We will install 103 new elevators in the Metro network
The Community of Madrid today presented the new Metro de Madrid Accessibility and Inclusion Plan 2021-2028, which will enable 28 stations of the Madrid underground network to be included in the list of fully accessible stations, with the aim of facilitating transport to travelers with reduced mobility. In total, 103 new elevators will be installed and 332 million euros will be invested in the project, which practically doubles the budget of the company's previous Plan for the 2016-2020 period.
The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, David Pérez, and the Minister of Family, Youth and Social Policy, Concepción Dancausa, have presented the Plan at the Plaza Elíptica station, one of those that have been remodeled thanks to the previous program.
This initiative will allow full accessibility to the following Metro stations: Núñez de Balboa (L5 and L9), Ibiza, Oporto (L5 and L6), Menéndez Pelayo, Duque de Pastrana, Vicente Aleixandre, O´Donnell, Manuel Becerra (L2 and L5), Cuzco, Santiago Bernabéu, Concha Espina, Cruz del Rayo, Pío XII, Ventilla, Barrio del Pilar, Herrera Oria, Gunners, Estrella, García Noblejas, Bank of Spain, Acacias (L3 and L5), Carabanchel, Alto de Extremadura and Linear City.
Once the 2021-2028 Plan is completed, 82% of the stations of the Madrid underground network will be fully accessible, taking into account that currently, the percentage is 67,5%, 204 of the 302 stops of the metropolitan network. The new program, as was the case with the previous one, is being defined in collaboration with CERMI of the Community of Madrid (Committee of Representative Entities of Persons with Disabilities).
The Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, David Pérez, stressed that this type of action “shows the constant effort of the Community of Madrid and Metro de Madrid to advance in this area. Public Administrations have the obligation to fully address this barrier in public spaces, and Metro is no exception”.
“Metro is one of the most accessible underground in the world, with 1.700 escalators and 554 elevators distributed throughout the network, which makes it the first metropolitan in Europe in terms of the number of elevators and escalators and the third in the world” , Perez recalled.
For her part, Concepción Dancausa recalled that “from the Community we work to improve the quality of life of the 380.000 people with some type of disability who live in the region. Coordinated work through the Madrid Strategy for Attention to People with Disabilities, in which different ministries, entities and social agents participate and which includes measures aimed, among other aspects, at ensuring mobility and promoting the autonomy of these people”.
Actions between 2016 and 2020
The Metro Accessibility and Inclusion Plan 2016-2020 had as its objective the installation of 101 lifts in 36 stations of the Madrid underground network, as well as the implementation of other elements such as tactile-visual flooring, double handrails or Braille signage.
Currently, of the 36 stations of the 2016-2020 Plan, 20 stations are fully operational, 12 of them are in the construction phase, leaving only the Alonso Martínez and Méndez Álvaro stations to be tendered, in the process of drafting the technical project.
