Mediterranean Corridor rail link may already be unsuitable when it opens, Chamber of Commerce warns

The Barcelona Chamber of Commerce has warned that the Mediterranean Corridor, the railway link along the eastern coast of Spain scheduled to be ready for operation in 2026, may already be unsuitable by the time it is inaugurated. 

It is planned that the rail link will transport goods from the Iberian Peninsula to the rest of Europe, and construction has been blighted with problems and delays, pushing its opening back by around two decades. 

Alícia Casart, director of the infrastructure studies office of the Chamber of Commerce, explained on Tuesday that the decarbonisation targets set by the Spanish government involve increasing the railway share from 4% to 10% of land traffic, which would involve around 35 more trains crossing the border with France.

This increase, added to the increase in supply due to the liberalization of high-speed with operators such as Renfe or SNCF, may overwhelm the capacity of the tracks, or lead to the emission reduction objectives not to be met.

"We need to think about it now and the Spanish government is not doing it because they consider that they have already complied," with objectives, Casart lamented, who added that there will be "problems everywhere."

To alleviate this situation, she called for the implementation of a separate track of a width corresponding with international dimensions to carry goods from Mollet to Portbou. The idea of this would be to separate it from the passenger tracks.

The group also wants the network at Tarragona to be remodeled with a freight line that passes through the rest of Spain. This idea is already being studied by the ministry.