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At 5:17 a beep alerts the city that the time has come.

Some offices of the four skyscrapers of the Castellana are lit.

Behind, in the Fuencarral Operations Center of the Municipal Transport Company, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary, an asphalt whale, made of steel and plastic, backs up.

In the booth yawns the person in charge of access to one of the

.

The crystals reflect the lights of the LEDs, fireflies of the bureaucracy stamped on the front of the vehicles.

On this shore of Madrid, the dawn is not made of neon but of coordinates.

Machines E3, 11, 60, 16, 61, 70 and 147 begin to irrigate the public from the northern district.

- "movement staff" in the opposition prison jargon - make 63 different lines work.

Six of them, nocturnal.

In Fuencarral, its own resources and that of the Elipa center have been combined since March.

With this operation, as explained by the City Council, it is intended to keep active the lines affected by the "ambitious" remodeling of the Elipa.

-It will be the largest electrical operations center.

A national and international benchmark for sustainable mobility -says Carlos Sierra, director of services and transport of the City Council-.

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Transportation.

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The transformation will cost 115 million euros

.

«The new Elipa will have 40,000 square meters.

It will operate with a fleet of 318 electric buses.

This non-polluting dystopia has a name: photocatalytic roofing.

"It is an installation that will charge the buses through inverted pantographs. It will have a decontaminating effect by decomposing nitrogen oxides and will consume renewable energy produced in the photovoltaic panels installed on the roof of the center."

There will also be a green façade of more than a thousand square meters.

In the words of the manager: "Respectful of the environment. It will reinforce the acoustic insulation of nearby homes."

"The most comfortable transport"

Fueled by caffeine, the drivers chat before picking up the order.

Each one is assigned a car parked on one of the breakwaters distributed on the esplanade.

We are going to eliminate paper because in the end it is very expensive and if it were digitized the distribution could be done more efficiently. When there is an error we have to have everything printed", clarifies Víctor Rodríguez, manager of the Fuencarral operations center.

-How was Elipa integrated?

-Buildings had to be demolished, several facilities reformed and staff spaces expanded.

The works began in September 2020. They lasted more than a year.

"We have integrated 1,240 people and 315 vehicles."

Víctor Rodríguez walks the asphalt tracks pointing out the milestones of adaptation.

The workshop.

Laundry.

The machines in which each driver deposits the collection of the day.

The newest and the oldest vehicles.

"The drivers can keep the money for three days. Sometimes it happens that they finish the seven and a half hour shift away from here. Normally we don't have any problems. Each bus keeps track of the tickets that have been sold."

.

"90% of what is sold is fertilizer."

Thirty-somethings use the EMT service the least.

"They have been sold freedom and autonomy with the use of other means of transport. This is the most comfortable."

45% less in 2020

The pandemic emptied the buses.

"In 2020, 45% fewer trips were made. The previous year, 439 million travelers were transported. Approximately 1.6 million each day.

," says Carlos Sierra.

The mask is still mandatory in EMT vehicles.

"Like in hospitals and the pharmacy. It seems aberrant to me. You send the message that transportation is bad."

The habits modified by the coronavirus infection changed the logistics of the operations centers.

Some routines are outdated.

"With teleworking, you have to adjust to the demand curve. We are following the occupancy of the buses. Depending on the degree of occupancy, we redesign the schedules. Almost until 12 in the morning the demand falls. The strong peak before the pandemic was at this time".

There isn't too much night left.

It's 6:30.

We follow in the footsteps of Víctor Rodríguez, who acts as host for this factory farm in the city.

The municipal nomenclature hides the action and the garages, from the torrent of the owl lines, are a myth of night owls.

The penultimate

.

Ending up confused, lost and disoriented in one of these transportation hubs was a sign that life still had a spark.

"Here we have found everything," says Carlos Sierra.

He is counting the bus brands.

"We have 480 Mercedes, 140 Solaris and we have incorporated 80 of the Iveco brand, which are cheaper.

. In 2010 we stopped buying diesel combustion vehicles. Almost all of them run on gas."

-He said they've seen everything.

-Of everything: a forgotten wedding dress.

Money.

People she had given a dizzy spell to.

Again we found a child.

A neglected minor.

"And on Halloween they throw eggs at the buses," intervenes Víctor Rodríguez.

-They annoy the washing system -explains Carlos Sierra-.

The egg doesn't come out right.

The water from the sinks is recycled and makes it unusable.

kaffir fame

Coexistence with the new means of transport, according to the manager, has not increased the notification of incidents.

In other words, there are no more accidents in the interaction of buses with motorcycles, scooters and electric bicycles.

"Buses have appeared inside subway entrances, yes. The drivers have a reputation for caffirs, driving this type of vehicle does not give a good reputation, but they are good. We are a bulky body on the street but luckily we have great professionals. With any incident, a protocol is activated and it is managed from the control center. We do 93 million commercial kilometers every day.

Another innovation produced in Madrid, capital of the groups: "The low floor was invented here. The whole mechanism of the bus is arranged on the ground. The motors had to be placed in a special position. It

."

The Fuencarral operations center is the oldest in the city and has a fan club.

"The association of friends of the EMT comes from time to time and collaborates with the museum.

".

It was inaugurated on July 5, 1960. "There used to be a shooting range here. And the priest is no longer there."

The employees of the EMT and the workers who participated in the construction lived in the neighborhood of San Cristóbal, made up of blocks of flats with an affordable rental system that was given the name of 800 houses.

The Cuatro Caminos and Tetuán tram lines reached Fuencarral.

Leyland double-deckers and trolleybuses also refueled "here," Sierra notes.

, says in front of a specimen from the 50s planted in the workshops.

As in

, Rodríguez tries to predict the failure before it occurs.

"The predictive system saves a lot of money.

".

There are no keys.

Carlos Sierra puts his finger on a classified place on the nose and the doors open.

"

."

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