Barcelona City Council announced plans to invest nearly €12 million in upgrading intercity bus stops and remodelling key stations in Barcelona. The initiative, presented by Laia Bonet, First Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning and Mobility, aims to address long-standing issues of overcrowding and lack of facilities at stops used by thousands of daily commuters.
Around 7,000 intercity buses enter and leave Barcelona daily, a number that has increased recently, partly due to disruptions on the Rodalies train network. Many passengers currently board and alight on pavements without basic services, leading to significant complaints from residents and unsustainable congestion at several points, according to the City Council.
Improvements will include reviewing pedestrian routes, installing shade systems, adding more benches, chairs, and waste bins, and enhancing signage. Where feasible, public toilets and information kiosks will be installed. The council also plans to create new stops near existing ones to spread passenger flow and reduce pressure on bottleneck areas like Fabra i Puig, where large numbers of users often block metro entrances.
Addressing Congestion Hotspots
The problems are particularly acute at stops marked only by a single post, such as those along Diagonal Avenue, Fabra i Puig, and around Plaça d'Espanya. Areas like the upper part of Diagonal, between Francesc Macià and Zona Universitària, see daily footfalls of 10,000 to 20,000 people, who often face long queues and a lack of shelter or toilet facilities.
“Barcelona wants to help improve mobility within the city and also for those coming from outside, which is why it is urgent that we face the situation and implement solutions,” Bonet told reporters at the Fabra i Puig bus stops. The projects for Sagrera, Meridiana, Plaça d'Espanya, the upper Diagonal (Francesc Macià, Maria Cristina, and Zona Universitària), the city centre (Urquinaona, Catalunya, and Universitat), Glòries, and Tetuan will be drafted and approved over the coming months.
New stops designed to reduce public space impact and ease pressure on current locations will be situated near existing ones. This will help maintain smooth transfers with the metro, city buses, or tram services. These new points will be located between Sagrera and El Clot, between Plaça de les Glòries and Tetuan, near the Gran Via Sud entrance, around Plaça Pius XII, and the L'Illa shopping centre on Diagonal.
Station Remodelling and Future Plans
The interventions at Fabra i Puig and Sants bus stations will mirror the ongoing remodelling at Estació del Nord. The goal is to improve passenger circulation inside the stations, make stays more comfortable, and enhance intermodality with the metro and city bus lines. Both Fabra i Puig and Sants currently offer minimal facilities, primarily consisting of several bus bays.
The Generalitat will start initial work at Fabra i Puig this June. At Sants, the existing precarious facilities are further complicated by ongoing railway station construction, which makes access difficult. Meanwhile, the Generalitat has not yet finalised its plan for underground stations to properly accommodate intercity bus users at each entry and exit corridor of the city.
Currently, only the Plaça Espanya underground station project is being drafted. The proposed La Sagrera station is already considered insufficient, prompting studies into whether Fabra i Puig might need to be relocated across Meridiana to build a larger underground station. The administrative processes for the current upgrades mean that the twenty projects are expected to be drafted and approved between this year and next, with changes becoming visible during 2027 and 2028.
