Henares corridor

The Corredor del Henares is a residential, industrial and business axis developed in the Henares river plain around the Northeast highway and the Madrid-Barcelona railway between the Spanish cities of Madrid and Guadalajara.

It includes highly industrialized cities such as Coslada, San Fernando de Henares, Torrejón de Ardoz, Alcalá de Henares, Azuqueca de Henares and Guadalajara, which make up an urban agglomeration of more than 600,000 inhabitants, and an industrial urban continuum with industrial estates and business that develop around the main lines of communication.

Geographic context

This is an area of economic importance due to its strategic location in the east of the Madrid metropolitan area. It extends along the Henares valley from the Madrid neighborhood of Rejas to approximately the city of Guadalajara, encompassing large, highly industrialized municipalities. Its area of influence extends to other municipalities located to the north and south of the valley that have developed urban and industrially, especially in the 1990s and 2000s, such as Ajalvir, Daganzo de Arriba, Camarma de Esteruelas, Villalbilla, Villanueva de la Tower, Yunquera de Henares or Torija.

Municipalities

The municipalities that make up Henares are distributed between the autonomous communities of Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha. In alphabetical order:

Infrastructures and communications

The Northeast highway and the Madrid-Barcelona railway make up the main communication axes of the Corredor del Henares that support the greatest weight of human and merchandise transport traffic, to which the R-2 radial highway has been added and a wide network of secondary roads that link nearby towns and with others within the Corridor's area of influence. In addition, its development is influenced by the proximity of the Madrid-Barajas airport, at the westernmost end of the Henares Corridor, as an important connection center with other economic regions of the world.

The location and existing infrastructures in the area, such as the Vicálvaro-Clasificación station, have led to the construction of new infrastructures in line with the socioeconomic development of the Corredor del Henares, among which the dry ports of Coslada and Azuqueca stand out de Henares or the technological park of Alcalá de Henares.

The communication axes serve as support for the public transport of the Madrid Regional Transport Consortium (CRTM) that connect the towns of the Henares Corridor with each other and with Madrid.

• On the one hand, the railway forms a fundamental axis in the communications of the Henares Corridor with the lines C-2 and C-7 of Cercanías Madrid that unite the main towns of the Corridor with Madrid from Guadalajara and Alcalá de Henares. It has stations in Guadalajara, Azuqueca de Henares, Meco, Alcalá de Henares (three stations), Torrejón de Ardoz (two stations) and Coslada (two stations).
• In turn, there is an extensive network of inter-urban buses that unite the towns of the Henares Corridor with each other and with the Madrid Avenue Exchanger. Also, the main populations become neurological communication centres from which buses are taken to other minors within their area of influence.
  • De Alcalá de Henares, apart from the lines 223, 227, 229 and 824, that unite different areas of the city with Madrid, start bus lines to other locations such as Alovera, Arganda del Rey, Azuqueca de Henares, Camarma de Esteruelas, Daganzo de Arriba, Fuente el Saz de Jarama, Guadalajara, Meco, Orusco de Losjuña
  • De Torrejón de Ardoz, in addition to lines 224, 224A, 226 and 824 that unite different areas of the city with Madrid, start lines towards Alcalá de Henares, Ajalvir, Daganzo de Arriba, Loeches, Improved Camp, Nuevo Baztán, San Fernando de Henares or Valdeavero.
  • In Guadalajara, apart from the lines 221 and 221A of the CRTM that unites it with Madrid Alcalá de Henares, works the Plan Astra, funded by the JCCM, with bus lines between Guadalajara and nearby towns of the province of Guadalajara such as Alovera, Azuqueca de Henares, Cabanillas del Campo, El Casar, Humanes, Quer, Yunquera de Henares or Villanueva de la Torre.
• Line 7 of the Madrid Metro provides service in Coslada and San Fernando de Henares, which unites them with Madrid.

Economy

The economy of this region has traditionally been based on its fertile lands and as a communication axis at least from the axis the union between Toletum (present-day Toledo), Complutum (present-day Alcalá de Henares) and Caesaraugusta (present-day Zaragoza). In the 20th century this area grew rapidly in part due to the construction of the Torrejón de Ardoz Air Base by the United States of America in the fifties, and its subsequent maintenance. This contributed to a rural exodus from the neighboring towns of Torrejón de Ardoz and Alcalá de Henares.

Currently the economy of this area is varied, from high technology, logistics, industrial and agricultural. The economy is influenced by the presence of the Adolfo Suárez Airport, and as a point of departure and entry into the Madrid-Barcelona metropolitan regions.

Attracted by its strong economy, this area has seen significant immigration, apart from Africa and Latin America, particularly from Eastern Europe. Influencing the geographical situation in which the Corridor is with respect to Madrid.

Retail in the Corredor del Henares has evolved towards large stores with the opening of the Parque Corredor and Oasiz shopping centers, located in Torrejón de Ardoz, or the La Dehesa and El Corte Inglés shopping centers (with Hipercor and Bricor) in Alcalá de Henares, and the Camino Real shopping park and the Carrefour in San Fernando de Henares.^{[citation required]}

Demographics

The human and industrial landscape has configured an urban continuum from Madrid to the city of Guadalajara, in which the municipalities of Alcalá de Henares (203,924), Torrejón de Ardoz (125,331), Coslada (91,832) stand out by number of inhabitants., Guadalajara (84,803), San Fernando de Henares (41,376), Azuqueca de Henares (35,146), Mejorada del Campo (22,902), Paracuellos de Jarama (19,882) and Meco (12,797).

Discrepancies

Corredor del Henares was a term coined by COPLACO (Commission for Planning and Coordination of the Metropolitan Area of Madrid) in the sixties. There are not a few citizens and institutions who prefer to avoid this denomination, created in some offices of MOPU in Madrid. In addition, there are several municipalities that in their day opposed the creation of the Corredor del Henares proposed by COPLACO. As it is a centralist and indigenous denomination, they prefer to use the hydrographic denomination Valle del Henares.