The central government’s in-depth involvement has also come with announcements of more investments in the railway network. The Ministry of Transport and the Department of Territory jointly announced this Tuesday an upward update of the Rodalies 2020-2030 plan. After the five-year review, to the almost 6.4 billion already stipulated. The most pampered item in the package is maintenance.
“It is an absolutely essential update of a plan that has a very clear objective, which is to improve in a structural way in the field of infrastructure and achieve the efficiency and quality standards that we deserve as a country,” said the Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, who appeared alongside the Secretary of State for Transport, José Antonio Santano.
The decade plan initially set a total investment of 6,300 million euros, which now increases 21% to 8,037 million. Both the Ministry and the Department have explained that the content of the review of the plan was already closed at the end of last year, thus ruling out that it is a fix with which they seek to overcome the crisis. According to official data, 2,666 million euros have been awarded from the current plan, 77% of what was initially budgeted.
The point that has been most pampered in the reserve of items is that of the asset replacement program, which includes, among others, preventive maintenance and network correction work. The allocated budget is practically doubled, starting from the initial 600 million to around 1.3 billion
Of the 287 actions of the plan, a package of 34 specific actions to replace track, renew lanes and replace key devices for circulation, such as those that control the points that organize the trajectories of the trains.
One of the great advances, Santano explained, is along the lines of modernizing security and signage. In a total of four sections, the ERTMS system is being installed, which the Secretary of State has recalled is the most modern in European railway systems. However, it will not be fully operational until “after the summer”, when the Ministry expects the new trains that already work with that technology to arrive.
The Secretary of State has accepted “One of the lessons of these extreme phenomena is that greater weight must be given to some actions that until now were seen as of lesser importance,” he added. Santano has also understood the gap between his positive balance of investments with citizens’ sense of frustration about quality. “The point of investment where it has a direct impact on citizens has not yet been passed,” he confessed.
Both Paneque and Santano have accepted that one of the areas for improvement is information. Hence, an additional amount of 24 million euros is also allocated to improve the panel systems and the app. “This plan will not solve all the problems from one day to the next, but it is a clear commitment that needs time. It is an important change of pace in the investment that includes more maintenance,” said the counselor, who recalled that the previous ERC Government laid the foundations for the plan.
On the other hand, the Secretary of State for Transport indicated during the press conference that the Rubí tunnel (Barcelona), through which freight trains pass, suffers a crack in its bed and has had to be closed “for safety”, which causes damage to the Port of Barcelona. “What we are trying to see is if we can combine this powerful action of the tunnel with a faster and more urgent action that provides sufficient security so that this transit of goods can occur,” said Santano, who has assured that the tunnel is monitored for possible movements of the crack.
