The orbital line: the solution for commuter rail or a megaproject condemned to eternalize itself?

Barcelona"Oh, it's difficult to say when the works will begin. It's a complex, very important and strategic line for the country. The urban planning part has been done since 2010 and now we will have to start with studies and projects. It won't be tomorrow; these infrastructures cost". These are statements by the Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero, to Catalunya Ràdio about the macro-project that has been decisive to unblock the approval of the budgets: the orbital railway line. ERC wants to reactivate a plan that has been in a drawer for twenty years to give its "yes" to the accounts. In fact, the Republicans present it as a future bet for a network that this year has experienced an unprecedented crisis and is still trying to recover some semblance of normality.

Thus, while the Rodalies service continues to chain incidents, delays, and endless works, the dossier of an infrastructure that plans to connect cities in the second metropolitan crown, from Mataró to Vilanova i la Geltrú, without passing through Barcelona. The project would connect cities such as Granollers, Sabadell, Terrassa, Martorell, and Vilafranca del Penedès through a 120-kilometer line – 70 of which are newly built – with 40 stations and an estimated investment of 5.2 billion euros.

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However, the Government's caution regarding execution deadlines already hints at an intense debate that, in reality, is not new to the sector. Beyond the political snapshot, ARA wanted to ask infrastructure experts if this line is truly a priority or if some shortcomings in Rodalies should be resolved first.

Planning the future

From the outset, the sector responds that "weaving the network" –avoiding Barcelona's radiality– is, a priori, a good idea. But not at any price: they diverge significantly on the route proposed by the orbital plan, the political moment, and the real utility of the project. "It's good that we start talking about Catalonia in 2050. About how new population centers will be created for Catalonia's 10 million people, how they will live, about housing and mobility... And this is where the second ring road comes into play, because the first one is saturated," argues Lluís Moreno, president of the Chamber of Construction Contractors of Catalonia and vice-president of Foment del Treball.

Moreno considers it good that reviving the orbital line has served to unblock the budgets and, at the same time, reopen the debate on the railway model. The president of Public Transport Promotion (PTP), Adrià Ramírez, and the director of the Terminus Transport Studies Center, Joan Carles Salmerón, agree, but make nuances. "We must plan" without losing sight of current problems, points out Ramírez. "We must attack both fronts at the same time, because if we don't start now [these long works], we will never have them," adds Salmerón.

But soon the discussion among experts heats up. There are many millions at stake – 5,200, according to the Government's calculations – and the points that generate the most distrust and the most divergences in the sector are the convenience and real utility of the new line. "It is a year with a major railway crisis and it is surprising that the main issue is not the improvement of the current network, but rather a macro-expansion," questions Ramírez, from the PTP.

"It would be good to first see the railway services plan, which is the tool that will tell us how populations are growing, how people will move and how to transport them – continues Salmerón–. But in Catalonia we have the bad habit of laying the concrete before knowing what we want to use it for," he criticizes. He gives the Transversal Railway Axis as an example.

The effectiveness of the new line

For Salmerón, knowing the costs, demand, and social benefit are crucial issues before making decisions. Nevertheless, he is optimistic. "The orbital will be very important for goods in Vallès. It seems interesting to us that the first phase of works is there, because it is the first place that will collapse as the Mediterranean Corridor grows in volume," he anticipates.

No one doubts that freight transport is also a key piece in the design of the railway network – since the European gauge will reach the Seat factory this year and in 2027, the port of Tarragona –, but opinions differ on the route that the new railway ring should follow.

One of the most critical voices is that of engineer Pau Noy, president of the Sustainable and Safe Mobility Foundation and the Iberian Alliance for the Railway. "I am very angry," he declares. Noy believes that the orbital's route goes "too far" from the Catalan capital. "The project requires two mega-tunnels in Vilanova and Mataró to move the line away from the coast and build many stations. And then there is this obsession that it should not pass through Barcelona. If you don't want to go through Barcelona, you have the R8 which is empty: why go all the way to Montserrat? To pick mushrooms?" he ironically asks.

For Noy, the easiest solution would be to move forward with the Vollpelleres interchange, "which is already planned to switch from Renfe to FGC," but this work "has been postponed." "The demand that appears in the study on the orbital is 30,000 passengers per day, which is what a large bus line transports – Noy argues –. Spending these millions when there are alternatives is a conceptual fraud."

He proposes two to make the Mataró-Vilanova section cheaper and closer to Barcelona: the first using the R1 to Sant Andreu (the only stop in Barcelona) to then link it with the R7, the R8, the R4, and finally, the R2. "This would capture 76,000 daily passengers and we could dedicate more millions to fixing the Rodalies embankments," he summarizes. The second option is similar, but it would avoid entering Barcelona, which according to Noy "seems to be the great sin." "It is dramatic and all this describes how disoriented Catalonia is," laments the engineer, who asks the Government to carefully rethink every step it takes in this project.

"The debate should be opened, society will have to give its opinion," adds Manel Larrosa, architect and member of the Technical Commission of the employers' association FemVallès. "The authentic orbital model is one that reviews all of Catalonia and brings cities closer, but up to Lleida, not just the metropolitan area," he values. In his opinion, "as the project stands, it makes no sense, especially from an economic point of view."

"Perhaps it is indeed a more social than economic line – agrees Moreno, from Foment – because it wants to unite cities [rather than create a freight corridor]. But it would connect the talent of these cities, decongest Rodalies and Barcelona's tunnels, and take cars off the roads," he defends. Moreno insists that the mere reappearance of this debate is worthwhile: "15 years ago, there was already a group of engineers who studied this work extensively, land was even reserved... Therefore, let's listen to them and adapt it," he suggests.

Will it return to the drawer?

The fact that it is a project planned so many years ahead excites and discourages the sector in equal measure. "The ability to assess the follow-up of this agreement is very low. It is a future investment commitment that will go through many stages of processing and many different governments and administrations," warns the president of the PTP, Adrià Ramírez. "In Catalonia, we take 25 years to build any line –points out Joan Carles Salmerón–, and everything points to the same happening with this one." The director of Terminus believes that it is necessary to clearly define, through agreements, who will build it and how the line will be financed, and emphasizes that "there is no plan B" and, therefore, the arguments should be purely technical (and not political).

Will it end up being done or will it be condemned to the drawer? "I don't think it will be done: it's an absurdity and money should be allocated first to things that don't work. Some other government will arrive and say: 'Enough nonsense'," Noy sentences. He warns that, if it is finally done, "it will end up costing much more than they say, as happened with the L9 scandal". Larrosa and Moreno, from the employers' associations, seek an intermediate position: "A territorial plan is needed that properly focuses the railway model", requests the spokesperson for FemVallès. "We don't know what will end up happening, but it does seem that now there is a consensus to fix the network and expand it to adapt it to the country to come", trusts Moreno.