Sants station is preparing to remain a neuralgic center for public transport in the city of Barcelona and a point of connections for mobility with a profound transformation that will prepare it to swallow 58 million annual travelers by 2030, 25% more than the current volume. For such a movement of passers-by, the railway infrastructure must adapt technically and urbanistically, with a comprehensive remodeling to adapt it to future needs.
The remodeling project, which was already announced more than a year and a half ago, is beginning to take shape. Works will begin at the end of 2023, to be able to finish the first phase of actions in 2026 and a second in 2030. The total cost of the improvements will exceed 410 million euros, which will be borne by Adif, which depends on the Ministry of Transport, and the Barcelona City Council.
The main actions include the redevelopment of the Plaça dels Països Catalans, the expansion of the lobby and doubling the railway spaces to 36,000 square meters and will be executed in two periods 2023-26 and 2026-2030. The entire enclosure will be provided with more accesses and greater luminosity.
During the first phase, which has a budget of 130 million euros, Adif will carry out a series of interventions on the commuter and high-speed (AVE) platforms and will create new boarding lounges in the lobby. At the same time, it will double the space for railway uses, up to 36,000 square meters, and will open two new entrances to the station, providing four accesses: to the north, south, east and west. The objective is for the station, currently the second most important in the State after Madrid-Atocha, to be integrated into the city.
Likewise, to reinforce the multimodal character that the station already has, a new metro lobby will be built, a space that will give access to the transversal axis of the station, with which Commuter and High Speed communicate.
For its part, in the first phase, the City Council will carry out the redevelopment of the station's surroundings, a project that has not yet been budgeted. Traffic will be removed on the sea side, next to the Espanya Industrial park, and the Plaça dels Països Catalans will be remodeled to pacify it and provide it with green spaces, with the aim of making the station more accessible to pedestrians; in line with the actions that the consistory is carrying out throughout the city. With this, the two roads where private vehicles and taxis currently accumulate will disappear and the square will be connected to the station. Overall, traffic will be reduced by 75% and pedestrian surface area will be increased by 85%.
This is a great transformation "ambitious, comprehensive and forward-looking, which is aligned with the city of the future we are building," explained the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau. The project aims to "fill the entire urban area of the infrastructure with life, unite the neighborhoods on all four sides, gain green and pedestrian space, fill the area with social, cultural and economic life and will represent an indisputable improvement in mobility and one of the main railway and public transport infrastructures of the city," added Colau.
According to the preliminary reform project presented this Friday, before 2026 a municipal play center will also be built, the bus station space will be reduced ---which in the future will be moved under Plaza Espanya--- and an underground container for bicycles, scooters and other clean vehicles will be built.
Looking ahead to the second phase, the remodeling of Plaza Joan Peiró will be carried out, a new roof will be built for the entire station that will be used as a 14,000 m2 space for the installation of photovoltaic panels, which will generate almost 3.8 GWh/year for self-consumption with renewable energy in the entire railway complex. The parking area that currently exists on the roof of the station will also be eliminated, and the transfer of the bus station will be completed and the taxi stand will be buried.
The design and planning phase of the Barcelona-Sants station culminates after a participatory process developed over the last year with local entities, neighborhood associations, and merchants. The mayor highlighted Adif's collaboration in the neighborhood participation process ---which began in January 2021--- and described it as "a notable improvement and a precedent that we hope will be repeated in other transformations," she expressed.
The surroundings and access walkways will be transit areas where the premises will have an urban character, and will be oriented towards the city with coworking areas, linked to technology and innovation companies, quality restaurants, and recreational areas for socio-cultural events. The design proposal also takes advantage of the opportunity to integrate the station into a new urban model, eliminating the roundabout effect and facilitating the permeability of pedestrian connections, according to the Barcelona City Council.