Adif will modify from next Friday the rules according to which the different rail operators, high-speed, conventional services, tourist or freight trains, can request to travel on a certain section of the network at a certain time or how to resolve requests when a row or part of it is saturated. The changes give companies more months to make broadcast requests and They give priority to those who have framework agreementsthat is, it plans to circulate for several years.
The Official State Gazette (BOE) published a few days ago a ministerial decree on transport which reorganizes the transport procedure. rail infrastructure capacity allocationwhich adapts it to current situationin which two different operators entered years ago Renfe at high speed —Ouigo And Iryo— and an increase in traffic, also in terms of goods.
More time to distribute rail services
On the one hand, Adif and the ministry recognize that the way in which rail transport projects have ‘disadvantages’ in comparison, for example, with the airline sector, in which airlines have longer lead times to know which routes they will operate and at what times they will do so than companies like Renfe, Ouigo and Iryo, which until now only know which routes and times they will operate two months in advance.
In this sense, the Ministerial Order recalls that in February the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) urged extend the various deadlines of the path allocation processtracks on specific lines and timetables, on which trains from different companies can run.
Although the Competition requested one year’s notice, as Ouigo and Iryo had stated, Adif ultimately decided that from now on They will be eight and a half months old and not just six to present their traffic requests on the different routes and timetables and they will know the resolution of the railway infrastructure manager four months in advance instead of two.
Priority in the event of saturation of the rail network
On the other hand, Adif also modifies the order of the criteria that it will take into account when allocating traffic capacities to a specific operator. in case of saturation. In other words, several companies want to browse it at the same time.
As a novelty, the existence of a the framework agreement will become the first criterion which will be taken into account, while until now others were priority, such as services declared of public interest or international services, as the element which will first decide which company will be able to run its trains in the event of coincidences.
The framework agreements are an additional “tool” in the relations between the different railway operators and Adif, underlines the railway manager, but they have charged more weight with liberalization high-speed passenger transport. Thus, Ouigo, Iryo and Renfe signed these agreements for five or ten years, allowing them They provide the certainty of making the necessary investments to operate in this market.
They are not exclusive Operators of passenger and other freight trains also have them, but with liberalization they have become key documents for the three High Speed operatorswhich in this case would have priority with others who do not have these framework agreements in the event of saturation of a line or section of line or to operate services that do not encompass them, as long as the coordination between the plans of each is not sufficient, as was the case until now, so that there is sufficient capacity.
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