Stop the Madrid metro, there is a pigeon on the road: this is how you ‘hunt’ the animals that appear in its facilities | Madrid News

On January 14, Metro de Madrid interrupted the circulation of its trains between the San Blas and García Noblejas stations on line 7. There have been no accidents. There has also been no terrorist threat. What is happening is much more prosaic: a pigeon is hiding under the subway rails as it passes through the Simancas station. The incident, detailed in various internal documents accessed by EL PAÍS, forces the service to stop for just a few minutes. It is not an exceptional case.

On June 21, 2023, circulation between the Acacias and Puerta de Toledo stations also had to be interrupted due to the presence of another animal. Added to this are those that force us to act without affecting the passage of convoys: foxes, storks, hawks, snakes, parrots, ducks, cats, dogs, seagulls, owls, bats, rats, magpies… Captures that until now They were managed at little cost to the public accounts, according to the PSOE, and that the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso has just awarded to a company for 120,643.05 euros for the next four years.

Incidence. Injured falcon in the Metro building. 2-1-2024. “It is a peregrine falcon ringed by the Community of Madrid and transferred to CRAS (Wild Animal Recovery Center)”. Incidence. 10-1-2024. Cat in the temple of the Severo Ochoa station. “After several capture attempts, the cat comes out of the door and the technicians take it away from the subway entrance.” Incidence. 02-10-2024. Dog at the Rivas Futura station. “You pick up a greyhound at the Rivas station, it doesn’t have a chip, you call 010 and it comes to pick it up. Sevemurof Veterinary Services of the Madrid City Council.” Incidence. 06-04-2024. Snake at the turnstiles at the Carmen station. “After receiving the notice, you go to the station and collect a specimen of ladder snake in good condition, it is released into a forest environment.”

These four recent examples, taken from internal documentation of the Madrid Metro, perhaps explain why the public company put out to tender these works with a description that resembles them more to a military campaign than to a maintenance one. Metro warned those interested in carrying out the work that its facilities consist of about 300 kilometers. He also reminded them that they extend across multiple Madrid municipalities: Madrid, Rivas-Vaciamadrid, Arganda del Rey, Alcobendas, San Sebastián de los Reyes, Coslada, San Fernando de Henares, Leganés, Getafe, Alcorcón, Móstoles and Fuenlabrada . And he pointed out that the actions to be carried out in the capture and management operations would potentially be carried out across 302 stations, 14 depots, 2,400 wagons, and several buildings.

The complexity of the work and the condition of the metro’s critical infrastructure require the successful bidder to have a team activated 24 hours a day, since the animals “affect the passenger transportation service provided or the normal development of other activities.” . The maximum response time is two hours. And the company must always have available a veterinarian responsible for anesthesia for the animals, and a driver who has completed the qualifying course on animal welfare in transport.

“Attention to the capture and management of fauna in the facilities and in the Metro Mobile Material was done by calling 092 for Madrid city, NGOs, animal shelters, and Seprona, depending on the type of animal,” recalls Diego Cruz. , deputy of Juan Lobato’s PSOE in the Madrid Assembly. “And it was managed without problems and at no cost to the people of Madrid,” he emphasizes. “Now, the Community Government awards this service to a private company,” he continues.

“In 2023 it was 12,808.50 euros without VAT for ten months. And in 2024, 120,643.05 [con impuestos] for four years,” he details. “While workers’ retirements are arriving, and stations are left without staff, or having to pay overtime so that trains can run, the Community invests thousands of euros a year to attend to a few incidents if we base ourselves on its own data”.

security issue

Cruz has done the math, and it doesn’t work out. For the concept of collection and/or removal services for loose animals within Metro facilities and offices, he assures, the public company paid external entities or companies 5,300 euros in 2021, 2,350 in 2022, 5,733.75 in 2023, and 10,795 .75 until June 2024. Now spending will increase with a multi-year contract.

The animals, Metro de Madrid justifies in that agreement“can cause a safety problem for themselves, for people or for facilities.” Compared to previous agreements, focused on capturing pigeons or controlling the parrot population, the new contract “has a greater scope, covering possible problems in the facilities, but also vehicles.” And it is added: “Possible actions are contemplated in a multitude of problems that may arise related to the presence of animals in the metro network.”

Thus, the public company anticipates that its attempt to keep animals away from its facilities will have to be intense. Because he is not only concerned about the roads: the fight against parrot nests at the Canillejas base, for example, already required a campaign in 2023 in which dozens of specimens were captured.