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The proposed metro to Son Espases University Hospital will be a new line, the M2, which will depart from the Intermodal Station in Plaça d’Espanya. It will not simply be an extension of the current line that already runs to the UIB university and Parc Bit technology park. A route proposal has not yet been defined, but the Directorate-General for Mobility is working on different alternatives. It is expected that this line will be underground and will pass through Son Costa station and share the line with the M1. No adaptations will be necessary at the Intermodal Station, as the new line will run on the existing tracks. It was during the general policy debate that Balearic President Marga Prohens announced that the government is already working with Palma City Council on the preliminary procedures to extend the metro network to the Balearics’ main hospital. The new informative study is expected to be approved during 2026. This project was already part of the Balearics Mobility Sector Master Plan, which was approved during the Socialist-led coalition term of office, but it is currently being rethought on the basis of a study initially approved in 2021. The regional government insists that it wants this to be a “viable” project that also fits in with the planned expansion of the railway lines currently in the pipeline and “responds to the mobility and public transport needs of different areas of Palma”. The idea of extending the metro to the hospital has been on the table since at least 2010 due to its obvious advantages for workers and patients. At some stages, there was talk of connecting the health centre by tram, a project that has been ruled out by the current centre right PP government. Today, several EMT and TIB bus routes are available to reach the hospital by public transport. The hospital also has a BiciPalma station with 30 bike racks. At the beginning of July, the new Parc Bit station was inaugurated. It connects to the Intermodal station in about 15 minutes and to the UIB in just 2 minutes. This is the first expansion of the metro since it was inaugurated in 2007, and it has cost almost €35 million. With this expansion, the M1 now has ten stops. In its first working month, a total of 1,718 passengers used the new Parc Bit stop, according to the Regional Ministry in response to a parliamentary question from Més. Eco-sovereignist MP Ferran Rosa points out that this is an average of 78 passengers per working day, when from Monday to Friday the metro runs 49 services in each direction. He has therefore asked the government how it plans to promote the metro among users of the technology park. Més has also asked the Regional Ministry for the demand studies carried out to support the need to extend the metro to Son Espases.
