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Alcorcón opens a new depot for electric buses and accelerates public transport change
Getting around by bus in southern and western Madrid will start to feel different in the coming months. Alcorcón now has a new depot for electric buses, which will expand the use of less polluting and much quieter vehicles on urban and intercity routes connecting municipalities such as Móstoles, Alcorcón and part of the metropolitan area.
The facility, managed by Arriva within the Consorcio Regional de Transportes, has 47 spaces with electric charging points and intelligent systems capable of monitoring energy consumption and optimising vehicle charging. All of this is also supported by solar panels installed on the infrastructure itself.
For those who use the bus every day, the change will be noticeable less in appearance than in the journey experience. Less noise, fewer vibrations and smoother driving are part of the transformation that the Comunidad de Madrid is seeking to speed up across much of its public transport network.
The new depot also incorporates rest areas and spaces adapted for drivers and technical staff. The aim is to modernise not only the fleet, but also the day-to-day operation of lines that carry thousands of people each day between outlying neighbourhoods and commuter towns.
Electric transport is gaining increasing presence in the region. According to CRTM data, almost 60% of intercity buses already use clean energy, a figure that will continue to grow over the coming years as public authorities seek to reduce emissions and adapt mobility to new environmental requirements.
In municipalities such as Alcorcón or Móstoles, where many everyday journeys still depend on the car or long public-transport trips, the renewal of fleets and operating bases is beginning to form part of a broader transformation in how south-west Madrid will move over the next decade.
Madrid has been trying for some time to modernise its metropolitan network without grand visible gestures, but projects such as this depot show a quiet change that is already beginning to be noticed on the street: quieter buses, more technological infrastructure and mobility that is gradually trying to leave behind the more polluting model of recent years.