In Andalusia, the virus of malaise is beginning to spread, as has been happening for a long time in the Valencian Community, due to the lack of railway infrastructures that hinder the development and competitiveness of its best productive sectors. It happens with logistics, with that Port of Algeciras, the main gateway for goods in Southern Europe, and its powerful lobby that has been demanding for years that the “central” layout of the Mediterranean corridor, the one that connects with Seville, Córdoba and Madrid, allow enough fluidity for people and, mainly, products.
Or the case of Granada and Almería (with a strong agricultural export sector), which needed to reach the French border with the Mediterranean corridor’s coastline, passing through Murcia, the Valencian Community and Catalonia. Because for investment purposes, the State understands the Mediterranean corridor as an infrastructure with two routes, the central one, which coincides with the Atlantic as far as Madrid, and the coast, which Valencian civil society has been demanding for years and which continues to advance, little by little. little bit.
Two pieces of information justify both Andalusian demands: only 1% of the land transport of goods with national origin and destination is carried out by rail, while at the state level the participation of the railway in the activity of the ports stands at 7% on average, in the network of Andalusian ports it is only 2.47%. They are data from the Junta de Andalucía.
The Plan for Transport and Mobility Infrastructures in Andalusia 2021-2030, published in June 2021, incorporates in its reflection a harsh criticism of the State: “The horizons for commissioning these sections of the Trans-European Transport Network (RTE-T ) that run through Andalusia are being postponed over time, due to the low rates of execution or budget allocation and, in addition, the technical solutions adopted are well below the standards implemented by the competent Ministry in other territories”.
With the popular Juanma Moreno Bonilla as Andalusian president, the Junta’s criticism of the leftist Spanish government has intensified. The region was the first in Spain to have an AVE Seville-Madrid line, true; but its railway structure for passengers and goods in some sections is typical of the 19th century. The Mediterranean corridor thus becomes, as is the case in the Valencian Community, the long-awaited lever so that the region is not left off the hook of the trans-European networks.
Months before this report was released, Carlos Mármol, an analyst for La Vanguardia in Andalusia, already warned: “The story of the Andalusian grievance, in this matter, is plausible. Not only are the promises not coming true. Nor are the deadlines met. of construction (…) part of the different sections of the Southeast Railway Axis are being converted downwards, limiting themselves in many cases to simple renovations and specific improvements of the inherited infrastructures, totally insufficient to guarantee the economic take-off of provinces such as Almería , Granada or Cadiz”.
Public data supports the opinion of the journalist and the report of the Junta de Andalucía: railway infrastructures are advancing at a very slow pace in the most populated region of Spain. The central layout, the most advanced of the Mediterranean corridor, continues in some sections with execution rates that should have been exceeded. The coastal section around Granada and Almería is, de facto, very far from being a reality, despite the fact that the works from North to South along the Mediterranean continue to advance and offer reasonable dates, at least as far as Murcia. In part thanks to the pressure of the Valencian civil society and the management of the commissioner for the Mediterranean corridor, Josep Vicent Boira.
In Andalusia, the pressure from lobbies has not been uniform. In principle, as has been said, the Junta de Andalucía is committed to the two branches of the Mediterranean Corridor, claiming the works in both, a greater investment and speed in them. Its main claim continues to be the Algeciras-Bobadilla route (which is shared by the branches), the arrival in Almería of the AVE and the connection with Granada.
But the lobby of the port of Algeciras is the most powerful. The mayor of this port city championed the implementation of the “Central Branch” lobby to give it greater prominence, inventing a mixed Mediterranean-Atlantic route, which has been highly supported by the Junta and the PP (which the mayor of Madrid ), but also by other parties.
On the other side are Granada and Almería, which observe the branch line along the coast as an emergency. They don’t want to be left behind. Antequera is called to be the exit and entrance gate for goods from Malaga, Granada and the east of Cádiz. Níjar, which is on the coast, will be the exit for Almeria.
The Board has two big problems, on the one hand, that the delay that is accumulating right now in the Algeciras-Bobadilla (Antequera) is due to the request of the Andalusian Board (Environment) for greater environmental protection in informative studies , which has caused a significant delay in the entire process, by having to redo the study. These are the Lagunas de Campillo, which are ZEPA.
The other is that the Antequera-Sevilla (Marchena) section was “awarded” to the Board in its boom years, despite being a section of the state network and the Mediterranean Corridor. With the arrival of the crisis it was paralyzed, and there are no signs of recovering the works”.
Although intercity rail services currently show high quality standards on AVE lines, with a good level of occupancy, conventional medium-distance services capture a reduced percentage as a result of non-competitive travel times, schedules poorly adapted to demand and large areas with a high population (coastal areas).
In any case, the Board will continue to fight for the State to speed up the works and increase investments in order to have a key infrastructure for its economic development. Juanma Moreno Bonilla trusts that with a PP government in La Moncloa some objectives would be accelerated. Although history confirms that with the PP and the PSOE governing, advancing in the Mediterranean corridor continues to be a constant struggle.
