Intercity buses arriving or leaving Barcelona reached record numbers in 2024: more than 82 million trips in Catalonia and some 54 million within the municipalities of the metropolitan area. The successive Rodalies crises have caused a real boom in public road transport and this is noticeable in the most central streets of the city, where passengers accumulate in search of a bus. All forecasts point to this transport continuing to grow and the City Council and the Generalitat assure that their aspiration is to put order in it. The objective of both administrations is to build, in the coming years and if the budgets are approved, several stations in Plaza de Espanya, Diagonal, Gran Via or Sagrera. If possible, the stations will be underground so that vehicles stop invading the city streets.
Antoni Balmón, executive vice president of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area as well as mayor of Cornellà, warned in December that the “update” of Rodalies could take decades and pointed out that the only way to “alleviate the collapse of mobility” was to “incorporate more buses.” Just one month later – on January 20 – the Gelida accident occurred, causing the largest railway crisis in Catalonia with cut lines, days without service and almost 400 buses transporting passengers who have been left stranded by the consecutive days of chaos in which the railway is mired.
Buses from other parts of Spain have arrived in Catalonia with some drivers hired in South America due to the lack of drivers and Renfe itself has announced that it will create its own bus company. The number of alternative transports that the railway company has to hire is such that it now aims to save millions of euros by creating its own bus company and thus stop depending on other companies.
The bus is increasingly present in Catalonia, but the big problem is where to place so many buses within Barcelona. The president of Metropolitan Transport of Barcelona (TMB) and deputy mayor of mobility in the City Council, Laia Bonet, maintained on February 27 in an article in this newspaper: “The interurban bus already moves more people to Barcelona than Rodalies: 380,000 daily trips compared to 260,000 for the train. The change in habits already seems clear: the lack of trust in the train has made many users choose the bus because they know that with it they will reach the time. And it is not a temporary change. The virtue of the bus is that it can reach corners and neighborhoods where the train will never reach.” With this data on the table, Bonet announced that the city should choose to build “new connection nodes at key points such as Fabra i Puig or Plaza de Espanya, with the aim that the new bus traffic can coexist with everyday life.”
The Department of Territory of the Generalitat admits a growth in the use of buses. Sources from the department assure that they are analyzing “the different entry corridors to the city and the role of the interchanges to optimize the quality of service and response capacity.” Among the medium-term objectives that the Generalitat is studying is to “build more bus and bus-HOV lanes” at the different entrances to the city as well as “expand the southern corridor of the C-32 along Gran Via.”
Budgets
The Generalitat considers it essential to maintain the Nord station and soon open another bus station in Sagrera that will connect with the future railway station. “At the same time, a third station is planned in Plaza Espanya for which the project could be drawn up throughout this year, once the budgets are approved,” says a spokeswoman for the Territori department. The plan is that this station will be underground, just below the Fira de Barcelona buildings. In fact, a large connection node will be created since this new station will connect with the Metro and Generalitat Railway networks that are in the connection phase between the Baix Llogregat line and the Vallès line. No one dares to put a date on this project, although they do want to make it coincide with the centenary of the 1929 Universal Exhibition, three years away. What is certain is that this station will cancel the small interchange currently existing at Sants station.
The Generalitat also considers “the need for a fourth station in the Diagonal corridor.” At first, the option of locating this bus station in the University Zone was analyzed, although moving it closer to Francesc Macià Square was not ruled out. What is clear is that it will also be underground. “The location is being studied taking into account the interchange capacity with the metro, bus and tram network,” they warn from Territori.
The two administrations plan to maintain the Fabra i Puig bus station, although they are studying whether to leave it exactly the same as now or try to bury it in some way. There are also doubts about another coach parking lot at the entrance to Barcelona on Gran Via, since there is no concrete idea about where to locate it.
City Council and Generalitat understand that they must promote public road transport of intercity buses to avoid the proliferation of stops in the middle of the city streets.
