Living in, is almost the same as living on the periphery. They are part of Madrid City, but to get to the center in public transport it takes practically the same as the people of other municipalities. From the most central and busy points of the neighborhood, to get to it takes at least 20 minutes walking, or another 17, on average, in crowded buses (plus waiting time, 15 to 20 minutes in most cases). It can also be reached by car to the nearest subway station and leave it in a deterrent parking lot, but they are always full. There are stops of, but they do not pass through the center. Moving is a real drama.
For all those reasons, they have been fighting for at least a decade to build a subway mouth in the area and, until now, they understood that starting the zero project was almost impossible. But, it brings you a little hope. “We are going to give war until we can no longer,” says the president of the, Julio Martínez (67 years).
Ana María González (58 years old) arrived in the neighborhood in 2013 and immediately noticed transportation deficiencies. Some time later he wanted to start mobilizing for things to change. “About four years ago I made the proposal of a subway mouth in participatory budgets, which are suggestions of the neighbors in what they want the money to spend, but they said that it was not their competition,” he says in an interview with this newspaper. The stops that are closest are Aluche, Spanish aviation, splicing and carabanchel. While those of Renfe (which do not pass through the center) are the Eagles and Master Freire.
González did not give up. A year ago, after learning of the, he decided to start collecting physical and digital signatures: it has been just over 10,000. And next to the neighborhood association has sent a letter to the with at least a dozen points that support their criteria – and that of thousands of neighbors in the area. “The neighbors of the Eagles need to have an effective, operational mobility model and in an area more compatible with the necessary displacements. It is not whim, it is necessity,” they say.
There are certain areas of the neighborhood that do not comply with having a vicinity or subway station within a radius of 900 and 500 meters respectively. From the supply market of the Eagles, an area of the busiest and commercial, the average of minutes walking one of the closest subway stations is 25 minutes and, by bus, to only reach that first season, it is 17 minutes of journey, plus the time they must wait for it to happen. “In no neighborhood in Madrid takes 20 minutes walking to take the subway,” González insists.
All that without taking into account that the nearby stations are almost always groped from people, as they have denounced users on social networks.
Another option, but also benefits many, is the deterrent parking in the Spanish Aviation Station. A vigilance parking lot where you can leave the car for free (between five and 16 hours a day) to take the subway. But there is another problem: he is always bursting. “I have arrived at 8.00 and I have not been able to park, because all the people of the outbreak also arrive. And if the deterrence is complete, the adjacent streets that do not have the same parking are collapsed (…) I can not park, I have nowhere to leave the car, then I cannot take the subway,” he says.
These difficulties make the most common way in which neighbors or people who work in the area move back and forth to the center is by bus, specifically in line 34 of the EMT, which takes more than an hour from cyber to the eagles market, for example. But the few options make that bus always crowded. So much so. Line 70 (Plaza de Castilla-Alsacia) follows at a certain distance) with 651,832 registered travelers and 27 (castilla ambassadors) with 608,438.
All this happens in the neighborhood with the second largest population in the Latin district, with 52,341 to January 1, 2024, according to data from the Madrid City Council. Only behind Aluche, which has 68,973 people.
The last hope: the expansion of line 11
The —which will go from the Adolfo Suárez Madrid/Barajas airport to four winds – is the only hope that the neighbors have left. The southern section, which would only go from fortune with four winds and that has a budget of 75 million euros, passes very close to the Las Águilas neighborhood, so they have asked the Ministry to value the possibility of diverting the tunnel and making a mouth in the area. “We want that in the Tunishment, instead of making a concavity, pass through the center of the Eagles. What we want is that there is an intermediate,” explains the president of the Neighborhood Association, Julio Martínez.
As they say, this is the right time to insist, since this section is in technical studies to assess where the tunnel will pass exactly. “There will not be two studies, and if we do not take advantage of the fact that there is now one, they will not do it twice,” says González.
However, he sent them in July a letter in which they indicated that “the current planning of the expansion of line 11 does not contemplate its extension to the Águilas”, that this requires “very high costs” and that the neighborhood “has an acceptable coverage of the public transport system. It does not provide any economic impact study, the possibility of doing so, economic amount because the one that is discriminated against, criticizes an ana. The project is still not published, so they hope that something can change.
The Ministry confirms to this newspaper that “the writing of the informative study is in its final phase and as long as it is approved technically it will undergo public information.” At that time the alternatives will be made public and the deadline for the presentation of allegations or suggestions will be opened.
