High-level conference in Brussels to push for the Mediterranean Railway Corridor

Brussels (ACN).- Multinational companies, railway operators and port authorities from throughout Western Europe, as well as government representatives, met on Wednesday in the European Parliament in a conference organised by the lobby FERRMED to demand a boost of goods transportation by rail in Europe. They are pushing for the use of longer and heavier trains, able to transport more goods at a lower cost, with the consequent increase in competitiveness. These 1,500 metre-long and 5,000 tonne-heavy trains would circulate along specific corridors, such as the Mediterranean Railway Corridor, which has been lauded once again as a high priority for southern Europe’s economy. This Corridor was finally included among the European Union transport priorities in November 2010, after the Spanish Government did not prioritise it for many years despite the claims from Catalan business community and political parties. In the next few months, the European Parliament will have to ratify the list of transport infrastructure priorities and the Spanish Government has been campaigning for the inclusion of other projects, which would diminish the funds available for the freight and passenger Mediterranean Railway Corridor linking the Gibraltar area with Central and Northern Europe through along Spain’s Mediterranean ports and main industrial centres. In fact, FERRMED complained about the absence of representatives from the Spanish Government’s train operators, while there were managers present from multinationals such as Basf, Volkswagen and Arcelor-Mittal and train operators such as the German DB, the Italian Ferrovie dello Stato, the Polish PKP-PLK, the Russian RZD and the Catalan FGC. “The problem is Spain and we have to say this clearly. It is the country that needs this the most, and it is the country that has cared the least about it”, complained FERRMED’s Secretary General, the Catalan Joan Amorós. FERRMED is a lobby with representatives from private and public sectors, from Southern, Central and Northern Europe that is working towards the development of strategic corridors allowing the use of high capacity freight trains.

1.5 kilometre-long trains

The FERRMED’s studies “clearly show that the only way to improve competitiveness in the European Union in order to reduce logistics costs and break the trend of the railway’s decreasing share within goods transportation” is to use “trains up to 1,500 metres long and between 3,600 and 5,000 tonnes of weight, with a UIC-C loading gauge and a per-axle load of 22,5 ÷ 25 tons”, stated Amorós. These trains should circulate along international-width standard railways (1435 mm), with a maximum 12% slope (although in exceptional circumstances they could also go along 15% slopes for just a few hundred metres). “A Russian train can carry up to four or five times more weight than a European freight train and this represents logistics and transport costs that could be avoided”, explained Amorós. The international lobby insisted that with the standards they are proposing, trains could be able to transport much more goods at lower costs. In addition, they would “also have a very positive impact from an environmental point of view”, added Amorós.

High capacity trains linking Central and Northern Europe to Spanish Mediterranean ports

Since these trains need very special standards, FERRMED is proposing that they should circulate only in some strategic axes, such as the Mediterranean Railway Corridor, linking Algeciras, Murcia, Valencia, Tarragona, Barcelona, Montpellier, Lyon, Rotterdam and Stockholm, among many other cities. This corridor would allow the Mediterranean Spanish ports, true gateways to northern Africa and Asia, to be linked to Central and Northern Europe. Therefore, this infrastructure is essential to improve the competitiveness of Europe’s economy by reducing transport time and costs, easing the export and import of products as well as the associated logistics. Hence executives from Basf, Volkswagen and Acelor-Mittal were present at FERRMED’s event in Brussels.

“The problem is Spain”

FERRMED’s Secretary General criticised the absence of the two train operators run by the Spanish Government’s RENFE – responsible for train service – and ADIF – responsible for building and maintaining train infrastructures –. “The problem is Spain and we have to say this clearly. It is the country that needs this the most, and it is the country that has cared the least about it. Have the people from RENFE come [to the conference]? Has someone from ADIF come? No!”, complained Amorós, who insisted they had been invited. FERRMED has been lobbying for the past few years to convince the European Union institutions and the Spanish Government for the need to prioritise the Mediterranean Railway Corridor. “With the European Union institutions there are no problems at all”, he said, “the problem is Spain”, he added.

The Spanish Government has not prioritised the Mediterranean Railway Corridor

The Spanish Government did not prioritise the Mediterranean Railway Corridor until 2010, after receiving huge pressure from business communities and territories  including Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia and Central Europe. However, the Spanish Executive also included up to seven other corridors in Spain, completely diluting the prioritisation of the Mediterranean coastal corridor. Furthermore, in the last few months, despite the European Commission coming up with a list of transport priorities in November 2010 that included the seven corridors in Spain, the Spanish Government has been insisting on including even further corridors, especially the Central corridor. The Central Corridor would link Gibraltar and France passing through Madrid, Zaragoza and through the Central part of the Pyrenees, therefore bypassing Catalonia. It is therefore the main alternative to the Mediterranean Corridor. This answers to a centralist reasoning, which would concentrate economic power in Madrid and would bypass Catalonia, which would harm the Catalan economy in the mid- and long-term. The Central Corridor would continue with the radial conception of railway infrastructure in Spain, which makes everything go through Madrid. It is politically driven, but it does not answer to an economic logic, as it would neglect the main Spanish ports and export centres, such as Barcelona, Tarragona and Valencia, true gateways to northern Africa, the Middle East and Asia.