Renfe wants to install the company’s first center in Catalonia in Portbou (Alt Empordà) to promote the use of new digital technologies. Among others, this Center de Competències Digitals (CCD) will investigate how to apply augmented reality when training staff who work in workshops or how technologies can help manage merchandise. The objective is for the Portbou center to start with a team of ten people, which will allow the creation of specialized workplaces and encourage the employment of the young people of the territory.
Renfe’s Digital Competence Centers (CCD) are one of the strategic axes for promoting the company’s digital transformation. They make it possible to investigate, develop and deploy emerging technologies in the railway sector “in fields as diverse as cybersecurity, mobile applications, professional training and logistics).
Now, the company has set its sights on the Alt Empordà to install one of the centers of this network. Specifically in Portbou, which has historically been a key location for the transport of goods. The CEO of logistics service provider Logirail, Óscar Gómez, has already met with the mayor of Portbou, Gael Rodríguez, to find a location for the project. Both have visited the railway complex of the municipality and have analyzed the feasibility of locating the future CCD in one of the buildings.
Renfe’s plans include that the future center of Portbou focuses on promoting the use of digital technologies in the fields of training and logistics. But, in addition, this CCD will also focus on promoting emerging technologies when it comes to managing merchandise. In this way, he will investigate how 5G or GPS can help to track freight wagons and the route that the convoys take, helping their traceability. Or how to incorporate the use of blockchain in the freight transport value chain and new mobility models.
At the moment, the Portbou CCD project is just beginning to work. On average, once its location is chosen and until it materializes, it usually takes about six months. If Renfe’s planning is not modified, and the Alt Empordà ends up being a reality, it will be the first CCD that the company will have in Catalonia.
Renfe’s Digital Competence Centers generate their own ecosystems in the areas where they are installed. Because they act as a link between training centers, SMEs and local institutions. In addition, by rebound they contribute to creating qualified jobs and promoting youth employment.
Since 2021, the railway company has created six CCDs throughout the state geography. Specifically, it has installed in Alcázar de San Juan (Ciudad Real), Teruel, Miranda de Ebro (Burgos), Mérida (Badajoz), Monforte de Lemos (Lugo) and Linares (Jaén). It is expected that between 2021 and 2024 this network of centers specializing in new technologies will generate up to 400 jobs.
In the case of Portbou, Renfe’s intention is for the CCD to initially start with a team of ten people. Locating it in the Alt Empordà also responds to two objectives of the company: to reinforce the relocation and internalization of workloads by Renfe and to bet on locating these centers in emblematic municipalities for railway history (as are Alcázar de San Juan, Monforte de Lemos or Miranda de Ebro).
The mayor of the municipality, Gael Rodríguez, assures that it is “more than positive” news and points out that it was precisely he who prepared the proposal to Renfe, reflecting with these populations with a history linked to the train. “Quality work sites are generated and, in addition, it will place Portbou on the map of new technologies as a benchmark”, he assures.
In this sense, Rodríguez affirms that the project also meets two of the objectives that have been set for this errand that is just beginning: stop the “exodus” of young people and “bring people who live in Portbou”. “I think it’s the first step to achieve it,” he insists.
On the other hand, the mayor hopes that the center will be “the seed” to end up turning Portbou station into an “innovation hub around railway technology and sustainability”. I revamp the station, he says, it was also one of the priority objectives of his team.
