The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has once again questioned the model of railway liberalization implemented in Spain, pointing out that the country is the "most Quixotic" in the European Union for having allowed the entry of Iryo and Ouigo "with open hands" and, furthermore, having to comply with the decision of the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) to make Renfe's workshops available to these operators for the maintenance of their trains.
At the breakfasts of Nueva Economía Fórum, Puente contrasted this scenario with the one faced by Renfe when operating outside of Spain and cited France as an example, where the Spanish public company is forced to move its rolling stock to Spanish territory even for light maintenance tasks, as it does not have the same facilities there.
On this point, the minister emphasized that the CNMC "defends to the utmost" a liberalization that, in his opinion, presents "lights and shadows," while also forcing the state operator to open its maintenance facilities to Iryo and Ouigo, even for heavy interventions.
In this regard, Puente highlighted that the Spanish model, with a historic company like Renfe that competes directly with two foreign companies that simultaneously burst into the market, has no precedents in other processes of opening up to competition in European countries.
Investigation of the Adamuz accident
Regarding the investigation of the Adamuz accident, the head of Transport has insisted that the procedure is completely independent of the Ministry, stressing that his department cannot make decisions on this matter and thus ruling out any type of government interference in the proceedings.
In response to questions raised by attendees about the statements made in parliament by a researcher from the Railway Accident Investigation Commission (CIAF) regarding corrections made to a report, Puente clarified that those changes were made by the independent technical superiors of that researcher.
The minister has detailed that neither Spain nor any other country has a system capable of detecting a crack in the track when electrical continuity is maintained. He explained that the current track occupancy system identifies currents of four volts and only triggers an alarm when the current is completely interrupted.
Puente has added that, if a break occurs and the current continues to flow with lower intensity, the system does not issue a warning, as those drops in voltage are frequent due to humidity in the ballast or other elements. For this reason, he has described it as a "barbarity" that this researcher included such a requirement in a technical report, which led to her superiors correcting her.