Railway operators operating in Spain are also looking forward to the completion of the Mediterranean corridor. Both Iryo, Ouigo and Renfe covet the infrastructure as it opens new possibilities for state mobility. Its directors intervened yesterday in the Madrid event for the Mediterranean corridor, an infrastructure of which they also defended.
“Key element”. This is the message conveyed yesterday by Carlos Bertomeu, president of Iryo; Raül Blanco, president of Renfe; and Hélène Valenzuela, general director of Ouigo Spain, the latest company to join the Spanish high-speed market and for whom the corridor is “a huge opportunity.”
Among the reasons, that it will connect five different metropolitan areas or “ports as important as Barcelona, ??Valencia or Algeciras,” said Valenzuela, who said that “where we are not yet, prices drop only 6%, while where we are the entire sector has lowered prices by up to 40%”.
For Bertomeu, president of iryo but also of the airline Air Nostrum, the connection would not be a brake in any of the markets. On the contrary, Bertomeu defended “increasing the mobility pie, which has all the benefits, and then citizens will be sovereign and will choose the means that corresponds to them.” Blanco believes in the same way, who highlighted that “the train is growing and gaining market share over the plane” and assured that “there is room for us to continue offering services, both in the Madrid-València corridor and in other corridors.”
The AVLO, Renfe’s low-cost line, already connects Madrid with Barcelona, ??Valencia, Alicante, Malaga and Seville, among other locations and allows, according to Blanco, “to have more capillarity and reach all municipalities, all corridors, in “all areas and in all segments.”
At the same table in which they participated, the CFO of PowerCo Spain, Javier Rivera, intervened, the Seat-Volkswagen company that promotes the Sagunt gigafactory and for which the corridor is “the key lever to decarbonize the entry and exit logistics of goods to Europe.”
Rivera pointed out how the corridor, like the port of Valencia, was decisive for the choice of Sagunt and argued that “the non-availability of these infrastructures is an element of non-decision.” Likewise, he pointed out that on this trip public-private collaboration is “very necessary” and in keeping with the protest nature of the event, he pointed out that the València-Castellón section “for us is very relevant”, which is why he claimed both the València through tunnel as the double platform between both cities.
