In twenty years, the Mediterranean corridor has gone from being just an idea, almost limited to the academic field, to becoming an infrastructure that will radically change the paradigm of freight transport in southern Europe. With a route that begins in Algeciras, continues through Murcia, Valencia, Catalonia to France, and will end in Lviv (Lviv), in the interior of Ukraine). To achieve such success it has been necessary for the political ecosystem to assimilate the idea, both in Spain and in the European Union; and the credit belongs, almost exclusively, to civil society, especially to businessmen.
Before becoming part of the priorities of institutions and parties, it was the Valencian employers’ associations, first, and then the Catalan ones, to which the Murcian and Andalusian employers later joined, which promoted the mobilizations in the demand for an infrastructure that runs through a Spanish geography that concentrates 50% of the population, 47% of the business fabric, 63% of port merchandise traffic and contributes 45% of the GDP, 51% of Spain’s exports and 50% of foreign tourism. According to the EU, the transport of goods would increase its traffic in the Mediterranean arc by 29% thanks to the connection of ports and airports with the railway network, which would double the volume of exports.
This infrastructure breaks the paradigm of radial Spain, which has been designed so that everything begins and ends in Madrid as a major railway port (in fact a variant of the Mediterranean corridor passes through Madrid). That is, it enhances what is defined as “circular Spain.” The reports prepared by the Valencian Business Association, AVE, also highlight that hundreds of thousands of tons of CO2 would be reduced in just one year, due to the increase in train travel, thousands of jobs would be created and new companies would be born around to this important logistical axis.
The corridor is, in itself, a revolutionary idea, as it proposes responding to the urgent needs of coastal, productive and exporting Spain. A route that, as the Government Commissioner for the Mediterranean Corridor, Josep Vicent Boira, points out, “is a work that is established in modernity, which will make it possible to reduce logistics costs, make our companies more competitive, drastically reduce environmental pollution and bring the Mediterranean to central and eastern Europe.
100% of the 1,800 kilometers of the Mediterranean corridor are already planned, 75% of the sections are under construction or have already been completed and 85% of the route already has an approved project. These are Adif data. The passenger stations and freight terminals, as well as their accesses, are either under construction or have been completed (the Valencia through tunnel remains a great challenge). In terms of kilometers of sections already in service, these add up to a total of 634, which represents 34% of the total of 1,800 km. AVE continues to demand that the pace of execution of works be accelerated, which in a short time should allow, among other things, to drastically reduce travel time between Valencia and Barcelona.
It is important to remember that in 2003 there was not even a Mediterranean corridor project. That in 2004, José María Aznar forced the EU not to include the Mediterranean corridor among the trans-European networks eligible for financing. That is, he erased it from the maps. That it has taken many mobilizations and pressure from civil society for the Government to take on the project and defend it before Europe. That the French “plug” remains to be overcome given that the French Government relegates the Montpellier-Béziers-Perpignan axis (which is the one that goes to our border) to the horizon of 2042, which will reduce the fluidity of the French connection for years. And it will still take time to ensure that the travel time between València and Barcelona is reasonable and not double that between València and Madrid with the same kilometers of distance.
The Mediterranean corridor is now close to being a reality, although the sections necessary to complete it are slowly being closed. It is almost a reality because the idea has triumphed, and has all the institutional support in Spain and Europe. It is, furthermore, a very Valencian idea that has ended up being adopted in several autonomies, mainly in Catalonia and Murcia. It is, finally, a successful idea, and all that remains is to finish it.