Yesterday, the Ministry of Transport presented a balance of railway liberalization and the fundamental role that the Chamartín-Clara Campoamor station is going to play as a transit center for high-speed connections between the west and east of Spain. “The liberalization of passenger transport by rail in Spain has been a success and has been done in record time that has been unprecedented in the world”, remarked Raquel Sánchez, Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, during the presentation of the balance in which she was accompanied by the president of Adif, María Luisa Domínguez; the Secretary of State for Transport, Isabel Pardo de Vera; the president of Renfe, Isaías Táboas; the general director of Ouigo in Spain, and the president of Iryo, Carlos Bertomeu.
And the first milestone of this liberalization is the inauguration today of direct high-speed services from the Chamartín-Clara Campoamor station, which becomes the hub for trains to Alicante and Murcia. “We anticipate that there will be 110 weekly operations starting tomorrow to connect the east of the peninsula. Subsequently, capacity will be expanded until reaching 40 million passengers in 2040”, he predicted.
Some figures that will be achieved, according to Sánchez, by the liberalization and the concurrence of three rail operators (Renfe, Ouigo and Iryo) in high-speed services. The French company Ouigo, which already operates on routes from Madrid to Barcelona, announced that on October 7 it will make the inaugural trip to carry out operations that will link Madrid and Valencia, and the Minister of Transport also announced that the Italian company Iryo will begin to connect Madrid and Barcelona for high speed in November.
Investments
Sánchez stressed that the new corridor to Levante destinations that opens today will “open” the door to transverse trains that go from north to south of Spain. “Chamartín will no longer be the origin and destination of AVE trips and will become an intermediate stop to connect east and west. There will be 25 million citizens connected on competing rail corridors,” he assured.
Renfe closed the summer with 7.5 million passengers, 37% more
Renfe transported 7.5 million passengers between all AVE and Long Distance trains, from June 13 to September 4, according to the balance made public today. The average occupancy of these trains was 92%, even reaching 100% at times on different lines.
The figure represents an increase of more than two million passengers on commercial service trains, which represents an annual increase of 37%. The most requested corridors among all commercial services were those with a southern destination (1.795 million travelers); the Northeast (1,792 million); and Levante with 1.48 million passengers.
In order to achieve this railway corridor, large investments have had to be made for its start-up. Firstly, the connection between the Chamartín station with the Madrid town of Torrejón de Velasco and its integration into the new standard gauge tunnel that joins Chamartín and Atocha. Both will serve to avoid crossings between the high-speed trains that go to Andalusia and those that go to the Valencian Community and to allow the circulation of operations that go from north to south and from east to west. These trains will be able to stop at Atocha when their new intern terminal is built.
In parallel, the comprehensive remodeling works of the Chamartín station and its urban environment will also be activated, with which to try to create a reference transport hub and whose contract, which is still in competition at an international level, It is valued at about 1,000 million euros.
#Chamartín #host #operations #week #highspeed #corridor #east