“There are no trains that don’t fit in tunnels, the truth is trains would be very small.“, said Xavier Flores, Secretary General for Infrastructure in Santander this Wednesday, in his speech at the first meeting of the working group to monitor the process of designing and manufacturing future trains for the metric track network (formerly Feve). Transport, Basque company Construcciones y Auxiliar del Ferrocarril SA , in complete contrast to what has been communicated from the CAF to the Governments of Asturias and Cantabria up until this Wednesday regarding the scandal of 31 trains put into service on June 2020. The version of the version so far submitted to the Governments of Asturias and Cantabria, focusing on the fact that: the dimensions of the failed trains would be “incompatible” with those of the tunnels, the second is too narrow and the first is too large. The “official” rhetoric is now the opposite: trains would be so small that they “wouldn’t meet users’ expectations”.
But Flores’ first message after the meeting was another: “It is our desire that this Renfe contract with CAF be managed by the Ministry itself.“Translated: public operator relegated to renegotiating contract with concessionaire. The secretary general assured that Transportes had requested a “detailed timetable for adjusting and, if possible, reducing deadlines” from the manufacturer.
Flores tried to stop the scandal after it was revealed that the trains that entered service three years ago had not started production.And; moreover, it has not even begun to be designed yet. The secretary-general arrived in Santander with a clear speech: “No trains were built”, “no public resources were wasted” and the 150 million European grant for the contract was “not in jeopardy”. He admitted what the ministry was until yesterday. considered a “mistake”, it will delay the delivery of trains by “two years”, because the implementation period is 45 months and therefore they should be ready by mid 2024. Flores gave the delivery date as 2026, although the Department assured him it would negotiate with the winning bidder to shorten the production time “as far as possible”. . Likewise, he acknowledged that trains could cost more than the 196.3m euros tendered in 2020 due to the rise in raw material prices.
“The train should be designed like a suit, it should be able to travel through the net. LThe indicators problem is limited by the fact that the metric measurement network does not have a standardized tunnel typology. (There are different sizes), so while trying to apply the same methodology for other widths (minimum distances to the walls and ceilings of the tunnels), the train that abandoned these criteria was smaller than the existing ones”, Flores said, “The other thing (trains don’t fit in tunnels) is more fun” and it causes “laughter and jokes,” but “the truth is, trains would be very small because the demands were greater,” he stressed.
What Flores didn’t finish explaining was this: Why hasn’t progress been made since CAF reported the size mismatch of trains and tunnels in March 2021?and in September of the same year the solution was already on the table: the so-called “comparative method” network, which consists of “copying” the dimensions of the largest train currently circulating along the feve for future units. At this point, the secretary general confined himself to stating that what was done at that time was “deciding what to do and how”, a “technical discussion”. He admitted that it could be done “otherwise”.
When Flores found out what had happened to the Feve trains, he was also not certain: “I found out last year. I saw this discussion happen,” he said. Regarding the possibility that the Governments of Cantabria and Asturias didn’t know anything about the trains until a week ago, he said, “Right, maybe we would have to see more clarifications, but no decision has been made and so we didn’t report it.”
Minister of Rural Affairs of the Principality, Alejandro Calvourged administrations to shorten deadlines as much as possible. “We can understand the situation that has occurred, but we must draw conclusions so that it doesn’t happen again,” he said of a mistake he also saw caused by the abandonment of the Feve network for decades.
The Minister of Public Works of Cantabria spoke in the same way, Jose Luis GochicoaHe underlined three “positive” messages from Flores during the meeting: “the contract will not need to be re-tendered, just redesigned”, “budget coverage is absolutely guaranteed” and the working group is “born with a profession” and permanence. meticulously reviewed.”
The founding meeting of the working group to monitor the design and production process of the new metric track network trains was held at the Headquarters of the Government Delegation in Cantabria. The State Railway Safety Agency (AESF) was represented by its director general. Pedro Lekuona. Adif sent the General Manager of Protection and Care to the meeting, Angel Contrerasand Renfe to the Managing Director of Operations, José Luis Cachafeiro. On behalf of the Principality, in addition to Alejandro Calvo, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, Jorge Garcia. There were also representatives of the two departments of the Government of Cantabria, and Ainoa Quiñones, the Government delegate in this autonomous community.