Spain is portrayed by some as an example of the benefits of passenger rail opening in Europe, with passenger ridership on the high-speed network having grown since the entry of the competing state-owned or state-backed operators.<\/p>\n
However, Spain\u2019s new centre-left Transport Minister \u00d3scar Puente recently said in parliament that this liberalisation model \u2013 in which only state incumbents compete with each other \u2013 has \u201c<\/em>damaging effects\u201d because their losses will \u201chave the cushion of the state to cover them\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n Mr Puente\u2019s remarks confirm that the liberalisation model in Spain is not sustainable. There must be a better solution.<\/p>\n How did this happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n Several years ago, the infrastructure manager ADIF devised a system of \u2018market opening\u2019 where operators had to bid for large, inflexible packages and bring their own rolling stock within a comparatively short time frame.<\/p>\n In effect, this opened the market only for those operators with large amounts of state-backed funding, for example, to finance the rolling stock.<\/p>\n The result: the only new competitors to Renfe are operators owned or controlled by the French and Italian state-owned rail incumbents SNCF and FS.<\/p>\n Spain\u2019s transport minister \u00d3scar Puente stated that while this model had brought \u201ca significant reduction in ticket prices\u201d it had also caused \u201cdamaging effects.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese companies in the end make (financial) losses based on taking decisions \u2026 but then these losses have the cushion of the state to cover them. This is something that, I believe, benefits anything but free competition\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n ALLRAIL<\/a> agrees with Mr Puente. They believe that Spain\u2019s market opening is financed by:<\/p>\n French and Italian implicit state guarantees on the debt of their state-owned operators,\u00a0as acknowledged by rating agencies in public. ALLRAIL\u2019s<\/a> Spain spokesperson Marc Planas Blanco says: \u201cWe call for a better solution in Spain, that creates the market conditions to attract passengers and private investment while reducing the burden on the taxpayer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Such as: smaller, more demand-responsive packages and the same non-discriminatory access to loans from the European Investment Bank as\u00a0Renfe<\/a> and\u00a0FS<\/a> have received. Otherwise, it is certainly not a role model for the rest of the EU<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n More Like This<\/strong><\/p>\n Spain is portrayed by some as an example of the benefits of passenger rail opening in Europe, with passenger ridership on the high-speed network having […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,47,488],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-opinion","category-rail-news","category-railway-stations"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
\nFrench and Italian taxpayers covering the deficits of their incumbents\u2019 subsidiaries in Spain \u2013 which qualifies as State Aid.<\/p>\nStopping HS2 at Birmingham a \u2018missed opportunity for the North\u2019 \u2013 Transport for the North Chair<\/a><\/h3>\n
Amtrak awards contract for new Frederick Douglass Tunnel<\/a><\/h3>\n
Northern Trains offer life skills to even more railway apprentices<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"