Has anyone heard about this? They plan on digging up the plaza and calle Montera for 4 years to install a new rail tunnel.

Check it out: Article

This could put a real damper on things!

I read about this a couple weeks ago on Madridiario but it seemed to me they would just be TUNNELING and not destroying the land-surface except in a few key places like at Puerta del Sol. Now it sounds horribly extreme! Ugh! "There goes the neighborhood!"

And there are also plans for a third tunnel between Atocha and Chamartin train stations under Serrano street for the high speed trains (with no stops between them).

Even native Madrileños will complain that one of the few bad things about this town is that the streets are always being dug up for one reason or another. Yes, this project looks like it will be a real nightmare. Probably shouldn't plan on driving into the center in the next decade or so.

Mongo, what do you mean about putting a damper on things when they dig up Montera. Are you suggesting that all those nice ladies who seem to always be waiting for a bus that never comes will have to relocate elsewhere?

eduardo wrote: Kinda makes you wonder if that was in some city engineer's or city official's mind when they chose the route. That would CERTAINLY displace a large business sector. You have the shoe store owner complaining about losing business due to the lack of tourism foot traffic through the Puerta del Sol if/when this thing goes off but what about those "nice ladies" on the Calle Montera whom, as eduardo said, just keep waiting for that bus that never seems to come?? hehehe..

Saludos, MadridMan

Absolutely INSANE!

Here's my alternative plan: Take the Circular, and Linea 10 (metro sur) and make them run 24 hours, like in NY- but after 1:30- run with less frequency. Helps the extra traffic stay out of Madrid (why bring your car with nowhere to park when you can still catch the subway/bus home?! )

Addina a Cercanias is going to be pretty useless running into the center- especially when Cercanias closes at 11pm! :o Or an extra metro line when another exists that does the job!

4 years is WAY too long to dig up that area! It doesn't need it- its a waste of money and time- not to mention going to hurt the tourism and the shop keepers in the area (I could less about the women waiting for the never arriving bus- that may be the ONLY positive thing out of this mess!)

Who's stellar idea was this anyway What a mess!

4-years?? Yo gotta be kidding! I remember how excavation under the Plaza de Oriente to build a parking garage was halted when artifacts were discovered and the project stretched on and on.

Their 4-years estimate doesn't allow for things like that. We are far from perfect here in the U.S. but we do have things like Environmental Impact Statements that have to be done before any major government construction project is undertaken. It would be nice to see something like that (or even sub-strata core samples) for an idea of how long it is really going to take.

Eddie- They do have that in Spain also (I know I have an aunt who is an archeologist and gets called to do these things).

But even so, sometimes you don't really find things until you start digging! So who knows what will turn up! :o

They STILL shouldn't be doing it!

Like the humorist Dave Barry says, "I'm not making this up!"....

Today, as I was headed towards the FNAC (what else is there to do on a "non-shopping Sunday"?), I passed through calle Montera and saw a young lady squeezed into a white tank top with the English words written in large red letters: "WE ARE GOING TO TAKE THE BUS."

Eduardo-I think that after being evicted from c/Montera for 4 years, the bus stop girls will be elegible for duty with the infamous "old lady hookers" that patrol c/ de la Cruz!

I read today on the newspapers that the bus stop girls are requesting compensation for the works on the area. They say the bus will take even longer to come and they will lose money!!!.

Looks like being evicted from my studio in Lavapies actually is a blessing in disguise. (Even though the workers swiped my $800 studio easel, ouch!) I passed through PdS just about every day, or else Grand Via, a close second.

This sounds like someone's brother-in-law is going to become filthy rich(er), probably someone with connections in the PP. It¡s "business as usual."

By the way if anyone wants to read a really good book on the history of Spain, get "The Story of Spain," (by Mark Williams, Malaga: Santana Books, 2000) it is compact and extremely well written.

Saludos to all the regulars on the board!

OOOOooopppsss... Poor "nurses of love." They shouldn't be evicted from their bus station!!

They are as classical in Calle Montera as chocolate con churros in the whole Madrid.

There should be a general strike in Madrid to avoid this huge damage to the socio-cultural scene of the capital.

By the way... who needs another hole in Madrid??? Hmmm SORRY!! I may be misunderstood. LOL.

I think it's funny as hell!!