The Sol tunnel between Madrid Chamartín Clara Campoamor and Nuevos Ministerios opens to traffic

2023-12-23 00:00:00

The Sol tunnel between Madrid Chamartín Clara Campoamor and Nuevos Ministerios opens to traffic

(22/12/2023)

The actions, designed to make safety in the execution and railway circulation compatible, have consisted of expanding the main vestibule on tracks 1 to 6. To do this, the old vestibule has been demolished; a new reinforced slab has been executed; the cores of stairs and elevators have been moved; and the first part of the new walkway over platforms has been built. In addition, the infrastructure has been modernized on seven lanes (1, 2, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13), six platforms have been remodeled (1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 8) and road and signage to increase circulation speed and facilitate the management of nearby services.

In this first phase, access to suburban areas/Metro from Agustín de Fox has also been opened, allowing direct access to this street from the central underground hall, without going through the Metro.

The magnitude of these actions and the fact that they require large machinery has made the works incompatible with the circulation of trains on lines C3, C3a, C4, C4a and C4b along this section, although passengers have been able to transfer to trains that circulate through the Recoletos tunnel at the Chamartn, Nuevos Ministerios and Puerta de Atocha stations.

New phase without suppressing traffic through Recoletos

In the second phase of transformation, which will run throughout 2024, action will be taken on seven suburban roads – between 6 and 13, which provide service through the Recoletos tunnel -, also installing track devices and modernizing signaling; and the main lobby will continue to be expanded. From this space, local travelers will access the platforms through a new 1,300 square meter covered walkway.

In this second phase, the greater number of available tracks that access the Recoletos tunnel (a total of 10, including 9B and 10B), the greater width of some platforms (those shared by tracks 8-9 and 10-11) , the experience accumulated in the first phase, the operation of the new central underground vestibule and exhaustive planning and coordination work will make it possible to develop these actions without the need to suppress traffic through the Recoletos tunnel, the section with the greatest number of circulations. of the Spanish railway network.

The transformation of Chamartín will contribute decisively to the development of nearby areas: once the works are completed, the station could handle between 25 percent and 30 percent more passengers, up to 900 trains per day.

The work on nearby roads is being carried out in parallel with other actions that are transforming Madrid Chamartín Clara Campoamor, among them, the doubling of high-speed capacity. In addition, work is being done on the comprehensive remodeling of the station and its urban environment; investments, all of which will exceed 1,000 million euros.