Luis F. Durán Madrid
Madrid
Updated Tuesday, February 20, 2024-19:37
A protest march of hundreds of tractors threatens to collapse the city and the access to the capital throughout the entire morning of Wednesday. Up to 500 tractors will travel to the heart of the city in the third week of mobilizations in the agricultural sector. Five columns
are
expected to enter the municipal area of Madrid starting at 8:30 a.m.
Thus, they will arrive at 10:30 at Puerta de Alcalá and will end the protest around 2:00 p.m. at the headquarters of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, in Atocha. Incidents are expected for traffic between 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., which is why even the mayor of Madrid himself, José Luis Martínez Almeida, called yesterday for citizens to use public transportation, especially
Metro and Cercanías
, to throughout the morning...
The delegate of Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility, Borja Carabante, also announced that
there will be a reinforcement of the Municipal Police and mobility agents
, with eighty extra agents in the center to escort the tractor unit. The lines of the Municipal Transportation Company (EMT), whose buses travel on the streets and not underground, will suffer detours due to the protest, Carabante warned. The mayor, for his part, warned that "we have the
mobility devices that will try to minimize the consequences
, but we must also tell the people of Madrid: it is going to be difficult to travel through the streets of Madrid tomorrow and, therefore "The best thing to do is use public transportation." Martínez-Almeida insisted that work is being done to reinforce public transport and to deploy the Municipal Police "to be able to make detours at any time that can alleviate the inconvenience that will be generated in traffic."
Carabante, for his part, stressed that "it is going to be a very complicated day for traffic in the city of Madrid", since the tractor unit is summoned at 10:30 a.m. in the central Puerta de Alcalá; From there it will depart towards the Alfonso V roundabout "through Alfonso XII and Paseo del Prado" and
will end, at 2:00 p.m., in front of the Ministry of Agriculture
.
A farmer, in a recent protest, in Madrid.EFE
So that the protest can start at 10:30 at Puerta de Alcalá, the tractors will enter
"through the five radial roads of the city of Madrid"
, leaving from "different towns" in the region, around "at seven, seven and mid-morning.
At the moment there is no information from the Government Delegation or from the organizers themselves
that circulation will be cut off in all of the entrance axes
(to the city), but, "logically, the speed of circulation, which "It is very slow, it will lead to very important traffic jams," according to Carabante. "Therefore," stressed the delegate of Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility, "we must ask Madrid residents for patience and, above all,
to use public transport
." «Those who live in the city of Madrid should use, especially, the Metro, and those who have to come to work from other locations, we recommend that they use the Cercanías, which will be the best way, we hope, to be able to get to the city. of Madrid," added the Mobility delegate.
The tractor demonstration
will also be joined by 59 vehicles and 5,000 people
, according to the first data announced by the organizers. The entry of the columns of tractors will affect numerous streets in the capital, such as Marcelo Usera, the Canillejas roundabout, Avenida de América, Calle de O'Donnell and Calle de Alcalá.
The route that starts from Torrejón de la Calzada will take the M-419, M-506 and M-406
to Leganés and will reach Vía Lusitana through the M-425. From there you will travel through various streets of the city until you reach the Plaza de la Independencia. From
Arganda del Rey you will travel mainly along the M-208 and M-203
; from Robregordo, the M-978, M-636, M-634, M-126, M-127, M-131, M-103, M-111, M-603 roads and the A-1 service road ; and
from El Espinar the N-6, M-510, M-505, M-500
and the overpass over the M-30. The column displaced from Guadalajara, for its part, will travel along the N-320, N-133, M-111 highways, the M-14 service road and the A-2 until reaching Avenida de América.
Another tractor protest is scheduled
for next Monday, February 26
, also in Madrid, of the same size.