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They demand that the tram reaches one of the strategic industrial areas of Catalonia after 20 years

The El Pla industrial estate, located in the municipal areas of Sant Feliu de Llobregat and Molins de Rei, offers attractive legal advantages to attract companies to a space located next to the A2 highway, just 15 kilometers from Barcelona, ​​the port and from the airport. However, employers, workers and trade unions miss that the tram does not stop in any of the 143 hectares of the total area of ​​the polygon. They have been asking for it for 20 years.

At a time when they see their historical claim ever closer -the request has been included in the new Transport Infrastructure Master Plan-, the defenders of the arrival of the Trambaix to Molins de Rei have just presented allegations that the layout is improved and its construction, this time yes, is firmly guaranteed. Although the new Infrastructure Master Plan (PDI) 2021-2030 once again includes the extension of the rails from Sant Feliu and the connection with the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC) station in Sant Vicenç dels Horts, citizens and agents economists involved recall that the action was already contemplated in previous plans without ever being carried out. The new commitment of the administration is that the arrival of the rails to the polygon will be a reality in 2028. But suspicion is still present.

In the polygon, with about 8,000 workers in total, mobility is incessant. Two business associations coexist in El Pla, which depends on two neighboring municipalities linked by the polygon itself, classified as strategic within the industrial park of Catalonia. Each has its own needs and concerns, but sometimes they work together. The arrival of the Trambaix to El Pla is an old and indefatigable claim. When it arrived at Sant Feliu, it was already contemplated that it would extend to the neighboring town, but it was not possible. In the Molins de Rei part of the polygon, about 2,000 workers are employed in 150 companies that have the occasional metropolitan bus line dependent on a private company and with a low frequency of passage. In practice, the car is the only way to get to El Pla, since the Renfe station is far away. Under these circumstances, the announced arrival of the tram is very attractive for employers and unions.

The Metropolitan Transport Authority (ATM) contemplates that the Molins de Rei industrial estate will have three Trambaix stops in 2028. “Among businessmen, there is an illusion that it will arrive, an illusion that has been fed since the arrival of the tram to Sant Feliu at the beginning of this century “, explains the president of the Association of Employers of the El Pla de Molins de Rei industrial estate, Josep Maria Francesc. “Now, as his arrival is included again in the PDI, that illusion is renewed. The completion period, stipulated in 2028, and the investment of 98 million fuels optimism.”

In previous attempts, the tramway crossing Sant Feliu depended on the undergrounding of the Renfe tracks in the town, a long-awaited pharaonic work. Once the urban mega-intervention has been tendered by the Ministry of Public Works, the tram will be able to go over the railway lines. “If, even so, the tram did not arrive at the estate, it would be due to lack of will. I hope that this opportunity is not missed by the institutions, since it cannot be wasted that there is already a budget, a layout and a will palmaria to carry out the work “, claims Francesc, who urges the administrations to” apply pressure “for the investment to be carried out. “There are many years of struggle and waiting to squander this opportunity now”, completes the businessman, convinced that “it is an anomaly” that they have been members of a platform, and not the public administration, who have requested this medium of transport for the polygon and the city of Molins de Rei.

Members of a platform such as LluÃs Carrasco, head of Volem el Trambaix al Pla, who has presented allegations to the new PDI because he does not forget that the claim was included in previous master plans without the work ever being executed. “In 20 years, we have put pressure on the authorities and mobilized residents. We have been waiting for results for two decades,” says Carrasco, who has promoted a collection of signatures and motions in municipalities where T3 passes or wants to pass : Sant Joan DespÃ, Esplugues de Llobregat, Sant Just Desvern … Unanimously, the plenary sessions gave their support to the platform so that the PDI could carry out the work. “We want the tram to really reach Quatre Camins, the FGC station in Sant Vicenç dels Horts, in ten years from now. And to PallejÔ, recalls Carrasco, who is satisfied that initially the rails stop at Molins de Rei.

The new PDI states that the extension of the tram, in two phases, reaches Sant Feliu in a first phase and Molins de Rei in a second. 2025 is the horizon for the first phase: if the train tracks as they pass through Sant Feliu are already underground, it will include two new tram stops in the city. The second phase, that of the arrival of the Trambaix to Molins de Rei, in 2028, includes the construction of three stops: that of the El Pla industrial estate and two more in the urban area. In the third, not before 2031, the tram will cross the Llobregat river and connect with the FGC. Everything is pending final approval, since the current one is only initial.

The Volem el Trambaix al Pla platform is made up of the CCOO and UGT unions, FavBaix, the Association for the Promotion of Public Transport, the College of Environmental Scientists, the Business Association of Pla de Molins de Rei, Catalunya Camina and other entities local. They argue that some 90,000 people from Molins de Rei, Sant Feliu, Pallejà and Sant Vicenç dels Horts would benefit from the expansion and improvement of transport. “The Trambaix is ​​used to sew railway stations in the center of Baix Llobregat. It enables mobility to be sewn on the outskirts of Barcelona and quicker access to jobs”, they recall.

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