News
Spain confirms plans to open high-s S
Fernando Puente Correspondent
PAIN’s transport minister Mrs Ana Pastor confirmed last month that the government intends to partially open the high-speed rail market to competition in the first half of 2014, as outlined in a liberalisation decree issued last February. The new regime, whose
regulations are still to be issued, will allow a limited number of operators to compete against state-owned train operator Renfe on selected high-speed routes. New entrants will have to bid for a temporary permit from the government, while Renfe will be allowed to continue to operate its current services without a permit or time limit
on every line.
Pastor has declined to specify the number of permits to be issued, and stated that the final number will be determined by the capacity left by the incumbent operator. According to press reports, publishing group Planeta and construction company Ferrovial have already expressed an interest in competing on key routes such as Madrid - Barcelona. New operators could
acquire their own rolling stock or lease trains from Renfe’s new rolling stock leasing company. Established last year, the subsidiary has a fleet of seven class 100 sets, which were built in the 1990s, and 12 dual-gauge class 120 high- speed trains, which entered service from 2004 onwards.
Adif split to keep infrastructure debt off government books
T
HE Spanish Government has approved the splitting
of Adif into two separate bodies in order to avoid the infrastructure manager’s spiraling debt from being included in the national debt, in accordance with recent changes to the European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA 2010). In a decree issued on December 13 the government mandates the creation of a new public corporation to be called Adif-Alta Velocidad (Adif-AV), which will manage the country’s high-speed rail network and hold the debt incurred in its construction, which expected to reach ƒ15.2bn in 2014. This will leave Adif to manage the conventional rail network with a total debt of ƒ1.1bn. The Ministry of Public
Works and Transport says the objective is for Adif-AV to be designated a market producer under ESA 2010 rules, which stipulate that “to be a market producer, the public unit shall cover at least 50% of its costs through sales over a sustained period.”
6 This means Adif-AV will
remain in the corporate sector and its debt levels will not be included in Spain’s national debt, which reached 93.4% of GDP in September 2013. In order to fulfill the ESA
2010 requirements, it also looks likely Adif-AV will take over Adif’s profitable 16,000km fibre-optic network, which will be let to private telecommunications carriers as 10 to 20-year concessions. These contracts are expected to generate up to ƒ450m. The opening of the high- speed market in the first half of next year could also allow Adif-AV to reap additional incomes from new operators. The decree has retroactive
effects on the accounts of both companies and thus the Adif splitting will be considered to have occurred in January 1 2013. Revised budgets for both Adif-AV and Adif have been issued, which forecast losses of ƒ233m in 2013 and ƒ210m in 2014 for the former, and ƒ297m and ƒ73m respectively for the latter. Adif-AV will spend ƒ361m this year servicing its debts.
Renfe and SNCF finally launch France - Spain high-speed services
EGULAR high-speed services between Spain and France were finally launched on December 15 following months of rolling stock validation tests in both countries. Two daily direct services formed of TGV Dasye sets connect Paris and Barcelona in 6h 25min, cutting 15 minutes off the previous journey time, which required passengers to change between TGV and Renfe AVE services in Figueres. Stations served include
R
Figueres and Girona in Spain, and Perpignan, Narbonne, Montpellier, Nîmes and Valence in France. Three additional
international services were also launched on the same day using AVE S100 high- speed trains specially adapted to operate on the French network. Two of these connect
Barcelona with Toulouse and Lyon in three and five hours respectively, while a third daily service runs between Madrid and Marseille with a journey time of seven hours.
All five daily services use
the Barcelona - Figueres high- speed line opened in January 2012 and the Figueres - Perpignan cross-border link, which was completed in February 2008 but remained unused until late 2010.
IRJ January 2014
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