Commencement of the initial sections of the planned railways in Gran Canaria and Tenerife may begin before the conclusion of the present term in 2027, as forecasted by Pablo Rodríguez, the regional councillor for Public Works and Mobility, on Wednesday.
Prior to presenting the sustainable roadmap mapped out by this department with a target year of 2040, when the regional Government aims for the decarbonisation of the archipelago, Rodríguez made reference to the planned railway infrastructure for these two islands.
“We have been discussing railways for twenty years, but I must admit that we are now at the closest point to witnessing them becoming a reality, partly because they have been divided into phases. We are no longer looking at a cost of 4,000 million to see them come to fruition, instead, we are talking about sections amounting to approximately 300 or 400 million that are within reach,” he stated.
Regarding the railway planned in Gran Canaria, he highlighted the possibility that the Cabildo could receive European funding to initiate the initial sections. Additionally, for the first time, the Canarian Government is engaged in discussions with the Spanish Government that “sees the potential of integrating the Canarian railway network into the national one and consequently securing steady funding.”
While acknowledging that the funding the Canary Islands have received so far in each general State budget for such purposes has been “quite limited,” Rodríguez mentioned that “with the European funds and the opportunity to connect to the national network, we will be able to launch construction projects.”
The initial sections in Gran Canaria are well defined, running from Vecindario to the airport, where the depot is located, whereas in Tenerife, they are shaping up to be from San Isidro to Las Américas in the south, he specified.
Pablo Rodríguez guaranteed that the tender process, which, in the case of Gran Canaria, needs to be carried out by Ferrocarriles de Gran Canaria, will greatly hinge on the success of the European subsidy request made by this corporation.
“If the European subsidy funds materialise and are granted, I am confident that in this term, it will be possible to invite tenders for that initial section” of the planned railway project in Gran Canaria.
On this subject, María Fernández, the general director of Transport of the autonomous community, emphasised that the Canarian Government “is striving, in collaboration with the local councils and the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, for the first time in history, to have the railways of Gran Canaria and Tenerife included in the national government’s own investments.”
“For the first time in history, we have also had a technical working group with the Ministry where we have laid the groundwork agreeing on the necessity for a legislative tool to acknowledge our railways and include them in the national transport investment strategies and provide a steady financing mechanism, such as a program contract or an agreement, as we cannot handle infrastructures of this scale by negotiating funding budget after budget, contingent upon the necessity of our vote,” she declared.
Fernández highlighted that the minister of the sector, Óscar Puente, “understands the imperative need for railways on the islands.”
“When we conversed with him, he referenced the Pajares variant (León/Asturias), which has a population density that doesn’t even reach 8% of what we have in the Canary Islands, both residents and tourists. There is no better return on investment than that of railways in the archipelago and the necessary support for transport modes to mitigate the overabundance of vehicles, traffic congestion, and time wastage on the roads,” she added.
To this end, the department led by Rodríguez plans to define the tool that will ensure steady financing for the Canarian railways in the coming months, so that the upcoming general budgets and the Sustainable Mobility Law on the cusp of being approved by the Congress of Deputies take it into account.
Furthermore, the General Director of Transport made reference to the Sustainable Mobility Law being formulated by this department of the Canarian Government, which, in contrast to the 2007 version that overlooked guided transport, “will offer an opportunity to incorporate these contemporary transportation modes.”
“The inaugural Sustainable Mobility Law of the Canary Islands will address mobility, growth, and sustainability. We need to initiate from a standpoint of active citizen participation, for which we are willing to invest the required time because now it is not about governments secluded in offices drafting laws detached from society. The infrastructure we develop must serve, represent, be accessible to the public and professionals, and consider road and intermodal infrastructures, vital for achieving more efficient, sustainable, and environmentally conscious mobility,” she stressed.
Fernández asserted that “mobility is a fundamental social entitlement, a unifying factor.”
“With this outlook of dialogue and centring on citizens, we are inaugurating a period in which if we construct appropriately, what we build will have greater utility and longevity over time, which is what we aim for in public service,” she added.
