The Minister of Public Works, José Luis Ábalos, has ensured that the liberalization led by the Development group will position Spain as a benchmark for effective liberalization in Europe.
Ábalos has reaffirmed its commitment to a strong, competitive, modern, innovative public railway sector open to the world with a public infrastructure manager (Adif) that reinforces its role as a network operator as well as a public operator (RENFE) strong, competitive and internationalized.
During his speech at the Forum Five Days "Rail sector: liberalization and international markets", the minister has asserted that he faces the liberalization of rail commercial services as one of the main challenges not only for his Department but for the whole political action of the government. He also stressed that this liberalization can bring very positive results for the railway activity as a whole, as well as for Spain's mobility and competitiveness, for which it has acknowledged having strong expectations in this process.
According to the Minister, there is joint work between several ministries to develop a strategy for safe, sustainable and connected mobility that places Spain on the path of the countries with the most modern and efficient mobility.
Ábalos has ensured that the liberalization led by the Development group will position Spain as a benchmark for effective liberalization, and has been convinced of the success it will bring and of the enormous benefits that it will bring to the whole of our country.
He added that success depends not only on the public sector, but that new agents, mainly from the private sector, must join to achieve it.
The head of the Department said that in Spain we have the largest network of transport infrastructure in Europe, so the priority will not be to increase this network but to invest in maintaining it to make effective its service and capacity to achieve territorial balance .
In addition, the minister recalled that the modernization of the system goes through digitalization and technological development that generate new mobility models focused on connectivity, intermodality and the use of capacity, which require less investment in hard infrastructure (concrete) and more data management to generate positive impacts.