Murcia has been connected to the high-speed network today with the inauguration of the last kilometers of an infrastructure that has cost 1,900 million euros and will save almost an hour on the journey between the capital and Madrid.
The inaugural trip has been sponsored by King
Felipe VI in the company of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez.
In the midst of an institutional crisis due to the confrontation between the Government and the judiciary, both have shared a round trip from Madrid on a trip that now connects both cities in 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Neither of them has made statements about the institutional crisis.
The train has arrived at five o'clock, punctual with the start of the plenary session of the Constitutional Court, and both have traveled the platform separately, accompanied by Minister
Raquel Sánchez
and a large delegation of public companies such as Adif, Renfe and private and employer companies that They have come on behalf of those who have executed the project.
The Secretary of State for Infrastructure and former president of Adif,
Isabel Pardo de Vera,
has not attended due to having suffered a sprained ankle.
Along the way, the president of the Valencian Community,
Ximo Puig
, got on the train in Elche .
In his speech on the platform, the president underlined the structuring of territories that the opening of a new destination in the high-speed network supposes, which already extends more than 4,000 kilometers and makes Spain the western country that has most deployed this means of transport with an
investment of 60,000 million euros.
The allusions to a positive approach to the institutional crisis when mentioning the development of this network as an advance for the country as a whole achieved thanks to the Government and the unity of all the political and social actors have been evident.
However, his speech was only interrupted when he mentioned that the AVE reaches Murcia underground.
To a large extent, the delay in the connection of the capital to the high-speed network is due to the fact that the former Ministry of Public Works -now Transport and Mobility-
cut back in 2013 the "pharaonic" projects that the socialist minister had left running Pepe Blanco
.
The burials make it possible to free urban land by introducing the train through a tunnel to the center of the city, but they trigger the budget of the work.
Cities like Zaragoza or Logroño are still paying for it decades after having opened their stations.
The delay in the arrival of high speed since the protocols with the capital were signed is 20 years.
But it has not been a day of reproach for the Murcian president,
Fernando López MIras
, who has had words of gratitude for his assistance to Pedro Sánchez and of great appreciation to Felipe VI for his presence.
The battle of Murcia was that underground station and they have achieved it.
The new Murcia station, still to be completed, will have some 4,400 square meters and will serve commuter, medium and long-distance trains.
Minister Raquel Sánchez has admitted that the connection from Murcia to the AVE has been achieved with some delay but that it is finally a reality and that it will be the first of a series of new connections in works that have been underway for decades that will be carried out in the coming months, as is the case of another network classic, Asturias.
Among the authorities present was
Pedro Saura, president of Paradores, from
Murcia and former Secretary of State for Infrastructures with
José Luis Ábalos,
former Minister of Transport and Mobility.
Minister Sánchez stressed that with this inauguration the Levante Corridor culminates and advances in the Mediterranean Corridor, promoting its deployment towards Almería.
The Mediterranean Corridor is the most relevant work budgeted by this ministry for next year, with 1,700 million euros.
The line completed this Monday gives a boost to the progress of the Mediterranean Corridor, for which 254 kilometers have been put into service in the last four years, actions have been put out to tender for more than 4,400 million euros and almost 2,000 million have been executed.
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Jose Luis Abalos
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