This weekend thousands of citizens gathered and created a human chain to request the modification of the project and the halting of the felling of trees.
The residents of Madrid have not needed to chain themselves to a tree, as Baroness Thyssen did in her day, to achieve stop the felling of trees that the Community of Madrid had announced in the area of Madrid Río, at the point where a stop for the line 11 of the Madrid Metro. After collecting 50,000 signatures and a few thousand citizens creating a human chain in the affected area, the Ministry of Transport and Urban Mobility has announced that it is halting the planned felling of trees and will modify the project to expand this public transport line.
The announcement comes after the images from this weekend, where adults and children protested the disappearance of 1,027 trees and the transfer of another 348 between a section of the Madrid Río promenade, between the parks of Arganzuela and Comillas. But the sector’s counselor, David Pérez, seemed to already have an inkling of the decision last week or the weight of the protests when in the Madrid Assembly, asked by the media about this matter, he already hinted that the project could be paralyzed.
The department headed by Pérez explained this Monday that the objective now is “for as many specimens as possible to be transplanted”, thus avoiding the high number of fellings that had been foreseen, and for this “will order an individualized analysis of each tree”.
This new analysis occurs after environmental groups requested very precautionary measures before the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid, arguing that there had been a deviation from the initial location of the project and taking into account the validity of the Environmental Impact Study (DIA). With this background on the table and after the denial of the measures by the TSJ, the Ministry of Transport has stated in its statement that the DAY of the Metro line 11 route is “favorable“and that if a new metro stop has been included, it has been due to the allegations and requests of the residents and the Madrid City Council itself.
Thus, the text explains that the extension between Plaza Elíptica and Conde Casal contemplated three route alternatives, three connection stations (Palos de la Frontera, Conde de Casal and Atocha), and a single new station in Madrid Río”, but which after the allegations “was modified to add a new station, Comillas”.
It acknowledges, in any case, that “during the drafting phase of the project, the Madrid Río station moved a few meters due to different technical conditions, such as the modification of the tunnel layout to include the Comillas station, as well as to avoid the proximity to other infrastructures such as the M-30 junction at the Prague Bridge, the adduction pipes of Canal de Isabel II and high voltage lines that run through the area”.