The PSC is open to a partial transfer of Rodalies, insufficient for the Government

The transfer of the economic resources of Rodalies has been drafted for months by the teams of the Ministry of Transport and the Department of Territory, but when the proposal approached the table of the Vice President of the Generalitat, Jordi Puigneró, until Wednesday, it always got stuck.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
30 September 2022 Friday 09:33
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The PSC is open to a partial transfer of Rodalies, insufficient for the Government

The transfer of the economic resources of Rodalies has been drafted for months by the teams of the Ministry of Transport and the Department of Territory, but when the proposal approached the table of the Vice President of the Generalitat, Jordi Puigneró, until Wednesday, it always got stuck. The Government has maintained a maximum position in which it is only willing to talk about a comprehensive transfer of the rail service that includes trains, tracks, catenaries, stations and even financing.

Although both talk about the transfer of Rodalies, they refer to very different things. The positions of both executives are reflected in the resolution proposals presented after the general policy debate, where Junts and ERC insist on the complete transfer and the PSC on "the transfer of the economic resources necessary for the adequate management of the railway services that they are the responsibility of the Generalitat” before the end of this year.

The formula proposed by the socialists, which has the approval of the ministry led by Raquel Sánchez, would mean that the economic transfers from the Government made directly to Renfe as operator of the service would be made to the Generalitat, in its capacity as owner of Rodalies and the regions of Catalonia, which in turn would have to pay Renfe later.

This economic transfer was already agreed in the transfer of powers carried out in 2010, although it has never been finalized despite not entailing any change in the financing or operating costs of the rail service. In recent years, it has not gone ahead because the ministry links it to the signing of the program contract between Renfe and the Generalitat, a document that details the relationship between the incumbent administration and the operator, as well as the amortization of future investments.

Without going any further, Renfe has made it clear that the hundred new Rodalies trains in the process of being manufactured to renew the fleet will not arrive in Catalonia if the program contract is not signed beforehand. Despite this, the Government did not even remotely consider a photo in which an agreement was signed with Renfe, which had become the target of constant attacks by Puigneró in recent months.

Apart from the economic transfer, more aesthetic than anything else, the PSC has taken another step forward in the Parliament's proposal, opening the door to the transfer of ownership of some infrastructures, a scenario never considered until now, although it has not yet been specified. They speak of transferring all those "that may be segregated from the railway network of general interest within Catalonia necessary to be able to provide the services". Within this network, practically all the infrastructures in Spain are included, since they include all those routes through which trains pass that connect various autonomous communities, those that are part of the freight train routes or that give coherence to the network itself.

This last aspect is the one that allows a more subjective reading. The sector experts consulted by La Vanguardia make very different interpretations. There are those who consider that, under this reading, all those lines on which Rodalies trains run are untouchable. Others believe that Rodalies lines could even be segregated, such as the Maresme line, where the competence of the infrastructure would become the Generalitat, although the service could continue to be provided by Renfe.

The most feasible transfer in the short term is the line between Manresa and Lleida, which the Government plans to operate with Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC) from 2024, although the Socialists avoid entering into specifics in the wording of the resolution.