Government backs Mediterranean rail route linking Algeciras with Barcelona

Reiterating the government's commitment to the EU's Mediterranean Corridor rail route, Public Works Minister José Blanco met with representatives from the regional governments of Valencia, Catalonia, Andalusia and Murcia this week, promising to begin the tendering process for construction of key sections of the high-speed link within two months.

The Mediterranean Railway Corridor has been on the drawing board for decades, and will eventually link North Africa and southern Spain with central Europe along Spain's Mediterranean coast via a standard European rail gauge. Container traffic will travel from the ports of Algeciras, Valencia and Barcelona to Lyon, Hamburg and Stockholm on the same train without stops and changes at the borders.

The Corridor will link North Africa and southern Spain with central Europe

Currently, containers have to be reloaded onto standard European gauge trains at Portbou on the Catalan-French border, an operation that takes around six hours, and increases costs. At present, trains also have to stop at certain points where there is only single track. In addition, the project would foresee a separate high-speed passenger railway along the Mediterranean.

Until earlier this year, the government was still debating the use of a radial rail model that would have seen a direct route from Algeciras to Madrid, and then from the capital to either Barcelona, or through the Pyrenees, cutting out Valencia and Murcia, which are important fruit-and-vegetable-growing regions.

Artur Mas, the head of the Catalan regional government, describes the planned route as "the first infrastructure project to break with the radial model whereby all traffic must pass through Madrid." Blanco has agreed that the Mediterranean Corridor "will break 500 years of centralization."

The government is to invest 25.4 billion euros on the project up until 2020, when the service will start between Perpignan in southern France and Almería in Andalusia. The final section between Almería and Algeciras, passing through Málaga, will be built later. A completion date for the direct connection with the Strait of Gibraltar and North Africa has not been decided. In total, the Spanish government aims to invest more than 51.3 billion euroson this strategic infrastructure project.

Blanco said on Monday that the tendering process for the stretch between Valencia and Castellón would begin within two months.

Lluís Recoder, the Catalan government's planning chief, said on Monday that he was "cautiously confident" that the Mediterranean Corridor was finally going ahead.

Francisco Camps, the head of the Valencian regional government, was in Brussels on Tuesday to lobby for the inclusion of Alicante, Murcia and Almería in the project. He was accompanied by Federico Félix, a representative of the Valencian Business Association.

Joan Amorós, the head of Ferrmed, a lobby group representing business organizations based in Spain's Mediterranean areas, says that the Mediterranean Corridor is essential for Spain's long-term economic growth.

He points out that the route includes 40 percent of Spain's population, and takes in 65 percent of its maritime traffic. Ferrmed says that such a route would be profitable and also makes environmental sense by reducing road haulage.

"If Europe wants to succeed in tackling the challenge posed by strong competition from abroad, it must be competitive and cohesive. Due to its high impact on the global logistic system, rail freight transport must be a key component in the European agenda," says Amorós.