The entire metro network will be accessible in three years

The Barcelona metro network has 163 stations; of these, 95% are accessible. However, eight remain that do not allow passage for people with reduced mobility. With the aim of ensuring accessibility throughout the network, the Government will allocate 115 million euros to adapt these eight stations.

Of these eight, three are under construction ---Ciutadella, el Clot and Verdaguer on L4---, and the Generalitat will tender and promote the works for the rest before this legislature ends in 2028. This was explained by the Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, during a visit to Plaça Espanya station, which has just opened an adapted interchange that required five years of work and eight elevators.

With the aim of continuing to advance until the entire network is completed, the Government has put out to tender the works for the Plaça de Sants station on L5, with an estimated investment of 17 million euros and the project already approved, as well as that of L5 Verdaguer and L1 Plaça de Sants. The project for Urquinaona station has also been commissioned, with a link between L1 and L4, for which an investment of 45 million euros is planned.

In addition, actions are also being carried out in stations that are already considered adapted, but which still have sections that are not. Specifically, improvements are being made in Passeig de Gràcia, La Pau, Sants and Catalunya, with an investment of eight million euros.

Paneque explained this alongside the Department's project director Maria Calix and in front of one of the new elevators at Plaça Espanya. The commissioning of the set of eight elevators has required an investment of more than 13 million euros, for works that began in July 2020 and have progressively opened accesses, with "surgical interventions" to adapt the interchange, according to Calix.

Plaça Espanya station has not only gained in accessibility, but is on its way to improving its connection, and that of the public transport network in general, with the union between the Vallès lines and those of Llobregat-Anoia of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC), through the extension of L8.

With a budget of more than 410 million euros, the works will involve an intervention along four kilometers, with a tunnel boring machine that will excavate from Plaça Espanya after it is assembled on Gran Via, at the height of Vilamarí street.

The extension of the L8 will not only connect Gràcia with Plaça Espanya, but will also generate two new stops, next to Hospital Clínic and in Francesc Macià, with three emergency exits along the tunnel. When operational, the connection will benefit some 19 million users per year, with 14 million of them from FGC.