From the second beltway of Palma to the 1875 model Inca carriage

The Council of Mallorca, governed by the PP allied with Vox, recently announced the upcoming start of construction on Palma's second ring road, which, according to the institution's president, Llorenç Galmés, will begin before the end of 2026 –or, if not, at the very latest, just as 2027 begins– and will last –hardly anything at all, says the newspaper– six years. He claimed, quite cheerfully, that we are facing “a historical demand of the Majorcans.” Which, of course, will be made a reality by the right and not by the perfidious left.

The man added a little –or a lot– of fantasy to it. Not all Majorcans are demanding it. For example: up to seven civic organizations have already opposed it. And among the rest of the local political aristocracy, both the PSOE and MÉS are against it, although for different reasons. The socialists, due to budgetary divergences, while the nationalists reject it entirely because –the environmentalist label obliges– they advocate “for another type of mobility” based, they say, on “public transport.”

The Balearic Islands have almost one vehicle for every inhabitant. We are the Spanish province and region with the highest index, far above the others and a leader in the entire Union. The traffic jams on the road arteries are not only the responsibility of rental cars. They help a lot during the summer, but they do not explain it for the whole year. Not remotely. We are the residents –they are, because I personally do not own a private vehicle– who clog up the roads and access routes to Palma.

So building new road infrastructure seems inexorable. However, it is true that each of these works that is carried out will be filled immediately and will end up jammed. If money calls for money, cars call for cars, that is certainly true. It would be fabulous if, as MÉS says, the institutions placed their bets in favor of public transport. But recent history shows that one cannot trust any party.

Since the first Pact of Progress Government extended the train line from Inca to Manacor –inaugurated in May 2003– nothing more has been done regarding the railway, in theory the best public transport system. And this despite the fact that the national eco-left and so on, together with the socialist and the ultra-left, returned to govern between 2007 and 2011, 2015 and 2019, and 2019 and 2023. They have had 12 out of the 23 years that have passed to do what they claim to defend, but they forgot about it. As if one could trust them.

It is not just that the network has not grown. It is that the existing one is obsolete. For instance: in 1875 the Palma-Inca route was inaugurated, which took a little less than an hour. Today it takes about forty minutes or even a little more. In 150 years we have reduced the travel time by at most a third. This way, it is impossible for it to take cars off the roads. I will be told that buses are more efficient. Yes, but the network and the frequencies make it difficult for it to be the alternative to the car for many Majorcans who have to travel by necessity every day from their respective town to Palma and then go back home.

There are no miracles and not even easy solutions for complex problems. And if we have one, a complicated one, it is that of public and private transport. With a population increase like the one we have experienced and with the logical and proportional increase in motorization, what could we expect if not what we have. Well, logical it is not very, but it is understandable because the car is necessary, besides being a symbol of personal status, while public transport is left for lower-class women, immigrants, retirees, and some of those odd types who do not have a driving license or vehicle.

From this point of view, Galmés is right. We need the second beltway like the polluted air we breathe. However, it should not be incompatible with the fact of trying to put some real and much more intense efforts in favor of public transport. Spending 350 million on the second beltway is a lot of dough. Couldn't Mr. Llorenç –and Mrs. Marga, who is the lady of the possible– reserve a part of this money for transport with public will?

The PSOE reproached the PP above all about this money. Implicitly, this criticism based on the budgetary issue allowed us to understand that the socialists do not diverge much in the core of the PP's project. Indeed, the connecting road that they defended when they were governing was not very different from the current second beltway, beyond the name and minor aspects. And if this observation has a reason to be, it must necessarily lead to considering how it is possible that the two major parties cannot reach a minimum agreement that ensures citizens a stable long-term investment policy in public transport that one day, among other things, would allow –and that would be a great miracle– the Inca train to stop being the 1875 model jalopy that it is now.