The future Sagrera station is progressing at a good pace, after accumulating years of delays and unfulfilled deadlines. Called to be an infrastructure that will transform the city's mobility and generate a new centrality, step by step, it is adding milestones, such as the circulation through its interior since December 2020 of the R1 Rodalies trains that go towards Mataró. At the end of autumn, those heading to Granollers and Girona (R2 and R11) will begin to do so. This year, the Sant Andreu station, the new Rodalies station that will come after Sagrera, will also come into operation.
These progresses place the execution degree of the works at 60%, announced the Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, during a visit to the works. Accompanied by the president of Adif, Maria Luisa Domínguez, Sánchez added that the main actions to configure the new station have all already passed the halfway point. Sánchez did not set a completion date for works that began to be tendered in 2010, but, in just three years and with the pandemic in between, the execution has gone from 40% to 60%. So far, the Government has disbursed 540 million euros for a project that will involve an investment of almost 1,000 million euros. The Next Generation funds will serve to cover part of the operation. Acciona, Comsa, Dragados and Sorigué are the construction companies.
For the trains connecting Barcelona with Granollers and Girona to pass through the interior of Sagrera ---without stopping yet---, the circulation of lines R2 and R11 between Montcada and El Clot stations will have to be cut, an action that is expected to begin at the end of August and last about three months. Once this milestone is overcome, the works on the lower level of the future Sagrera station, which will be designed by Fermín Vázquez's architectural studio, will be completed. Rodalies will circulate through Sagrera at almost 20 meters deep and with four tracks per direction, with the same 4+4 configuration as Sants station. The new layout will have a length of 4.3 kilometers, of which 2.8 will run underground. Coming from the north, it will begin under the Nus de la Trinitat and enter the Sant Andreu tunnel, where it will stop at the future Rodalies stations of Sant Andreu and Sagrera, to then reach El Clot.
After the completion of the plant destined for Rodalies throughout this year, the intermediate one will remain pending, which is in the last phase of execution. Here will be the station lobby, which will give access to the different railway services, as well as the parking lot, the area for taxis and a new urban and interurban bus station.
The upper floor will also have to be completed, through which high-speed trains will pass, which will have a total of eight tracks and 400-meter platforms, allowing the parking of double trains. Currently, in this part of the infrastructure, the slab on which the tracks will be supported is being forged. According to the minister, AVE trains are expected to be able to pass through the interior of the station starting in 2025, although there will still be time to see them stop.
Likewise, at the level destined for high speed, a parking area for trains will be configured, which will be separated from the platforms where passengers will alight. It will be used for maintenance and cleaning tasks, as well as for loading catering, which will improve service to customers and increase the number of trains that can park. Sants does not have a space with these characteristics, thus limiting its growth capacity.
A station for 50 million passengers
When completed, La Sagrera station will become the most important station in Barcelona, with a forecast of 50 million annual passengers, including metro and Rodalies, regional and AVE trains. It will be complemented by Sants, creating a railway hub with a capacity similar to that configured by Atocha and Chamartín in Madrid.
Beyond the railway capacity that the city will gain, the minister has remarked that the new station will also allow the urban environment to be renewed, burying the tracks and generating new spaces for residents. "Barcelona needs La Sagrera to transform the city's mobility, connect neighborhoods and improve the environment," she explained.
La Sagrera station will be complemented by Sants, creating a railway hub with a capacity similar to that configured by Atocha and Chamartín in MadridSánchez recalled how his Government found in 2018 "a paralyzed Sagrera with many pending tasks," to which the executive responded by streamlining procedures and focusing on the progress of the different actions. "The pace of work has accelerated," he stressed.He has also highlighted the investment they are making with the Rodalies plan, endowed with more than 6.3 billion until 2030, of which 500 million have already been executed and 2 billion, tendered.
For the Barcelona City Council, finishing the works in La Sagrera will mean putting an end to "an urban wound that has lasted for more than 15 years," explained Deputy Mayor Janet Sanz during the visit to the works. "La Sagrera has gone from picking up the pace to taking shape," she celebrated.