in order To cherish the dream of time travel, nothing better than to jump on the train between la Coruña and Ferrol. Whizzing by on a winding single track without electrify, with the layout intact from the NINETEENTH century, convoys of more than 20 years ago to complete the 69 miles that separate these two cities in one hour and twenty minutes. Sometimes, at certain stations, the passengers can’t get off because the doors are blocked by the inclination of the ground. Or station and trains are wheelchair-accessible. “The landscape that can be seen through the windows is beautiful but does not give service to anyone,” says Alberto Diaz, spokesperson of the Platform for the Defence do Train A Coruña-As Mariñas, who spent seven years calling for investment for a line with only four daily frequencies despite traversing an area of 600,000 inhabitants.
The recent history of the railway in Galicia is a string of broken promises dating back to the beginnings of some of the political galicians who are still in the first line. He was minister of Transport, the current mayor of Vigo, Abel Caballero (PSOE), when in the eighties was a hypothetical arrival of high speed trains for the following year at the Barcelona Olympics in 92. Alberto Núñez Feijóo (PP) had just landed in 2003 in the Government as minister of infrastructure of Manuel Fraga when he announced that the journey between la Coruña and Ferrol would in POULTRY in 2010. It was not the only term thrown then that has yet to be made reality. In 2010 I was also going to be ready the quick connection with Madrid. Unlike the Ferrol, at least that project is in the works.
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The BIRD between Galicia and the capital of Spain started in 2003 and is still running after five official dates of completion failed. With 96% of the jobs finishes and an investment up to now of 4.395 million euros, the moment of entry into operation is not clear and the PP and PSOE, they blame each other for this uncertainty. While the Government points to internal reports, which conclude that in 2020 still not be able to purchase tickets to go up to the AVE gallego, the socialist Government of Pedro Sanchez argues that the works are progressing “at the speed marked by the deadlines agreed with the previous Government” PP. “There’s not a work that has had such a frenetic pace in Spain”, has come to affirm the president of the Administration of Railway Infrastructures (Adif), the galician Isabel Pardo de Vera.
The official date of completion of the AVE gallego has been fixed five times out of the hands of four ministers of Development of different political color. The popular Francisco Álvarez Helmets set in 2010, but the socialist Magdalena Álvarez considered that a period going to happen, and the delayed to 2012. José Blanco (PSOE), the delayed to 2015 by the economic crisis and the popular Ana Pastor took it to 2018. Also from the PP, Íñigo de la Serna shielded himself in the difficulties of Mariano Rajoy to form a government and announced that the train would be “in testing” to the end of 2019, without specifying its entry into operation. Feijóo then gave as good as this last term now failed, while the opposition distrusted that to be viable.
According to the last balance sheet of the state of works done this month of December, Adif’s “expected” that the road between Zamora and capital Pedralba of the Fields (Zamora), now in testing, in service at the end of the spring, cutting the journey between Galicia and Madrid is about 50 minutes. The essays in the final stretch, which goes from Pedralba up to Taboadela (Ourense), will start in march, according to forecasts of the Government in functions. But when will all-in service? Adif claims that can’t offer a specific date.
The tests, explains an official spokesman of the agency under the Ministry of Development, do not have a calendar closed. In fact, the tests at 300 kilometers per hour on the stretch between Zamora and Pedralba were going to start before Christmas, but it has not been possible because problems have arisen in the previous phase that must be corrected, argues the same source. When the entire route is in service, the journey between Madrid and Ourense will take less than two and a half hours, while the journey to A Coruña, Santiago, Pontevedra and Vigo, will range between three and three and a half hours.
“there Is waste public money on a BIRD, elitist and lying that will service the few”, criticizes the representative of the citizen platform that struggle to bring the railway between la Coruña and Ferrol and it becomes a free commuter, a type of railway service non-existent in Galicia. Alberto Díaz recalls that the sections of a BIRD that already work resulted in the suppression of connections between many peoples. “The BIRD will fill in Galicia tourism, but will leave the galicians held incommunicado,” he says. Renfe and Adif have been uprooted by 2020 closing the sale face to face tickets at the stations of eight municipalities non-urban of the four galician provinces.
The platform, which in its latest protest received the support of socialist mayors in the region such as the Ferrol and Minho, asks the central Government investment basic: to construct a double track and is electrifique, you fix the stations to comply with the law of accessibility to people with reduced mobility and that rectified the curve radii. His “modernization” throughout this legislature, without more specificity, is one of the points of agreement of investiture between the PSOE and the BNG.
there is Only a specific enhancement for this line that has given a minimum step up to now: a reform of the path to avoid the convoys have to go back and resume their path after access to one of the stations of Betanzos. Without this maneuver would save 15 minutes, but the action takes a decade just to study. Other modernization works will be sent to train A Coruña-Ferrol of pure bounce, supports Adif, you will get bounce. Will only affect the segment it shares with the line A Coruña-Lugo and are included in a plan whose horizon of execution is extended until 2024.
