Redaccion
The Alcorcón City Council has admitted that, in the current situation, the bus lane enabled by the A-5 underground works is now «unnecessary» and has requested to «restructure the urban and interurban lines, on a temporary basis, for at least these two years», after an increase in its usage.
This was stated to EFE by the Councilor for Ecological Transition, Education, and Environment, Trinidad Castillo (Más Madrid), who emphasized that, as the Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, did not opt to extend the bus lane to Príncipe Pío, this «has changed the game plan».
It refers to the bus lane enabled between Móstoles and Cuatro Vientos to «prioritize and expedite public transportation during the closures» and, despite the Ministry modifying its route on January 31, a month after the start of the works on the A-5, it continues to cause traffic jams.
Móstoles and Alcorcón claim that the construction of the bus lane turns their municipalities into a trap
«When we found out about the imminent works, we spoke with regional and municipal technicians, who told us that the best option to minimize the impact was to improve public transportation. But that hasn’t been the focus, and Mr. Almeida has left the bus lane only up to Cuatro Vientos,» she recalled.
According to Castillo, this means that «the majority of people from Alcorcón and Móstoles who used those intercity buses to reach Príncipe Pío, no longer use them,» as «if they’re going to leave you stranded in Cuatro Vientos, you might as well take the Metro or Renfe from the start.»
The A-5 works continue with the removal of the four traffic lights installed by the Carmena government
«Our neighbors no longer take the bus, so right now, as it stands, that bus lane may not be necessary, because we don’t want an empty bus lane; we want a bus lane with buses running very frequently,» the councilor admitted.
Furthermore, the bus lane was linked to the proposal to set up dissuasive parking lots in the municipality, which they committed to implementing, so that people would leave their cars and a shuttle bus would take them directly to Madrid, something that has ultimately been ruled out due to the circumstances.
Cuatro Vientos residents remind Almeida of the promise to bury the A-5 up to the M-40
URBAN MOVEMENT
The most pressing issue now is that «people are changing their mobility habits and moving a lot within the urban area,» so they have requested a meeting with the Regional Transport Consortium to adjust the frequencies of urban buses.
«If you go to the stop of the urban line, line 2, which passes through Puerta del Sur, you will always see queues. And the same for the return journey,» Castillo explains.
The intercity buses of the A-5 will no longer stop at Puerta del Sur
Therefore, they have requested the Consortium to «restructure the urban lines, temporarily, for at least these two years, and the interurban lines that have an urban route to have a higher frequency, making the journey to or from Madrid less unbearable.»
