This text belongs to ‘Penínsulas’, the newsletter that Enric Juliana sends to the readers of ‘La Vanguardia’ every Tuesday. If you want to receive it, sign up here.
It is exciting to write about trains. The first railway line on the peninsula ran between the stations of Barcelona and Mataró and was inaugurated in 1848, the year of the great European democratic revolutions, by a private company in which Catalan and English businessmen participated, without support from the State. That twenty-eight kilometer route along the sea crossed an area increasingly populated by factories. At the beginning of the 20th century and after verifying the vital importance of the train in the event of war, almost all European governments proceeded to nationalize the railway networks. Trains and railways became pillars of the State. One hundred and seventy-five years after the first journey of a Jones and Potts steam locomotive between Barcelona and Mataró, trains continue to be the cause of passionate discussions in Spain, but we are facing an important change of scale. The interests at stake now have a truly European dimension. A new stage is beginning. Let’s see it.
First of all, the extent to which liberalism reaches in the European Union is being tested. Not lip service liberalism, but the real opening of the old national markets in an area of ??high strategic interest such as the railway. Are all EU countries equally open? As he asks the question, a certain throat clearing is heard in the room. No, not all countries in the Union present the same degree of real openness.
As we explained last week, Spain has built the largest high-speed network in the European Union in the last 35 years, with almost 4,000 kilometers of route; an obsessively radial network that has significantly strengthened the city of Madrid. A phenomenal investment. In addition to its length, another characteristic of the Spanish AVE network is its low use, well below its maximum capacity. That is to say, after the enormous investment effort there is great potential to increase the travel offer on each of the itineraries, including Madrid-Barcelona. Renfe was not meeting that demand, despite the enormous effort made in the last decade to increase its fleet.
Renfe can’t cope. The delays in the delivery of the already famous Talgo Avril (series 106) are even straining relations with the regional governments of Galicia and Asturias, which demand that, once their long-awaited corridors to Madrid are opened, trains circulate through them. The maintenance of this infrastructure is very expensive, which is all the more reason why the Government has facilitated the entry of railway companies from other European countries in the exploitation of the most juicy lines, especially the Madrid-Barcelona line, the only one that presents a clear economic profitability at this time. This liberalization of the high-speed network was formally authorized in 2020 by a Government participated by Podemos, in application of the 2016 European directive that establishes the opening to competition of commercial rail passenger transport services. Renfe’s reluctance did not stop this liberalization. The state railway companies of France and Italy (SNCF and Ferrovie dello Stato) were interested in the Spanish high-speed network and obtained operating licenses for their respective subsidiary companies (Ouigo and Iryo), which would not enter service until once the pandemic. At the moment, Renfe is not having the same opportunities to operate in France and Italy.
The powerful Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF), with a budget directly supported by the French Republic, is doing everything possible to win the game. In 2022, Ouigo, 100% owned by the French public entity, had losses worth 36 million euros, 15% more than the previous year. Their bet is on the medium and long term. Hegemony in the European railway market (passenger and freight) is in dispute, a market is in the formation phase. The presence of Renfe in that market is also at stake. That’s the real background.
More European angles: railways and defense policy. Silently, without making much noise, the European Commission is introducing the concept of “military mobility” into its transport policy. La Vanguardia reported about it this past Sunday. Senior officers of the General Staff of the European Union, a body directly linked to the Commission, have participated in the last biannual forum of the new railway corridors (a total of nine transnational axes under construction) with a message: military mobility must be priority.
The main ports and metropolitan nodes of the Union should be connected to the international gauge (1435 mm) to expedite the traffic of large military convoys towards Eastern Europe if necessary. That is the guideline. Concern for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, whose railway network is built with Russian railway gauge (1520 mm.). More concern about Ukraine and Moldova (candidate countries to join the EU), also conditioned by the Russian breadth. And a call of attention to Spain and Portugal, countries far behind in freight rail traffic and with their ports anchored in the Iberian gauge (1668 mm.). The Spanish high-speed network is not hybrid. Its tracks, which require expensive maintenance, cannot pass freight cars, twenty- or forty-foot containers, or military convoys with tanks and cannons. The AVE is only for tourists, school groups, professionals with their laptops and other occasional travelers. The AVE network was conceived as a great aspirational rocket for the Spanish middle classes in peacetime.
Currently, the only port on the Iberian Peninsula directly connected to the European railway network is Barcelona. The sending of military convoys by train to the Eastern Front could only be done quickly from Barcelona. The port of Algeciras, of great logistical importance in the Strait of Gibraltar, does not even have power lines on the Iberian gauge railway line, which connects it with the Bobadilla (Antequera) railway junction. Single, old and unelectrified track: 176 kilometers. The Mediterranean corridor is still under construction. Barcelona, ??whose port is also home to the largest regasification plant in the Mediterranean, is today an enclave of high interest for NATO. The political significance of this reality does not need many explanations. Carles Puigdemont and the other leaders of the Catalan independence movement who seven years ago committed the irresponsibility of sending emissaries to Moscow, will surely be paying attention to the radar today.
Third European railway angle. Since the gauge once again acquires a strong strategic significance, we can better understand the takeover bid by the Hungarian consortium Ganz Mavag for the Spanish company Talgo, one of whose main assets is the patent for the manufacture of trains with axle change. In the hands of a consortium controlled by the Government of Budapest, this patent would reinforce Víktor Orban as a political operator in Eastern Europe, since Moldova, Ukraine and the Baltic countries need trains capable of quickly switching from Russian gauge to European gauge. Finland and Georgia also have Russian width. Hungary belongs to the EU and its government maintains excellent relations with Russia. The Hungarian takeover is not a strategic extravagance. Another thing is that Spain lets Talgo escape in the name of the free market. “We are interested in foreign investment in Spain, but we are not naive,” the Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, declared to La Vanguardia this Sunday.
Free market? Good symmetries in the European railway market? Allow some throat clearing. In 18 months, Renfe has not achieved approval in France for its new high-speed trains (Talgo Avril, series 106), to be able to operate this summer on the Madrid-Barcelona-Lyon-Paris route, a service that could be in high demand in Spain on the occasion of the Paris Olympic Games. Thousands of Spaniards will want to spend a few days in the French capital and the fast train can be a good alternative if the fares are cheap. Renfe will not be able to offer you that service. SNCF, with all the approvals in order, yes. Trenitalia, a subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato and main shareholder of Iryo in Spain, manages the Milan-Lyon Paris line in France.
The French and Spanish demands are not symmetrical. France, with a high-speed network of 2,735 kilometers, smaller than Spain’s, is much more protectionist. It is difficult for Renfe to operate in the neighboring country – the approval of the drivers who pilot the AVE trains to Lyon and Marseille was also tiring – while SNCF, through its subsidiary Ouigo, launches an aggressive commercial campaign and calls into question the fee set by the Government to contribute to the maintenance of the ambitious high-speed network.
French railways want to win the battle for the Paris Olympics and obtain the maximum share in one of the most open markets in the European Union. Renfe is not in Italy either. Trenitalia, the main shareholder of Iryo, connects the main Italian cities with its Frecciarossa (Red Arrow). The second operator of the Italian high-speed network (921 kilometers) is Italo, a company controlled by the Italian-Swiss shipping company MSC. Cards are being dealt in the European market and the French Republic has decided to play hard in Spain with the aim of strengthening SNCF as the main European operator for passenger transport, while Germany works for Deutsche Bahn Schneker, the company’s freight division. public railways, lead heavy transport.
Ouigo and Iryo are clever word games. Yes go. We go (with English phonetics). I’m going, the Italians reply.
(This new chapter of Peninsulas dedicated to the railway has had the collaboration of Santiago Fernández Muñoz, professor of Human Geography at the Carlos III University of Madrid, partner of SILO and former project manager of the Public Policy Evaluation division of AIReF We promise you new deliveries).
