The Spanish Transport Minister, Raquel Sánchez, said this Wednesday that Lisbon and Madrid will be linked by the end of 2023 by a train line “worthy and quality“.
Raquel Sánchez was speaking at a parliamentary hearing about the operation of the first section of “fast train” (which this day referred to as “high speed”) in the region of Spanish Extremadura, between Plasencia and Badajoz, on the border with Portugal.
“It will also improve international connections when the line that will link Elvas-Badajoz with Lisbon and with Sines is a reality, which is scheduled for the end of next year. Lisbon, Badajoz and Madrid will be linked by a decent and quality railway line”, said the minister.
Previously, Raquel Sánchez had said that this first section of fast train in Extremadura is “a great opportunity” for the more than one million inhabitants of this region, which borders the Alentejo, mentioning that it does “more competitive” and that is already attracting investment due to the possibility of transporting goods by rail.
Raquel Sánchez was confronted by the opposition with the fact that the fast train arrived in Extremadura this year, as the Spanish government promised, but did not allow the connection to “other territories“That is, bordering regions and Madrid.
This is due to the fact that the section, of about 150 kilometers, which began to operate on July 19, joins Plasencia with Badajoz, does not subsequently connect with any other high-speed line.
Thus, the railway connection between Plasencia and Madrid continues to be manufactured on conventional linenon-electrified and single track (which does not allow the passage of trains outside a station).
Even so, the train journey between Badajoz and Madrid is now 51 minutes shorter.
According to the test trip carried out in June on the new section, the train takes two hours and 15 minutes, with two stops (Mérida and Cáceres), at which there are almost three hours left for those who want to go to Madrid.
The train of the new section circulates with an average speed of just over 100 kilometers per hour, according to opposition deputies, who stressed that it is not a line “high speed“.
Opposition deputies also accused the Spanish government of accelerating the opening of this section, to say that the promise had been fulfilled. to bring high speed until August this year to Extremadurawhich translated into frequent incidents and delays on the line.
“It’s the train of shame“a joke” and “a cat in a hare”, said the opposition deputies, who echoed the protests of the population of Extremadura, which stresses that the “fast train” is not a high-speed train and even Madrid , as promised more than 20 years ago by the Spanish authorities.
The promise was repeated by the different governments, without ever materializing, until there was a decrease in supply and, in 2012, a promise of “fast train” that only materialized this year and only in one section.
One of the trains suppressed in this region was the Lusitânia, in 2011, between Lisbon and Madrid, which crossed the Portuguese border from Caia and entered Spain through Badajoz.
The high-speed train for this line was even negotiated with Portugal, both countries announcing the connection between Madrid and Lisbon, via Badajoz, at a 2002 summit between the two governments, then headed by Durão Barroso and José Maria Aznar.
Poor rail connections in the region led 40,000 people from Extremadura to Madrid in November 2017 to demonstrate in the center of the capital demanding “worthy trains“, and there is a new protest called for September 8.
Ráquel Sánchez recognized this Wednesday, in front of the deputies, that there was a “Historical abandonment in railway mattersof Extremadura and affirmed that the Government assumed the commitment to respond to the “fair complaints” of the population.
The minister has said that in 2018, when the current government led by the socialists took office, it found Extremadura’s railway infrastructure “obsolete, closer to the 19th century than the 21st century”.
Raquel Sánchez listed the improvement works carried out on lines, stations and rolling stock in the region in the last four years, as well as the start-up and doubling of the high-speed execution rate, which provides for the connection by fast train from Badajoz and Madrid.
On the Portuguese side, the four sections that will make up the South International Corridor are under construction, between Sines and the Caia border, in Elvas (Portalegre), within the scope of the Investment Program for the Expansion and Modernization of the National Railway Network “Ferrovía 2020”.
The project aims to reduce travel time, thanks to the use of electric traction trains between Sines and Caiaand “increase the efficiency and attractiveness” of rail freight transport, by allowing the circulation of freight trains with a length of 750 meters
Source: Observadora
