open a ghost road that almost no one uses

A mousetrap.

This is how José Manuel Tofiño, mayor of Illescas, defines the A-42 highway that connects Madrid with Toledo. The road runs collapsed every day but next to it it has the most underused toll road in Spain. The claim is obvious. The answer, so far, too.

Maddening. It is one of the terms that best defines the journey that thousands of drivers make every day on the A-42 towards Madrid. And in the direction of Toledo. Because back and forth, morning and afternoon, there is only one reality on the A-42 highway: it is clogged.

Although neighborhood and political complaints are once again on the table, congestion on the A-42 has been critical for years. Already in 2020the representatives of the Popular party of the Community of Madrid and the affected municipalities of Toledo demanded measures from the Executive. Now they are the PSOE politicians those who demand solutions.

What’s happening? Simply, the A-42 is clogged daily while the A-41, which runs parallel, is empty. According to data collected by The Countrythe A-42 has an average traffic flow of up to 90,000 vehicles per day at some points, while the payment option barely exceeds 2,000 vehicles.

The figure has even been growing in recent years given that the neighboring free highway is completely overflowing. And a little over a decade ago the cars that passed through the A-41 was less than a thousand a day. The situation has even been causing for years delays on adjacent roads. National roads that drivers try to use as a means of escape from the highway.

Because? Although the A-42 has been living in an extreme situation for years, the problem has become entrenched in recent years. The A-42 is a road that connects Madrid and Toledo passing through La Sagra. It is an area close to Madrid known for cities where a good part of the workers go to Madrid daily, such as Illescas and Yeles (Toledo) or Torrejón de la Calzada and Parla (Madrid). Next to the city, the road runs through Getafe.

A good part of those workers left Madrid during the real estate bubble before 2008 looking for larger houses and at more affordable prices. However, the current housing crisis has once again caused Madrid residents look favorably on these towns south of the city. The cranes, for example, have returned to Seseñaclassic bubble burst image.

But, in addition, together with Illescas, a logistics center has been promoted that has become one of the great merchandise hubs in the center of the peninsula. This has also triggered the transport of heavy vehicles, which complicates circulation even more. Precisely, The proximity of the A-42 is one of the great attractions to carry the goods there on the way to Madrid.

make it free. Therefore, in their latest claims, regional politicians ask that the A-41 be opened to all vehicles to alleviate the situation on the A-42. The measure they propose is very simple: if one road is empty and the other is collapsed, let it be liberalized.

The problem is that the concession for the A-41 does not expire until 2040. At the moment, the road is completely free from 0:00 to 6:00, which is an alternative to the first to hit the road. However, local voices They attribute this to the intention of the concessionaire company to save workers’ salaries and emphasize that at that time it is not a problem to travel on the A-42 since it is first thing in the morning when it gets stuck.

Or at least public transportation. In his report, in The Countrycollect the testimony of Alberto Blázquez, a 28-year-old computer scientist and resident of Palomeque (near the A-42) who takes his car to Illescas and, from there, takes a train to Fuenlabrada (Madrid) and makes a transfer to get to Atocha and thus ends up arriving at his workplace.

This is what some workers have opted for when they see that it takes the same time by public transport as by car. What they propose is that the Cercanías network be expanded to Illescas to facilitate the train connection with the city and that bus connections be improved, which right now, other voices point out in that same report, are also overwhelmed since they left Madrid.

These claims, as well as the construction of a third lane from Parla, are the requests that residents and Madrid residents have been demanding for years. So far, the only thing that has changed is that the problem is even more serious.

Photo | Miguel Angel Masegosa Martínez and DGT

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