Both the Ministry of Transport and the Generalitat are aware that the transfer of Rodalies is an issue that will not materialize easily. It will require long and intense joint technical work between both parties and that will translate into infinite meetings. To begin to give it shape, it has been agreed to create a political commission with representatives of both administrations, from which several executive commissions will be created to address specific issues (infrastructure, operations, financing…). From there, working groups will emerge to finalize the political agreement at a technical level and make the transfer effective.
The first meeting of the political commission that will bring together this entire structure will take place during the first week of February, as agreed this Wednesday by the Minister of Territory, Ester Capella, and the new Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, in the first formal meeting held between the two in the imposing Madrid building of Nuevos Ministerios and which Capella has defined as a very profitable meeting. “We are making very good progress and we are doing well,” the councilor celebrated at the exit.
Sources from the Ministry leave in the hands of this new commission issues such as the calculation of the operating deficit that must give rise to the economic transfer of the Rodalies service and the action plan, with the respective deadlines and costs to be assumed. For her part, Councilor Capella considers that “as the agreement itself indicates, everything will revolve around the constitution of the public company, infrastructure and financing.” In parallel, a negotiation table will have been opened with the Renfe and Adif unions, which made their fears clear with a threat of a strike that was finally called off after obtaining the promise that their rights will be respected.
But Rodalies was not the only point of the day, far from it. If the transfer of the railway service is the result of the recent investiture pact of Pedro Sánchez between ERC and the PSOE, there are several points related to the budget agreement of the Generalitat reached a year ago between the Republicans and the Catalan socialists that are beginning to be unblocked.
In fact, the constitution of the technical commission to seek a consensus solution on the future of El Prat airport will be a reality before the transfer of Rodalies. It is also true that it comes from further away, the socialists have been pressuring the Government for a year to comply with what was agreed. The date chosen for the constitution of the technical commission is next Thursday, January 18. The meeting will take place in the department of Territori and will not include either the councilor or the minister. On behalf of the Generalitat, the Secretary of Mobility, Marc Sanglas, and the president of Aeroports de Catalunya, Daniel Albalate, will attend. The Government representatives have not yet been made public.
The various management tasks agreed between both parties a few months later, during the negotiation of the General State Budgets, are also already drafted and ready to become a reality. The text is agreed upon by both parties and the only thing left is for the Council of Ministers to pass through the Council of Ministers in the coming weeks the agreements corresponding to the reconversion of the N-II and other actions in the Maresme for a value of 384 million and the construction of two interchanges between the Hospital General (FGC) and Rubí (Rodalies) stations and between Volpelleres (FGC) and Sant Cugat Coll Favà (Rodalies) to provide public transport users with a safe and comfortable connection between the two railway networks in Vallès.
The construction of the northern ring road between Sabadell and Terrassa will also go ahead. In this case he was pending the modification of the Highway Law, included in the omnibus decree approved yesterday in Congress. Once the royal decree is published, the formula of the management task that continues the B-40 corridor can be applied and the agreement can be signed as agreed in the protocol of political intentions sealed between the Generalitat and the Ministry on July 7. That is, the Government will pay for the works and the Territori department will be in charge of deciding the details and executing the work.
The same formula will be used for the construction and improvement of access links to the A-2 and AP-7 along their route and the improvement of the Pyrenean Axis (the N-260). In these cases, work is still being done on defining the texts of the agreements, so processing and signing may still take a few more months.
