The People’s Party (PP) staunchly defends the construction of the Southern train. Your insular president, Emilio Navarro, maintains that “we cannot continue wasting more time” to start this work and marks the difference with the PSOE and the president of the Cabildo: «What Peter Martin seen as an expense, for us it is an investment». For this reason, it calls for consensus by supporting the motion presented by the conservatives for approval by the Plenary Session of the Island Corporation, on the 25th. An initiative similar to the one that Ciudadanos withdrew in the session held on January 28 .
Emilio Navarro offers the insular government the support of the PP in everything that responds “to the general interest”, in the case of the South train. “It will not solve all mobility problems, but it will solve many”, he reviews while estimating at 36 million euros the expenditure of the Public Administration in the drafting of projects linked to this infrastructure, as well as the Special Territorial Planning Plan (PTEO ) of Infrastructures of the Tren del Sur.
The president of the PP in Tenerife maintains that the project “resembles” that of Gran Canaria, that it does have the unanimous support of the Plenary of the Cabildo. That is to say, it starts from the capital area and reaches the southern tourist area, with a stopover at the island’s airport. “The same as what is contemplated here.”
Navarro announces that he will convene the civil society of the region, where “during the last mandate there was no problem with Canarian Coalition (CC) governing in the Cabildo, but now it seems that some municipalities governed by the PSOE are objecting. It is a bit incomprehensible”, taking into account that the president of the insular institution comes from Guía de Isora. In any case, and “although CC has had a lot of variation on this topic, I hope for your support and that of Ciudadanos.”
“We cannot get off the train of European funds in the face of the mobility problem”
The proposal
manifest the Plenary support for the Southern train project, urging the central government to include it in the General Interest Railway Network (FIG) and establishing “a route map for guided transport on the Island”, with the maximum possible consensus, are the agreements proposed by the PP in its motion.
The announcement is made by the president of the popular groups together with the island councilors Zaida González, Manuel Fernández, Águeda Fumero and Valentín González, who made it clear that “Tenerife has a very important mobility problem that the administrations cannot continue to ignore.” Manuel Fernández puts on the table that, in addition to the 25,000 dedicated to rental, the Island has almost 850,000 vehicles, “almost one per inhabitant.” The counselor highlights that “one of the solutions that has been proposed for 20 years, as reflected in the Special Territorial Plan for Infrastructures of the Southern Train, is the use of guided transport by trains, to the North and to the South.” In that line, the investment of the State alone is estimated at 25 million “in different drafting projects for the stations that it will have on the route from Santa Cruz to Adeje.”
The Popular Party in Tenerife affects the “lack of leadership” of Pedro Martín as president of the Cabildodescribes as “nonsense” the debate that led to the withdrawal of the Citizens’ motion and defines as “lack of criteria” that, immediately afterwards, this initiative is presented in the Congress of Deputies as a Non-Law Proposal (PNL ).
“One of the solutions that has been proposed for 20 years is the train of the South”
Restlessness
The leaders of the conservative formation transmit concern about the future of the southern train, because “we are about to lose the opportunity to have 2,500 million investment to do it”. This happens after a period in which “infrastructures that are basic for the social and economic development of the Island” are questioned, slowed down, discredited or rejected. In the list of the PP appear the Port of Fonsalía, the new terminal of the Tenerife South Airport, the regasification plant of the Port of Granadilla, the actual closure of the Insular Ring of highways of the metropolitan area, as well as the sports, commercial, fishing and tourist port of Puerto de La Cruz, the regeneration of the beaches of Martiánez (Puerto de la Cruz) and Tarajales (Arona) and, now, the South train. “We cannot get off the train of European funds,” warns Emilio Navarro.
The first study, in 1997
The Cabildo de Tenerife commissioned a feasibility study for the island’s train network in 1997. It was in 2001 when it contracted the drafting of the preliminary project for the South train. That same year, he set up the Metropolitano de Tenerife company, in which the Cabildo has an 80% stake. The Territorial Plan for the Tren del Sur was drafted in 2003, the same year that the process of public information on the platform project and the environmental impact study took place. On December 28, 2009, the extension of the route of the Tren del Sur to Fonsalía was approved, agreed on March 27 of that exercise. On April 30, 2010, the Plenary Session of the Cabildo requested the central government to incorporate the Island’s trains into the Extraordinary Infrastructure Plan. On October 20, 2010, CC decides to support the General State Budget and Madrid agrees to contribute 10 million euros that year for Tenerife trains. The agreement had to be signed before March. On August 3, 2010, José Blanco (Minister of Public Works) and Ricardo Melchior (President of the Cabildo) signed the financial collaboration agreement to carry out the work. In November 2011, the process was paralyzed due to “the lack of financial support from the central government.” The cost at that time was estimated at 1,803 million euros; today the figure far exceeds 3,000 million. The route will begin at the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Transport Interchange and will end in Adeje (once the Port of Fonsalía has been ruled out). It will run parallel to the motorway, although it will go through tunnels for 25% of its route. The line will be 94 kilometers long and will be covered in 42 minutes between the capital and Costa Adeje. The intermediate stops will be located in Añaza (6 minutes from Santa Cruz), Candelaria (14 minutes), San Isidro (29 minutes), South Airport (32 minutes) and Los Cristianos (38 minutes). The service speed of the train will be 220 kilometers per hour, there will be frequencies of fifteen minutes at peak hours and a demand of 30,000 passengers per day is estimated.
