Faster is not always better, except if we are talking about the Mediterranean corridor. An opportunity to accelerate the transport of people and goods and boost the economy, tourism and employment, as pointed out by the president of the Valencian Association of Entrepreneurs (AVE), Vicente Boluda. “According to the forecasts of the European Union, freight transport would increase its traffic by 29% thanks to the connection of our ports and airports with the rail network. With this, the volume of Spanish exports would have doubled and we would be saving a lot of money thanks to the transport of our products by train to Europe”, he explains. He speaks conditionally because there are years of delay –20, specifically– in a railway infrastructure that, despite the difficulties, does not cease in its efforts to be what it is called to be: a backbone of the territory and the people who live in it (50% of the population of Spain connected to each other and to Europe). "The Mediterranean corridor favors the territorial cohesion of our country and the creation in Spain of a top-level logistics node that is a benchmark in Europe," says the president of the AVE.
In practice, the Mediterranean corridor aspires to have a double platform (two tracks in each direction) in international gauge (going from the current 1,668 mm to 1,435 mm) and with high speed from the French border to Algeciras, linking such important cities such as Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Murcia and Malaga, and connecting them in turn with the rest of Europe. A necessary infrastructure that, in addition to transporting people and goods faster, will boost exports, sustainable development and employment. And most importantly, it can't wait any longer to be finished.
"The works of the Mediterranean corridor are advancing, but not at the desired pace," says Boluda, who is also the most visible face of the movement
As a lever for sustainability –accelerator of the unavoidable energy transition–, the Mediterranean corridor is imperative for decarbonisation. "We must move towards an intermodality that results in the efficiency and competitiveness of our logistics, the reduction of the environmental impact of freight traffic and the energy cost savings that this project brings with it", Boluda values. In addition to decongesting roads, this infrastructure is also an ally in improving the country's employability ratios, which the Valencian Association of Entrepreneurs estimates at around 15,000 direct jobs. "But not only that, many new companies will be born thanks to the direct benefits in strategic sectors such as tourism, food, industry, logistics and transport," they add.
Entrepreneurs, together with the residents of all the communities it crosses, are the group that most expects and that, at the same time, acts as a reviewer of compliance with its execution, with a unity of action that is difficult to find in other sectors. "We have achieved something very complicated, which is to unite businessmen from Andalusia, Murcia, the Valencian Community and Catalonia to achieve a common goal," Boluda points out. Up to 1,500 of them will be present at the sixth business event along the Mediterranean corridor and the second six-monthly check-up of the AVE, which is held at the Barcelona International Convention Center (CCIB) on Thursday, November 17.
That the motto of the event is "Our country cannot wait any longer" shows to what extent the time factor (or passage of time) is intimately related to the execution of the project. "The main challenge that the Mediterranean runner has ahead is to win the race on time", they share from the AVE. “We know that we are running late and that the infrastructure will not be completed within the agreed deadlines, but without the movement
The sixth business event along the Mediterranean corridor, to be held in Barcelona, will include the participation of the Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez; the presence of Emilio Gayo, president of Telefónica Spain; Mar Alarcón, CEO of SocialCar; Juan Roig, president of Mercadona; and Teresa Garcia-Milà, director of the Barcelona School of Economics, among other personalities.
