More haste, less speed

After a decade of waiting it appears that the MadridElche high-speed train (AVE) line will finally be up and running this summer.

This confirmation by national rail administrator ADIF of the promise made by public works minister Alabós in September has been celebrated by the local city’s mayor, Carlos González.

“It will be a shot in the arm for Elche and puts an end to months of uncertainty generated by the constant broken promises of the previous Partido Popular (PP) national government,” he said.

It should be noted that Sr Abalós was at the time going back on a promise he himself had made in July 2018 that it would be ready for September last year.

Mind you, in September 2017 Sr González had accompanied the previous minister on a test train from Elche to Murcia and was told the work would be finished that December and the line opened the following March or April.

Work on the line is now at a very advanced stage, with the Dama de Elche station at Matola completed and the section as far as El Reguerón in Murcia is electrified and being tested.

Opening the line to Elche, ADIF has confirmed, will not depend on work being finished on the access to El Carmen station in Murcia city, which is now scheduled for 2020.

This had been the key concern for many and not long ago regional Spanish newspaper Información had insisted one could not open without the other.

“The AVE line will suppose a notable improvement to communications between our city and Madrid, which could be reached in less than two and a half hours, and it will have a very positive impact on Elche’s industry and tourism,” assured the mayor.

Yes, two and a half hours, knocking no less than two whole hours off the current rail journey time.

But it will not only be convenient for people in Elche, as the station lies just off the A-7 motorway after the exit for Crevillente, making it easily accessible for residents all over the south of the province.

Not long ago the idea that one could get from their home in somewhere like Catral or Dolores to Madrid in about three hours would have seemed ludicrous but this is now tantalisingly close to becoming reality.

Sure, it is possible to fly there in less time (and probably a bit more cheaply, sometimes), but this requires airport transfers and all manner of other inconveniences such as baggage restrictions.

The train will deliver passengers to the heart of Spain’s capital city in comfort, rested and refreshed and ready to take in the wealth of cultural and business opportunities it has to offer.

But all this comes at a cost, and it is a spectacularly high one which would have been impossible to bear without a significant amount of EU funding.

Last year the European Court of Auditors (ECA) analysed the high-speed rail network around the continent and found it to be ‘an ineffective patchwork of poorly connected national lines’ with ‘no realistic long-term plan’ that has cost the EU €23.7 billion since 2000. Spain has received the lion’s share of this (€14 billion).

“National lines (are) not well linked since the European Commission has no legal tools and no powers to force Member States to build lines as agreed,” noted the report, and Spain has always been a perfect illustration of this with decisions inevitably being based more on ‘political considerations’ rather than ‘cost-benefit analyses’.

On average, the lines audited cost €25 million per km, although in Spain this is reduced to €14 million.

The other problem is whether this money is being spent effectively, as budgets can spiral with overcosts due to poor planning, bad decisions and corruption, which amounted to €5.7 billion on projects and €25.1 billion on lines.

A court is still investigating alleged multi-million euro fraud by ADIF directors and contractors over the AVE line between Crevillente and Murcia.

“A high-speed line should ideally carry nine million passengers per year to be successful,” said the auditors, and only the one from Madrid to Barcelona manages this in Spain.

The Madrid-Alicante line managed 9.6 million passengers but it took five years to reach that total.

For all this to be worth the investment, building AVE lines has to become much more efficient and travelling on them more affordable to all, otherwise it will remain little more than an overpriced status symbol.

But since we are to have one regardless, we may as well make the most of it, we’ve waited long enough.