Spanish Government Finds Way to Break Mediterranean Corridor

Forced by Europe to build the TEN-T core Mediterranean rail corridor, Spain makes the stretch between Castelló and Vandellòs standard European gauge, requiring freight trains to pass through Madrid.

Trans-European Transport Network (courtesy EC)

The European Union forced Spain to complete the Mediterranean corridor, which is part of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), to run from Algeciras in the South of Spain to the Hungary-Ukraine border and beyond, with SEA links as far as Cyprus and Helsinki. But the Madrid government has found a way to make the link useless for freight.

In an absurd decision last week, the Spanish government issued a tender for the section between Vandellòs in Catalonia and Castelló in Valencia, but only for European gauge and not for the broader Iberian gauge standard in Spain. This section has been paralysed for decades, with a single-track in the better part of this stretch. But now, suddenly, the whole section will be made anew and only in European gauge. So freight trains coming up from the south will have to divert at Valencia to Madrid before going on to Europe. A low blow, especially for industry in Valencia.

The decision is unbelievable. There were three alternatives. The first was to lay a European gauge route parallel to the current Iberian gauge. The second was to lay European gauge rails right alongside the current Iberian gauge track, sharing the infrastructure, and the third option was to tear up the current route to lay one exclusively European gauge track. This was the most expensive and business leaders in both Valencia and Catalonia advised against it. But it's what Madrid has chosen.

The reason is obvious. The effect achieved by maintaining the single-track stretch between Castelló and Vandellòs, paralysed for decades, had been to complicate direct transit to Europe for industries in the Mediterranean Basin. As the European Union finally forced Spain to complete the link, the same effect can now be achieved in reverse, thus avoiding European sanctions. With an exclusively European gauge, all freight trains departing South of Castelló will have to go via Madrid if they are to go to Europe. Madrid thus gets part of the central corridor that the European Union had rejected, but the EU can not accuse the Spanish of not fulfilling the obligations it imposed.

Valencian and Catalan business leaders were perplexed yesterday by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport's proposal.