Metro de Madrid signs up to the Register of Companies with Asbestos Risks to undertake maintenance work on underground

Metro de Madrid will shortly sign up to the Register of Companies with Asbestos Risks (Spanish acronym: RERA), with the aim of having its own qualified, trained team ready to work in close proximity to materials that contain this mineral.

The works to remove asbestos from the underground network will continue to be sub-contracted to external specialist companies with qualified staff to undertake this type of work, as happens at present. By including Metro de Madrid in this Register, it may also use in-house staff to carry out maintenance works close to this mineral and hence speed up operations.

This is one of the measures introduced by the Madrid public enterprise within the framework of its Asbestos Removal Plan, which seeks to remove this material from the whole network by the year 2027, which has already been 48% completed. Furthermore, this initiative was recently extended in terms of the investment therein, rising to 170 million euros compared with the initially planned 150 million.

Since this is an open plan, the characterisation process that has been carried out over recent years requires that Metro undertakes an adaptation process. Accordingly, work is being done to develop a new technical approach that allows the activities that need to be undertaken to be traced and audited, along with a detailed year-by-year planning process.

With a horizon of 2027, a series of new activities have thus been scheduled designed to continue with the removal of asbestos in the different components of the rolling stock, in tunnel vaults and auxiliary rooms, at a total of 32 stations, along with removing the equipment that contains asbestos in offices, at sites and depots.