Minister of Transport, Oscar PuenteHe noted this Tuesday in the Senate A New derivative For the highway renewal project between madrid and barcelona, So that trains travel through it at a speed of 350 km/hour. According to him, this will not only mean connecting the two cities in about two hours, but will also enable the peninsula to be crossed by train in a short time. Specifically, when the AVE arrives in Huelva, this Andalusian city will be connected to Barcelona “in less than four hours.”
“The improvement in high speed with Madrid is not limited to Madrid only. Why are we not thinking about Huelva. There will be trains that will come from Barcelona to Huelva in less than four hours. This is what we are thinking about,” he pointed out during the government’s observation session in the Senate to the response of European Research Council Senator Joan Queralt. And Barcelona in less than two hours, users “experience” problems on Rodalis or on regional trains or the Mediterranean Corridor is not yet operational.
Puente was considered “compatible” with “the dilemma formulated by the senator between “improving high-speed planning” and “improving suburban traffic,” specifically in Catalonia, where he stressed that “one of every two euros invested by his ministry (there) is allocated to Rodales.”
“It is compatible with the high-speed improvement with Madrid. Not only with Madrid,” the ERC representative confirmed, referring to the impact that it will also have to shorten the travel time from Andalusia. From its end in Huelva, expect it to be “less than four hours.”
Moreover, Puente confirmed that the Mediterranean corridor will be “a reality in no more than two years” and that in 2027 “there will be a high-speed train between Valencia and Barcelona”, which will also contribute to the “congestion” of the already “intensive” section between Tarragona and Barcelona, where the direct branch between Lleida and Barcelona is being studied as an alternative, without passing through Tarragona and to the new La Sagrera station, also expected. In the high-speed rail project. 350 km/h between Madrid and Barcelona that was introduced in Madrid two weeks ago.
“Legal rebellion” and the legal text “collide” with the law
Conversely, Puente did not talk much about how Renfe and her ministry would avoid having to reintroduce the old punctuality obligation, which stipulates compensation for delays of 15 minutes or more and which was amended in July last year so as not to start paying for delays of up to one hour, as other high-speed competitors, Ouigo and Iryo, do.
PP Senator Francisco Bernabe was the Senate spokesman for the Sustainable Mobility Law who presented the amendment, later approved by Congress and incorporated into the rule, according to which Renfe must return from January to its previous punctuality, and this Tuesday the Minister asked if he plans to comply with the Sustainable Mobility Law, because since it was approved two weeks ago, he stressed that they will look for the “legal formula” so that they do not have to apply this provision. “What did you say you didn’t intend to stick to?” The senator asked him. “This is what criminals do,” he added, before asking him if he would “put himself in a position of legal rebellion.”
After many turns and the first intervention without a response, Puente confirmed that “of course” he would abide by the law, but “always in accordance with Spanish law and the law of society.”
“If they introduce any amendment that conflicts with Spanish or Community law, we will subject it to the appropriate legal analysis and see under what conditions it will be applied,” he said.