2023-11-17 15:05:00
Estremadura maintains all hopes in the 2030 soccer world cup, which will be held between Spain, Portugal and Morocco, because it could mean the materialization of the most demanded infrastructure in the history of the region: the railway connection with Madrid with a high-speed train. If it is achieved by then, it will have arrived more than three decades late, but it will be a milestone for the people of Extremadura.
This connection between Extremadura and Madrid is inserted within a broader route through which it is intended to connect Lisbon with the capital of Spain in three hours (now it takes nine). This is what is called the southwest Iberian corridor, a demand that is also historical. However, for it to become a reality, it is a priority for the Portuguese government to move forward with the project, of which nothing has yet been developed. In this sense, the resignation a few days ago of the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, after being involved in a corruption case that is now being investigated, and the call for early elections for next March, could jeopardize this aspiration. It already happened after the 2011 elections that brought Pedro Pasos Coelho into government, who decided to suspend the high-speed plan with Madrid to save costs.
Nevertheless the Extremadura joint doubt that this situation will be repeated again and that, if after the March elections there is a change in the Portuguese executive, it will decide to shelve the Madrid-Lisbon axis again. Among other reasons because its construction is a requirement of the European Union. “The elections scheduled for the beginning of next year do not have to influence these projects,” stated yesterday the Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Housing, Manuel Martín, in an interview with Canal Extremadura Radio.
Will request a meeting
However, what the Extremadura Government will do, as sources from this department have confirmed to this newspaper, will be urge this new government to expedite the procedures to make this connection between the two European capitals a reality as soon as possible. For it He will request a meeting with the president and they will do so relying on the Atlantic Corridor forum. This week a meeting of this organization was held in Brussels. “There we met with infrastructure representatives of the Portuguese government. It is there where priorities and deadlines for all the sections included in the Atlantic transport corridor are reviewed and through this mechanism we also transfer these requests,” they indicate from the department directed by Manuel Martín.
Like the European Union, the Extremadura Government maintains 2030 as the deadline for this route between Lisbon and Madrid to be completed.. At the moment there is much to do. In fact The most advanced section is the one that affects Extremadura, since the first phase of electrification has already been completed. the one that connects Badajoz with Plasencia, even though it has not yet been put into service. And the following route is executed, which connects Plasencia with Talayuela. Beyond this Cáceres municipality there is nothing. Nor in the area that affects Castilla-La Mancha, where the informative study is in environmental evaluation and work is being done to provide a solution to the passage of this line through Talavera and Toledo.
Much more at the beginning it is located on the Portuguese border since not even here the route that the train would have has yet been decided. The main problem is agreeing on the access point for the locomotives: Lisbon has two bridges (Vasco de Gama and 25 de Abril) but a priori neither of them is valid, so the solution would be to build a new one. And that is what the new government that takes action starting in March will have to decide.
The commissioning of electrified trains still has no date
November. That was the commitment (one of many) of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda to put into service the first section of electrified roads in the region and which affects the connection between Badajoz and Plasencia. The works have already been completed, the catenaries have already been tested and are only waiting for the railway safety agency to give its approval so that they can be put under tension.
The documentation was delivered to this body, dependent on the Railway Infrastructure Administrator (Adif), on November 2, but it has not yet given its consent for Extremadura to launch the first electrified trains. TTransport has not yet specified a date for its start-up, despite the fact that November enters its second fortnight from today. This newspaper has asked the ministry and Adif on several occasions about this matter and has not received a response.
“In November the electrified line was going to come into service and at the moment there is no official communication. Last month the secretary of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Housing He announced that it would be this month and we are in the last half of November and we do not have an exact date. Let’s hope it’s soon, as soon as possible,” The Minister of Infrastructure of the Government of Extremadura, Manuel Martín, said yesterday in an interview on regional public radio.
The commissioning of the catenaries between Plasencia and Badajoz will save travel time from the capital of Badajoz to Madrid (it has not been specified how many minutes the journey will take). In addition to allowing electrified trains to circulate on Extremadura tracks for the first time. Until now the convoys used are diesel.
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