The president of the Spanish Government said that he wanted to give priority to the Lisbon-Madrid connection, something that the regional government of Galicia condemns. Alfonso Rueda considers that there are delays in the process on the Spanish side.
The president of the Xunta de Galicia has stated this Thursday that it is not realistic to have completed the high-speed rail connection between Porto and Vigo in 2032, as the President of the Government stated on Wednesday.
According to Alfonso Rueda, 2032 is not realistic precisely due to the state of the process on the Spanish side.
For the president of the Galician Government, even if all concessions were unblocked immediately and work began soon, the Spanish part of the line, up to the Portuguese border, would never be finished before 2034.
Alfonso Rueda, of the Popular Party (PP, right), considered that Wednesday’s statements by the President of the Spanish Government, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, regarding high-speed trains between both countries, show that the head of the central government “Does not even know “didn’t bother to check the real deadlines.”
The president of the regional government. He also criticized Sánchez for stating that Spain gives priority to the connection between Lisbon and Madrid, which I would like to see completed in 2030, before the connection with Galicia.
“The commitment of the Spanish Government to the AVE [alta velocidade] Madrid-Lisbon is 2030. I insist, it is the commitment of the Government of Spain and it is the horizon in which we are working,” said Pedro Sánchez, at the final press conference of the Iberian summit that took place on Wednesday in Faro.
Sánchez added that, regarding the Lisbon-Porto-Vigo high-speed connection, “the commitment of the Government of Spain”, which it shares with the Portuguese executive, “is the year 2032.”
The Prime Minister of Portugal, Luís Montenegro (PSD, conservative), in the same press conference, said that the national executive’s priority “is the Lisbon-Oporto-Vigo-Madrid connection” and that the first section has already been awarded.
The President of the Government added that “the second priority is the Lisbon-Madrid connection via Évora-Badajoz” and, in this case, “there is a first section that is already on the ground”, with “the need now to reconcile the third crossing over the Tagus River in Lisbon, with the construction of the high-speed connection in Évora”, in a “process that takes place simultaneously with the construction process of the new Lisbon airport.”
“We are working with both governments to try to combine the work schedules of both connections, so that they can be carried out in the shortest possible time,” added the Portuguese prime minister, who never mentioned dates.
This Thursday, the president of the Regional Government of Galicia thanked Luís Montenegro for his commitment to giving priority to the Porto-Vigo connection.
Alfonso Rueda assured that he has nothing against other high-speed connections between Portugal and Spain, but recalled that the Portuguese executive, the current one from the PS and the previous ones from the PS, have already allocated funds for the line with Galicia and have advanced the decision to prioritize this connection.
“It is very difficult to understand that the Portuguese Government says yes and ours says the opposite,” said Alfonso Rueda, who was answering questions from journalists in Santiago de Compostela.
Source: Observadora
