President of Barcelona businesses ?worried? by the delay of the train connection to Barcelona airport?s new terminal

Barcelona (ACN).- The President of Barcelona’s Chamber of Commerce, Miquel Valls, judged as “serious” and “worrying” the decision taken by the Spanish Ministry of Public Works to delay the arrival of the train to Barcelona’s airport’s main terminal. The T1 terminal was unveiled a year ago and centralises most of the airport’s flights. The train connection linking the terminal to Barcelona city and its metropolitan areas was expected to arrive in 2013; now it has been delayed for 1 year. This decision was taken in the Spanish Government’s plan to cut public expenditure and to reduce public deficit. Valls has announced that the Chamber will present on Thursday a study on the impact that this decision will have. However, he has stated that “we have a deficit of public transportation that may seriously harm the airport’s future”. In addition, the First Deputy Mayor of Barcelona, Jordi William Carnes, has added that infrastructures such as the Mediterranean railway need to be a priority “if the Spanish economy wants to be reactivated”.
Valls and Carnes have expressed these concerns this morning in the presentation of the report by the Observatori Barcelona 2009-2010. The report states that the Catalan capital “keeps a solid international positioning, despite the crisis” in a series of rankings, such as the best European city to do business. In this particular ranking, Barcelona ranks as number 4. It is also the first European city regarding workers’ quality of life and the city that has the greatest number of business schools on a continental level, -ESADE and IESE-.

“Despite the crisis, Barcelona remains an attractive city” explained Valls, in sectors such as business, knowledge, tourism or quality of life. The study has taken 26 indicators into account. They also analyse the level of taxation, rental prices, salaries and costs of living, aspects in which Barcelona does not excel.

Barcelona is Europe’s number one sea cruise harbour in number of passengers. In addition, Barcelona’s airport is the 9th in Europe in terms of passengers, despite the deficits in public transportation denounced by Valls.