mountain.

Risk of accident

Beyond the difficulties in accessing public transport, residents warn of a collateral risk from this overcrowding. They warn that the 111 bus stop is right on a sharp curve and that, despite having only one lane up and one down, because it takes a long time to load passengers, cars overtake, invading the oncoming lane. "It's a miracle no one was killed," agree Pujol and Vila, who emphasize that it's also a street frequented by cyclists.