The National Commission for Markets and Competition requests changes in the allocation of capacity

2023-06-29 00:00:00

The National Commission for Markets and Competition requests changes in the allocation of capacity

The National Commission for Markets and Competition has reviewed the annual award procedure for the allocation of infrastructure capacity carried out by Adif and proposes a series of measures on changes in the calendar of the procedure, transparency in the prioritization criteria and information with which this body must have to fulfill its supervision work.

(28/06/2023)

The Commission has published a public consultation, which will be available until July 27, where it indicates that it will review whether the capacity allocation procedures of infrastructure managers are appropriate to the new competitive context of the sector. These procedures, he indicates, must be transparent, objective and non-discriminatory.

In this sense, he points out that it is considered that this definitive award should be brought forward up to six or eight months, compared to the current two. The objective of this extension of terms would be to put an end to the disadvantage of the railway compared to other modes, which have the capacity to start selling their tickets several months in advance.

Another of the points that he alleges in this query is that when compared to the international market, the latter have longer terms, since the operators are aware of this capacity allocation eight months before the start of their services. In addition, remember that in Europe the actions to advance this calendar are also being analyzed at this time.

Changes

For these reasons, it proposes that the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda proceed to modify the Capacity Order and advance between six and eight months prior to the start of service hours the deadline for applications and anticipate the award.

Until these changes are effective, the Commission also requests Adif to shorten the response times to the allegations, as it did in the case of the 2021-2022 service hours. Another of your requests is that you communicate the applications that have been provisionally awarded without interference with others, so that their award could be considered final.