I published the report on July 3, 2003. It was titled “Valencia-Barcelona, so close, so far.” With the full support of Enric Juliana, deputy director of La Vanguardia and the collaboration of Josep Vicent Boira, then director of the Ignasi Villalonga chair, we began a series of information on the imbalance in railway communications that the Mediterranean suffered with respect to the rest of Spain. which had already consolidated the radial model of railway infrastructure. In parallel, the second and third Spanish capitals were still far apart in travel times: with the AVE, going from Madrid to Valencia took 1 hour and thirty minutes; the same distance between Barcelona and Valencia was, on those dates, in more than three hours; the double.
At that time, the idea of betting on the Mediterranean corridor was limited to the academic field, although some Valencian business organizations, especially in Castellón, were beginning to realize the insult of not having this infrastructure. There was no talk about it on the political agenda, neither in the institutions nor in the parties, and to make matters worse, it was also known in 2003 that the European Commissioner for Transport, the Spanish Loyola de Palacio, of the PP, by order of José María Aznar , erased the Mediterranean route of European railway projects until 2020. A decision that meant setting aside European resources for a network that, over time, would find support from the EU.
It's been 20 years now. A time in which the initial idea is, little by little, becoming a reality. Boira's academic work has been joined along the way by the support of the media, the employers' associations of the Valencian Community, Catalonia, Murcia and Andalusia, and in the final stretch the politicians, who have incorporated this objective into their priorities. The Mediterranean corridor is also the project that has collaborated the most on material bases to improve the relations of the civil societies of Catalonia and Valencia, but not their respective institutions, which live behind each other, for reasons already known.
The Valencian Association of Entrepreneurs, AVE, chaired by Vicente Boluda and of which Juan Roig is a member, will hold another event today in Madrid to demand the completion of the works, with the participation of experts, the minister of the sector and more than 1,800 businessmen. It is good to recognize that it has been Valencian civil society that has put the most pressure on the Government to accelerate an infrastructure that, at times, seems to take forever. But the truth is that progress has been made, and a lot, and if nothing prevents it, in a few years there will be a route approved with Europe to transport passengers and goods.
We must continue to demand that the work be completed as soon as possible, that the ports and large industrial centers be connected, that the businessmen, all of them, in the Mediterranean continue to work together and with a single voice without giving in to the storms generated by politics both in Catalonia and in Valencia. It is the only way to prevent Spain from being understood only from the radial model and for circular Spain to advance, and for Valencians to have a logistics offer that allows us to connect with the center of Europe. We are close to achieving it. Let's hope nothing stops him now.
