The president of the business confederation of the Valencian Community, CEV, Salvador Navarro , has met with businessmen from La Rioja and Navarra to demand investments that make the railway line that connects the Cantabrian coast and the Mediterranean a real alternative for transport of merchandise.
Cantabrian Mediterranean Corridor, CEV, CEN, Port Castelló, Valencia Port
Presentation to the CEN of the profitability study of the Cantabrian-Mediterranean corridor
In separate meetings with the presidents and businessmen of the Federation of Businessmen of La Rioja (FER) and the Business Confederation Email Data of Navarra (CEN), Navarro has demanded the unity of action of the businessmen of the autonomies affected by the deficiencies of the line railway. The loss of business and economic competitiveness caused by these insufficiencies affects six autonomous communities - Cantabria, the Basque Country, La Rioja, Navarra, Aragon and the Valencian Community - which add up to a GDP of 239.7 billion euros, 22.2% of the national GDP. , and a population of 9.99 million inhabitants. It is, therefore, as the president of the CEV has pointed out , “an infrastructure of national interest and this must be understood by the Government in its investment items.”
The president of the CEV , accompanied by the president of the Port Authority of Castellón , Francisco Toledo, and the general director of the Port Authority of Valencia , Francesc Sánchez, has transferred the conclusions of the report “The potential demand for the transport of goods in the Cantabrian Corridor ”, carried out by the CEV with the consulting firm TRN Engineering and the port authorities of Valencia and Castellón and the companies Noatum, MSC, SLISA, Logitren and APM Terminals. The report concludes that there is a significant potential demand from users of this route, currently limited by its deficiencies, and that with the proposed improvements, between 48 and 54 trains per week would be put into circulation in each direction.
As the CEV denounced in a previous report, the current inefficiencies of the Cantabrian Mediterranean Corridor force users to intensively use road freight transport and resort to alternative rail routes through Tarragona and Madrid, which means, in figures from 2015, the year in which this first report was made, an increase in the estimated cost of 364,485 km more per year; more CO2 emissions and an additional expense of 1.66 million euros.
However, the president of the CEV has recognized the commitment of the Railway Infrastructure Administrator (Adif) and its president, Juan Bravo , for this infrastructure. This commitment has materialized with new investment announcements, 320 million euros that will be executed until 2022 with the electrification of the line, and with the constitution of a monitoring commission that supervises compliance with commitments and deadlines for the execution of the works.
The president of the FER, Jaime García-Calzada, has highlighted that for businessmen, and for Rioja society in general, the railway is of vital importance to advance the mobility of people, companies and goods because it constitutes an element of cohesion and structuring of the territory. “ That is precisely what business organizations want to demonstrate here today – he pointed out – that territories are structured, integrated and cohesive thanks to infrastructure . ” In his opinion, the Cantabrian-Mediterranean railway axis perfectly meets this premise due to the number of regions affected and the size of the project. García-Calzada has stated that this railway axis needs important improvements and investments and in addition to those already committed, the FER requests the Central Administration to carry out the technical studies and budget allocations necessary so that these investments also reach the Community section. Autonomous of La Rioja.