Energy is never lost – it just gets transformed

That is the main idea behind the winning project in a Metro Barcelona call for innovative ideas

Last year, Metro Barcelona unveiled its Station of the Future challenge – a call for proposals that generated 140 initial submissions with innovative ideas in the transformation of stations. On 26 April, after careful consideration, it was decided to declare the Metrolineres project as the winner, thanks to its idea to reuse energy generated by subway trains for recharging micro-mobility vehicles.

This contest was open to all employees of the city’s public transport operator TMB as a way to celebrate World Creativity and Innovation Day.

A great way to promote intermodality

The Metrolineres team (formed by José Antonio Jiménez, Jordi Reig, Fernando José González and José Miguel López) proposed the use of energy recuperators on the subway convoys. When the latter break in each station the recuperators use the accumulated energy to supply the charging points of e-scooters and bicycles. These charging points would be located outside of the Metro stations in a creative bid towards encouraging both sustainability and intermodal usage of such transport on part of the commuters.

Such intermodality is sought as a way to providing faster, cleaner and quieter mobility within the residential areas, or the so-called ‘last mile’ – a concept that refers to the distance between the subway station and one’s place of residence or work.

The initiative sought to promote creativity and find proposals for added value for users of the metro network and, at the same time, meet some of the values ​​and strategic policies of TMB, such as sustainability, inclusion, efficiency and accessibility.

The second prize went to the project Radical change in lighting, by the team formed by Cristina Viñals, Haidé Rius and Joan Romero Jaimez. There were also several other honourable mentions from the jury.