The Mayor of Vitoria-Gasteiz announced the proposal in the General Debate on municipal policy, where she also stressed the importance of the rail connection with Jundiz and the tram works to Zabalgana.
The Mayor of Vitoria-Gasteiz Maider Etxebarria (PSE-EE) has announced that she has started discussions with the Ministry of Transport to study the possibility of introducing a railway variant that “takes freight traffic out of the city.” Etxebarria put forward this initiative in his intervention in the General Debate on Municipal Policy, a large part of which he devoted to the area of transport.
Given the foreseeable increase in rail freight transport, a reflection is necessary. In his opinion, “it is reasonable to analyze the possibility of diverting large trains with a bypass from Jundiz, which surrounds Vitoria-Gasteiz to the north, so that the city is limited to receiving passenger convoys”, he explained. All this to “avoid inconvenience to residents and improve the safety” of the rail corridor, since, if carried out, “it will free the neighborhoods of Salburua and Zabalgana from the visual and acoustic impact”, and reduce the final impact. costs of the funeral, through which the goods would not pass.
The mayor has indicated that if this proposal goes through, the ministry could include it in the ongoing railway integration projects. Whether it is feasible will be known in about six months.
On the other hand, the First Mayor, continuing in the field of Transport, has stressed its importance new rail connection to the Jundiz industrial estate and its conversion into an intermodal terminal, where trains of up to 740 metres in length will arrive and depart. He stressed that Vitoria-Gasteiz must rely on this intermodality to be competitive, but “without giving up its sustainable spirit.”
Regarding the arrival of tram to the Zabalgana districtEtxebarria explained that the intention is to sign the financing agreement in the first quarter of 2025, so that the works can be put out to tender in the second quarter and begin at the end of that year or early 2026.
Environmental measures
Another novelty announced by the mayor is that the city council will approve the approval this Friday Short-term action plan for high air pollution episodes in Vitoria-Gasteiz. Its aim is to provide an effective response to specific episodes of increased pollution in order to protect human health and the environment.
The plan will define three action situations: preventive situation, alert situation and alarm situation. In the preventive situation, information will be transmitted to the population and general recommendations will be disseminated, such as the use of public transport. The announcement will include new measures to the previous ones, such as the reinforcement of public transport; speed limit in the entire city to 30 kilometres per hour; possible traffic restrictions in some streets and reinforcement of the control of industrial and construction activities. Finally, the alert situation will take into account the previous measures to which new ones will be added, such as the recommendation to limit the practice of sports abroad; the free city bus ticket or circulation restrictions in the city centre based on the environmental labels of the DGT.
During the intervention, Etxebarria indicated that his government, of the PNV-PSE-EE coalition, is that of “agreements” and that of “stability”, and he decided to extend his hand to the opposition to negotiate the prosecutors’ regulations. “My hand is now extended to all groups to reach new agreements. Without preferred partners or red lines”, he stated.
Source: EITB
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