The Government halts the plan to create dissuasive macro-parking areas in Catalonia

BarcelonaSocialist Government's handbrake on the ambitious plan to create deterrent macro-parking lots - or park and ride, in its English name—which had been designed by the previous government of Junts and ERC and which was intended to relieve car congestion in Barcelona. The obvious failure of the first of these macro-parkings, which was inaugurated last summer in Martorell, has led Salvador Illa's executive to halt the thirty projects that had been started and to rethink the need for these large infrastructures, which were supposed to be a stimulus to improve mobility and reduce pollution in the metropolitan area.

After many years of studyIn December 2022, the Generalitat announced with big headlines an urban development plan to move forward Thirty new parking spaces around 102 train and railway stations spread across various strategic points in Catalonia. The aim, as explained by the government at the time, was to create 14,677 new parking spaces so that citizens travelling to Barcelona or other cities in the metropolitan area could leave their cars at the station and switch to public transport. The plan calculated that, in all, this would reduce up to 23,741 tonnes of CO₂ and reduce traffic, especially in the Catalan capital, where more than half a million vehicles enter every day.

However, and as the ARA announced, the first of these macro-parkings, the one in Martorell, has been empty since it was inaugurated eight months ago. It cost 2 million euros, has five floors and more than 300 spaces available. It is next to two stations, one for Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat and another for Renfe, but on average only three cars park there every day, which, according to the neighbours, belong to the personnel who monitor the infrastructure.

After this failure, the rest of the structures have not even been started. Beyond Martorell, the town halls where the main works were to be built park and ride The municipal sources from both Castellbisbal and Viladecans, where large macro-parkings like the one in Martorell were also planned, agree that the announcement of this urban development plan, just over two years ago, has not started any work and there is no process in progress to begin any action in this regard.

Doubts and lack of budget

"We are reviewing the projects, both at the Metropolitan Transport Authority (ATM) and at the Railways of the Generalitat de Catalunya," spokespeople from the Territory department, which is responsible for implementing the projects, confirmed to ARA. Although the Government has not closed this file definitively, sources from the railway sector indicate that no order has been given, at least until now, to launch any other macro-parking. The executive also did not want to give more details about the reasons that have led it to rethink this initiative, nor what specific aspects of the urban plan are being "reviewed."

Beyond the doubts that may arise after the failure of the Martorell car park, ATM assures that behind this slowdown there is also a budgetary issue. "A special urban plan was made to determine the land and uses it had, but all this needs money," says the director of the entity, Manuel Valdés. The ATM confirms that there is an open working committee between this body and FGC to "find a solution in Martorell". "The ATM mobility team and Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat are working to see how to enhance this infrastructure, which is already there," explains Valdés, who clarifies that each of these macro-parkings involves a budgetary allocation - the one in Martorell cost 2 million euros - which does not exist right now due to the extension of the accounts.

When the economic allocations arrive, explain the ATM, it will be necessary to reorder all the priorities in terms of mobility and see if the dissuasive parking, "which is an element that would help a lot" and which has already been used for some time in other countries, such as Germany, Austria, France or the Netherlands.

In fact, the halting of this project comes at a turning point for public transport: the reductions in transport have increased demand and use to record levels. The same Valdés assured a few days ago in this newspaper that the various services are reaching a point of "saturation" and that more money is needed to buy mobile equipment and improve and increase frequencies as soon as possible. "The fund is not enough for everything," sums up the director of the ATM.