2023-05-29 16:50:40
Given the “great success” of the railway liberalization process of the three proposed axes (Madrid-Levante, Madrid-Barcelona and Madrid-South) which began two years ago now and which has increased demand by more than 50%, the president from Adif, María Luisa Domínguez, has opened the door to new routes with new operators.
In a meeting on the ‘Balance of the liberalization of the railway sector’ organized by the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC), Domínguez assured that the “second phase” of the process of liberalization of high-speed lines has already begun in Spain that will allow “to accommodate more actors” in “new corridors”.
“We must value the great investment that has been made in this country in 4,000 kilometers of high-speed network and open up new opportunities so that more companies can use the network beyond the three corridors currently in force in the framework agreements, giving more possibility of better prices”, explained the president of Adif. She indicated that this second phase will be similar to the first and that they have found “great interest” from railway companies to extend the services of new lines to more territories. «Liberalization is an unstoppable and irreversible process in our country. It is still in its infancy and will have to face new challenges for its consolidation”, she highlighted.
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Challenges such as consolidating the railway for medium and long distances and managing to transfer passengers from the plane and from the car to the train “for the good environmental effects”, said Domínguez, whose figures show that in the Madrid-Barcelona corridor the distribution of 65% for the train and 35% for the plane to 78% for the train and 22% for the plane in 2022.
On the other hand, according to the new operators, the great challenge for the sustainability of the railway system is the reduction in costs that would be achieved with a reformulation of the fees that must be paid for the use of the infrastructure. “From 50% to 70% of the costs of our companies are royalties and energy,” denounced the CEO of Iryo, Simone Gorini, for which he assured that “interventions are clearly needed.”
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In the same sense, Helene Valenzuela, general director of Ouigo in Spain, lamented that the train has lost competitiveness in the last year compared to other more polluting modes of transport because “many highways are now free and fuel has received public aid until December 2022, which constitutes a subsidy to the individual car, which is our first competed ahead of the plane. In addition, she denounced that the railway, despite being a large consumer of energy, has not been considered electro-intensive and has been left out of aid for the invasion of Ukraine.
Even the commercial director of Renfe, Sonia Araujo, considered that introducing tolls on the highways or the ban on short-haul flights -as France has carried out last week- would promote high speed in Spain and would help the “modal change of the road by the railway.
In addition, the representative of Iryo highlighted that the offer is currently “quite high” compared to the demand on some routes on which they have disembarked, with which he invited to promote the train to attract users of other means of transport because “the creation of new routes will depend on demand.
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