The Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda has specified in an order published this Saturday by the BOE the “comparative method” that will be used in the design and manufacture of the 31 new metric gauge trains for Asturias and Cantabria, which consists of take as a base a train that currently runs on the network.
The concessionaire will use this method after verifying that with the measures that were taken as a reference in the specifications, the trains would not fit through the tunnels, which has caused the anger of the presidents of those communities in recent days, who speak of “botch” and “shame”, because it will mean a delay in delivery of at least two years, from 2024 to 2026.
The comparative method is described in the corresponding European standard, but it was not regulated in the Spanish one, although its use was compatible, as stressed by the ministry, which nevertheless has chosen to include it explicitly.
“Although it is not considered essential, the ministry has chosen to advance this reference explicitly to specify and detail the application of the comparative method,” it said in a statement.
Through the Ministerial Order published by the BOE, it is included in the Gauge Railway Instruction (IFG) that on lines where it is not possible to meet the gage limit for the implementation of GEE10/GED10 obstacles, it may be used to design the construction profile of new trains the regulation established by the standards UNE-EN 15273-1 and UNE EN 15273-2, by means of the comparison with trains that accredit extensive commercial experience in the corresponding track section.
The comparative method, which according to Transport has given good results in other countries such as the United Kingdom, consists of designing the section of the new trains based on the section of the trains that currently run on the network.
Two days after the meeting that Minister Raquel Sánchez will hold with the President of Asturias, Adrián Barbón, and that of Cantabria, Miguel Ángel Revilla, the ministry has once again stressed that no train has been manufactured, since the inconsistencies in the measures they were detected in the first phases of the design, and that “no euro of the Spanish has been wasted”.
The published order also includes various relevant technical standards, with the specifications that the fixed infrastructures of the lines and their power supply systems must comply with, together with the European standards Interoperability Technical Specifications, to allow their commissioning and that they must maintain throughout its useful life.
