During the presentation of the international competition for the integral transformation of Madrid's Chamartín station and its urban integration, with a global bidding amount of 29.4 million euros, the minister said that the new station will revolutionize the traditional conception of merely functional railway station.
This action includes the drafting of the projects that will allow us to undertake an ambitious remodeling and updating of the railway complex, as well as the urbanization of the surroundings. These projects will form the necessary basis for the further development of the works.
Ábalos recalled that Chamartín's performance represents an important step in the new vision of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Mitma, which consists of making a city and acting in the territory in a global and integrated way, revolving around people And your day to day.
In this sense, Mitma intends to be the Ministry of cities, as explained by the minister, who has assured that he wants to be perceived by the competent authorities in this matter: as a Ministry that is his greatest ally to humanize and grow its localities in sustainability and social cohesion.
Ábalos has affirmed that this Department is working on the Urban Agenda, which seeks to include housing and mobility to correct urban inequalities. In addition, he added that one of the main challenges of the new mobility policy is to create an inclusive urbanism, which integrates metropolitan mobility infrastructure and services aimed at equating citizens' access opportunities, regardless of the neighborhood in which they were born or live. .
Priority of Cercanías services
Within that mobility policy to which the minister has alluded, there are also, as one of the priorities, the Cercanías railway services, which are intended to be such an attractive transport offer that users have a real incentive to leave The private car
Ábalos has emphasized that the purpose of this important investment is not to have a modern and hyperconnected station in itself, but to offer the highest quality of services to be provided to about 42 million travelers annually in 2040.
As announced by the minister, this tender remodeling of the station adds the tender, in the coming months and worth 272 million euros (VAT included), of the works of a first extension of both the station lobby and the roads intended for high speed services. This action contemplates the execution of 4 tracks and 2 platforms of standard width, which means doubling the number of tracks and platforms currently destined for high speed at the station.
The head of the Department also anticipated that the UIC tunnel between Chamartín and Atocha will be put into service in the second quarter of this year, essential for the success of rail passenger liberalization in Spain.
Technical characteristics
In the international competition for the integral transformation of Madrid's Chamartín station and its urban integration, a jury will be made up of members of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (Mitma), Adif, Adif High Speed (Adif AV), Castellana District North (DCN), local and regional administration and professional associations. This formula will allow to select, in the most objective and transparent way, a multidisciplinary team formed by the best specialists and professionals in architecture, engineering and urban planning, as the most outstanding disciplines of the project.
In this way, it will be possible to guarantee an image unit in the whole set and an architectural solution at the height of the relevance of the performance and in the world vanguard in terms of functionality (both railway and other uses), sustainability, design , urban integration and accessibility as fundamental axes of the project.
The winner of the contest must design a new terminal for access to the platforms in the north head, with its urban uses associated with the railway (services to the traveler, offices of the railway companies and parking lots) and their corresponding areas of road and pedestrian access, in addition of a new urban perimeter road that will guarantee the perfect pedestrian and road access to the station, from all the facades, as well as its integration into the urban fabric.
The execution of this project will imply a complete and thorough remodeling of the station, which must respond to the railway needs embodied in the Informative Study and the mobility needs of the city of Madrid. In this sense, one of the strategic objectives of this action is that the new railway and services complex becomes a major part of urban development, since the new Chamartín station will have such an important impact on the configuration of the city that It will become one of its main icons and engine of its economic and social development.
Therefore, the specifications incorporate the conclusions of a preliminary market consultation carried out in 2019 between different agents affected (public bodies, professional associations, consultants …), aimed at knowing the needs of urban transport, as well as possible new transport approaches , such as the progressive implementation of the electric and / or shared vehicle, micromobility, etc.
New railway complex
Since the entry into service of the current Madrid Chamartín station in 1975, the typology of railway traffic using its facilities has evolved significantly. Currently, the station is a nerve center of the Cercanías de Madrid network, and also serves medium and long distance trains, both conventional and high speed.
To all this is added the next liberalization of passenger rail transport, which will allow the arrival of new railway operators to the rail network. This process will mean an additional increase in both the supply and demand of rail services, especially in the field of high speed.
Therefore, an ambitious work plan is planned, within the framework of the Informative Study developed by Mitma, so that Chamartín can absorb this increase in traffic and users, while improving the quality of the service. In the established planning, not only high-speed actions have been contemplated, but also very relevant ones to improve the Cercanías service.
When the transformation process is complete, the station will have 13 tracks and seven platforms of Iberian width and 18 tracks and 9 platforms of international width, all of them passing north and south of the country, thus becoming a key point of passage and exchange of a single Spanish high-speed cross network.
The new station, thanks to the new tunnel of standard width that will connect it with Atocha, currently in the testing phase, will enhance the exploitation and direct connection of the northern lines of the country with those coming from the South and the Mediterranean.
In this way, Chamartín will be able to meet, with the highest quality, the needs of the 41.5 million planned annual travelers, the operational needs of the railway administrator and the commercial needs of the railway and real estate operators (DCN and others), which guarantee the viability and sustainability of the railway system and the actions at the station.
The complexity and scope of these actions, the need to keep rail traffic operational at all times, as well as the necessary coordination with the urbanization works of the environment and with the activities of real estate operators, condition that this program must be executed in accordance with careful planning, which will require the completion of numerous successive projects.
International competition
Due to the high demand for the tasks of drafting Chamartín transformation projects, it has been considered necessary to divide the contest into two phases. The first aims to select up to a maximum of ten teams that prove the necessary technical and economic solvency to carry out the work. In the second phase each team will present a proposal anonymously for the transformation of the station.
The jury, without knowing the authors of each proposal and based on technical, functional and economic criteria, will decide the best and, consequently, the team selected for hiring by Adif AV.
The development of the contract will be divided, in turn, into two stages. In the first, Adif AV will contract, for a maximum amount of 4.6 million euros (VAT included), the drafting of the preliminary plans necessary to plan all the railway action and the one related to tertiary buildable / offices in the urban area, with the participation and co-financing of DCN. In this sense, the general preliminary draft of the action will integrate the architectural draft of the 180,000 m2 of tertiary use planned in the urban planning.
In the second stage, Adif AV may commission, through specific subsequent contracts and up to a maximum amount of 24.8 million euros (VAT included), the preparation of all the necessary projects derived from the planning carried out in the first stage , according to the economic and technical conditions established in the tender documents.
It is planned that the period until the award of the contract, taking into account its special characteristics, can be extended for one year. The execution period of the actions foreseen in the contract is 72 months.
