Dear Transport
Commissioner
Adina
Valean
Lisbon, 30 July 2020
Please find attached a letter subscribed by 29 portuguese citizens of
several areas, namely engineers, business leaders, and mayors of major
towns, relatively to the gauge of the rail infrastructure of the TEN-T
in Portugal and the risk of isolation of the Portuguese economy.
There is an ongoing debate in Portugal about the plan the government
needs to present to the EU Commission in the framework of the recovery
plan and use of EU Funds on the post Covid 19 period. This includes
investment on new rail infrastructures, in which the issue of this
letter is crucial to distinguish waste from investment.
We ask for your attention to the contents of this letter and for an
answer.
With best
regards
Dear Transport
Commissioner
Adina
Valean
Email:
cab-valean-contact@ec.europa.eu
Address:
Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 200
1049
Brussels
Belgium
Lisbon,
July 30, 2020
Subject: Risk of isolation of the Portuguese economy -
request for clarification
on the railway component of TEN-T in Portugal
We took note of the presentation you made to
the European Parliament on 23
June, on the state of the public consultation
of the new TEN-T.
In particular, we welcome two
aspects of your speech:
First, the satisfaction with which you
registered the participation of 600 organizations and citizens, and the
appreciation of the information received through this route, which has now
encouraged us to write you this letter.
Second, the warning that it left for the danger
of the peripheral regions being left out of this reform, which would imply the
worsening of economic and social imbalances in the European space.
As citizens, some of us with institutional
responsibilities in the regions and in the more representative Portuguese
business Associations, we want to alert you to the risk of this happening in
Portugal, a peripheral country that tends to become an island railway in
Europe, due to the systematic delay in adopting the European gauge (1435 mm) on
its international lines. This situation would deprive Portugal of competitive
terrestrial ways (for which they must be interoperable to their full extent)
for the transport of goods to and from most of the European Union. Besides
that, it would prevent competition in the international railway operation,
relegating Portugal to a situation of railway monopoly, as defended by the
Portuguese Government, which stated that it views the gauge difference for the
rest of the European Union as a natural protection against competition.
We therefore hope that the new TEN-T will be
used to transform of our railway infrastructure towards its full integration
into the European networks, under penalty of our country being the first
“geography of discontent” and economic destruction that you described very
pertinently.
Information has come to our attention regarding
the possibility for the Commission European Union certify, as interoperable
within the Core Network of the European Union, Portuguese railway tracks, in
Iberian gauge (1668 mm), on itineraries of the Atlantic Corridor of the Core
Network, whose gauge must be the one prescribed in the EU Regulation 1315/2013
(1435 mm).
We are very concerned about this possibility,
which means maintaining our railway isolation from the whole of Europe, namely the
TEN-T.
We believe, first of all, that
such certification would go against the objectives and would affect the credibility
of the new TEN-T. Instead of
an instrument of modernization, strengthening of mobility and promoting
economic cohesion, such certification would, in practice, convert the TEN-T as
an instrument of bureaucratic justification for a historical error: it would
contribute for the non-opening to Europe of the Portuguese rail system, thus
aggravating the logistical conditions of a country that is geographically
peripheral in relation to central Europe, so it would represent a damage, with
very serious consequences, for the Portuguese economy.
We would like to base this pronunciation on two
criteria that we present in this document, in the annex “Rationale”, consisting
of 2 chapters:
First, the technical-economic, chapter where we
will document it about the concern of large part of the Portuguese business
sector with this issue.
Second, the legal one, according to which this
certification clearly seems to us illegal under European law.
In view of the above, we would like that you
inform us what position the European Commission will take on the question of
possible certification as interoperable of lines of the Core Network in Iberian
gauge.
With Best regards
The subscribers
Luis Mira Amaral, ex Minister of Industry
(1985-1995)
Mário Lopes - Civil engineer, Professor at
Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Former President of Association for the
Development of Integrated Transport Systems (ADFERSIT)
Arménio Matias - Electrical engineer, founder
and former President of the Association for the Rail Transport Development
(ADFER), Former CP Administrator (Trains of Portugal, https://www.cp.pt/institucional/pt/empresa
)
Fernando Santos e Silva, Electrical Engineer,
Former responsible for Lisbon Metro for the approval processes of the new
sections
Joaquim Polido, Former President of Fernave (http://www.fernave.pt/ ), Former President of
ADFERSIT, Former CP senior manager
Luis Cabral da Silva, Electrical engineer,
manager, Former REFER senior manager (National Railway Network, current IP, https://www.infraestruturasdeportugal.pt/ ), specialist in Transport
and Roads
Acúrcio Santos, Electrical Engineer, Former
Director of Rolling Stock and Former Director of CP Regional Services
Alberto Grossinho, Mechanical
engineer. Main functions
performed at REFER (Rede Ferroviária Nacional), between 1970 and 2011: Deputy
General Manager for Security, Circulation Director, and liaison to IMTT
(Instituto da Mobility and Land Transport) for interoperability issues.
Mário Ribeiro, Mechanical Engineer, Former
senior manager of TAP in the maintenance service
Eugénio Menezes de Sequeira, Agronomist,
Retired Coordinator Researcher of the National Institute for Agricultural
Research, Former President of the League for the Protection of Nature, Member
of the Environment Commission of the Lisbon Geographical Society
Fernando Mendes - Electrical
engineer, businessman
Henrique Neto, businessman
Vitor Caldeirinha, Former President of the
Administration of Ports of Setúbal and Sesimbra, Former President of the
Portuguese Ports Association and Former President of ADFERSIT
João Luis Mota Campos, Former Secretary of
State for Justice (2002-2004)
José Augusto Felício, Full Professor at the
Higher Institute of Economics and Management (ISEG)
João Duque, Full Professor at the Higher
Institute of Economics and Management (ISEG)
Carlos Sousa Oliveira, Full
Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST)
Rui Carrilho Gomes, Professor at
Instituto Superior Técnico (IST)
António Gomes Correia, Full
Professor at the University of Minho (UM)
José António Ferreira de Barros ,
businessman, Former President of AEP (Portuguese Businessman Association - https://www.aeportugal.pt/ )
Luis Miguel Ribeiro, President of
AEP (Portuguese Businessman Association - https://www.aeportugal.pt/
)
Fernando Castro, President of AIDA, (Aveiro
District Industrial Association, http://aida.pt/ )
José Couto, President of AFIA (Association of
Manufacturers for Automobile Industry, https://afia.pt/
) and the CEC (Business Council of the Center, http://www.cec.org.pt/
)
António Miguel Batista Poças da
Rosa, President of NERLEI (Business Association of the Leiria Region, https://www.nerlei.pt/ )
Rogério Hilário, Vice-President of CEC (Business
Council of the Center, http://www.cec.org.pt/
Tomás Moreira (Former President of AFIA,
Association of Manufacturers for Automobile Industry)
António Almeida Henriques, Mayor
of Viseu (http://www.cm-viseu.pt/ )
José Ribau Esteves, Mayor of Aveiro
(https://www.cmaveiro.pt/ )
Ricardo Rio, Mayor of Braga (https://www.cm-braga.pt/pt)
Attachment
Rationale
1 - Technical and economic foundation
- In view of the environmental and energy
constraints faced by Humanity, the European Union promotes policies to
guarantee the sustainability of the transport in Europe based on 2 types of
policies: i) development of vehicles environmentally and energy-efficient for
all transport modes, and ii) transfer of traffic from the less efficient and
sustainable modes for the most sustainable and efficient. This objective is quantified
by the EU: by 2030 transfer 30% and by 2050 transfer 50% of freight traffic over
medium and long distances (> 300km) for rail and maritime modes (https://euricando/legalcontent/PT/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX,5201201DC0144&from=EN , point 2.5 (3)).
- About 70% of Portugal's foreign trade is with
its EU partners. Of this, about 80% in value is made by road. International freight
rail transport to and from Portugal is done exclusively with Spain and is a very
small part of land trade (Spain has a rail network conventional in Iberian
gauge, although it plans its migration to European gauge).
In other words, Portugal currently depends very
heavily on the road for its trade links to the EU, and these are fundamental to
economic development.
As this system is unsustainable in face of the
energy and environmental constraints and European transport policies, without a
competitive alternative to the road transport Portugal will be isolated from EU
markets, and thus condemned to impoverishment.
- Many Portuguese companies and business
associations are aware of the problem
(http://cip.org.pt/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Conselho_Industria_Portuguesa_final-LR.pdf
, chapter VI). Some, such as AFIA (Association of Manufacturers for Automobile
Industry), anticipating this isolation, have recommended to their associated
companies preparing to use the Spanish logistics platforms in Vigo, Salamanca
and Badajoz, which will connect to the European gauge rail network, to export
to central Europe
(https://1drv.ms/b/s!Al9_rthOlbweun2b8KdQXWfHJnHR?e=wgzoGu ), in a process minimizing
damage but with inevitable extra costs in relation to other European
competitors.
- The European railway is not very competitive
in the international freight transport and holds low market shares. One of the
main causes of this situation is the fact that is managed primarily at national
level, sometimes with a view to avoiding competition from other EU countries,
using technical barriers to circulation of trains and / or creating
difficulties in the allocation of train paths to trains from other countries,
in what can be considered a restriction of effect equivalent to restricting
access to national markets.
- Gauge differences are the strongest technical
obstacle to train circulation. The freight transfers, the main means of solving
this problem, besides wasting time and money, make the management of the rail
system ineffective due to the need of compatibility of paths (time and space
intervals) of different trains in different gauge networks to minimize these
time-wastes. Therefore, freight international rail traffic between Portugal and
Europe beyond the Pyrenees is zero tons yearly. In addition, in large
quantities, necessary for large-scale modal shift as it is the objective of
European policies, ineffective management makes the functioning of the system not
possible with a minimum of competitiveness.
- The use of axles of variable width in freight
wagons is also not a competitive solution for freight transportation, being non
standard material, which brings numerous other drawbacks. In fact, the spanish
manufacturers of those axes refer that these axes do not make unnecessary the gauge
migration in Spain but serve to speed up transport during the transition period
in which the Iberian gauge (1668mm) and the UIC gauge (1435mm) will coexist in
Spain.
(https://www.civil.ist.utl.pt/~mlopes/conteudos/Transportes/Ref%20120%20-
% 20FIXES% 20VARIABLES% 20for% 20MARKETS%
20Ponencia-EjeOGI.pdf , page 2)
- The short sea can contribute to solving part
of the problem of Portugal trade with the EU but not most of it, as it is less
competitive than the terrestrials alternatives for the Portugal-EU trade for
many sectors of activity and origins / destinations in central Europe (Annex 2 of the document available at
http://cip.org.pt/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Conselho_Industria_Portuguesa_final-LR.pdf )
- It is explicit in European Union documents (White paper - ‘European transport
policy for 2010: time to decide, pages 29 and 30, available at https://ec.europa.eu/transport/sites/transport/files/themes/strategies/doc/2001_white_p
aper / lb_com_2001_0370_en.pdf
)
that rail transport can only be competitive if
there are no technical obstacles to the flow of trains, which is entirely
correct. For this reason, the European Commission has defined policies for the
creation of a set of high capacity corridors, the EU Core Network, which must
be served by interoperable railways, this is, without technical obstacles to
free flow of trains.
- In this context, the future competitiveness
of the Portuguese economy depends on the creation of the Core Network Lines of
the EU, including of course the sections in Portuguese territory.
- The possible certification as interoperable
of Iberian gauge lines in the itineraries of the Core Network located in
Portugal encourages the Portuguese Government to postpone indefinitely
investments in European gauge lines, as it continues to have access to the
European Union funds for the Core Network. With the aggravating factor that in
Portugal, due to its Iberian gauge, the European trains are unable to bring us
and take the goods that we need and that we export, facing a monopoly that
today's operators do not want to lose and consequently making unfeasible the
benefit from the free international competition.
- The
question of continuity in Spain ( it would not be reasonable build the
Portuguese international lines of European gauge if they had no continuity in
Spain) must be resolved with previous three-party Portugal-Spain-EU agreements
on financing, technical characteristics and simultaneous construction of the international
lines in both countries.
- Some Portuguese officials try to devalue the
issue, saying that after the Spain introduces the European gauge in the railway
lines up to the Portuguese borders, Portugal will change the gauge in the
Portuguese network from one day to the next. A simple analysis of this issue, from a
technical-economic perspective, is enough to realize that this statement is
totally unrealistic. Consider the case of Spain, which always had the European gauge
in the French side at its northern borders, began to build the European gauge
network in 1988 and despite this, the process to place the European gauge
across Spain still will take time. Worse than that, the former Minister of
Infrastructure of Portugal, explaining the Government's policy for the
railroad, stated that the gauge differences for the rest of Europe are natural
protection against external competition (https://www.tsf.pt/economia/para-que-serve-parceria-da-cp-com-renfe-evitar-rouboda-operacao-portuguesa-10038758.html and 3rd video of the site
https://www.dinheirovivo.pt/entrevistas/capacity-de-transporte-aereo-em-lisboavai-duplicar/
), as he knows that hardly any
company in Europe beyond the Pyrenees will buy non-standard freight wagons just
to make journeys on the Portuguese network.
- It is also relevant to note that the European
Commission has already drawn attention to the Portugal's need to work towards
the transition to the UIC gauge on the Portuguese railway network
(https://ec.europa.eu/transport/sites/transport/files/2019-transport-in-the-eu-current-trends-and-issues.pdf
, page 128, and
https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/2020-european_semester_country-reportportugal_pt.pdf
, page 66),
although without exerting pressure or stimulus towards
this objective.
- In addition, the railway isolation of
Portugal, and possibly of some regions of Spain still lacking European gauge
lines suitable for competitive freight traffic, it would encourage the use of
the road to freight transport in medium and long distances, which would go
against industry competitiveness and reduction targets of greenhouse gas
emissions by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050 set by the European Commission
( https://eurlex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:b828d165-1c22-11ea-8c1f01aa75ed71a1.0008.02/DOC_1&format=PDF , pages 5 and 6 ), a concern that has already reached the EU
Court of Auditors given the construction delays and inefficiencies of the Core
Network
(https://www.eca.europa.eu/Lists/ECADocuments/INSR18_19/INSR_HIGH_SPEED_RAIL_PT.pdf , 2nd
paragraph)
2 – Legal basis
- We recall the definition of
interoperability in Directive 2008/57 and in Article 2 , number 2 of Directive
2016/797
(https://euricando/legalcontent/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32016L0797
) : “interoperability allows safe circulation without interruptions”.
We also recall Regulation 1315/2013
(https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/PT/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32013R1315 ),
which in Chapter III, “Main Network”, in
article 39 “Infrastructure requirements”, establishes in paragraph 2 the
following:
”The core network infrastructure
must meet the following requirements:
a) With regard to rail transport
infrastructure:
(i) full electrification of the line tracks and, as far as
necessary for electric train operations, sidings;
(ii) freight lines of the core network as indicated in Annex
I: at least 22,5 t axle load, 100 km/h line speed and the
possibility of running trains with a length of 740 m;
(iii) full deployment of ERTMS;
(iv) nominal track gauge for new railway lines: 1 435 mm
except in cases where the new line is an extension on a
network the track gauge of which is different and
detached from the main rail lines in the Union. "
- It follows from the previous point, that as
the sections of the Core Network in Portuguese territory are not separated from
the main lines of the Union (the Core Network of which they part), must
necessarily be in 1435mm gauge.
- The Portuguese railway infrastructure (IP)
manager recently informed that the
Évora-Caia section of the
Lisbon-Madrid Line of the Atlantic Corridor of the Core Network, currently
under construction and which will be equipped with a single track in Iberian
gauge with double fixing sleepers (polyvalent sleepers) , will be certified as
interoperable by the Portuguese Association for Railway Standardization and
Certification (APNCF), in a process that claims to be recognized by the
European Commission (news in
https://webrails.tv/tv/?p=43721 and http://webrails.tv/tv/?p=43699 ).
We emphasize that a Iberian gauge line,
whatever the type of sleepers, is not really interoperable with the other lines
of the Core Network, because fixed-axis trains do not will be able to circulate
from this line to the other lines of the Core Network.
- We contacted APNCF by email to clarify the
certification issue. We received response from APNCF Secretary-General, Engº
Eduardo Osvaldo Louro da Silva Correia, by email on June 9, 2020. We now
transcribe the relevant parts of the answer:
“The certification of interoperability takes
place under Directive 2008/57 / EC of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 17 June 2008 on the interoperability of the rail system in the
Community, transposed by Decree-Law No. 27/2011, of 17 February, and by the subsequent
changes ( … ).
The Technical Specification for
Interoperability for the infrastructure subsystem (Regulation (EU) No.
1299/2014, available at
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/PT/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32014R1299&from=PT )
establishes in paragraph 5 of
Article 2 that the TSI applies to lines with the following nominal gauges: 1435
mm, 1520 mm, 1524 mm, 1600 mm and 1668 mm, without specify the type of sleeper,
therefore it is applicable to the Iberian gauge independently of the sleeper
used, consequently allowing the certification of the interoperability under
European regulations, with recognition of this certification and consequently
European funding for the Core network lines in Portugal. …
In fact, the terms of Regulation
(EU) No. 1299/2014, which repealed the Decisions 2008/217 / EC and 2011/275 /
EU, (……), since having come to provide the 1668 mm gauge, the financing is now
secured, which was not liquid under previous regulatory terms. ” [end of quote]
- It should be noted that
Regulation (EU) No. 1299/2014 mentions in article 11 “Repeal” that “Commission
Decisions 2008/217 / EC and 2011/275 / EU are repealed, with effect from 1
January 2015 ”, that is, Regulation 1315/2013 has not been repealed. Thus, in our opinion and in relation to the Main Network [1]
or Core network, whose requirements are set out in article 39 of
Regulation 1315/2013, already cited, the rule provided for in article 39 remains
unchanged as “iv)
nominal track gauge for new railway lines: 1435 mm, except in cases where the
new line is an extension of a network whose gauge is different and separated
from the main lines of the Union”.
- The maintenance of the exceptional situation
of the current Portuguese network has in fact a “rationale” that is in direct
contradiction to the purposes of the Union's policy in this and other matters:
as already mentioned, in an interview with the TSF radio station on 20 October
2018, then Minister of Infrastructure and now MEP Pedro Marques, stated, in the
context of free access to the rail transportation networks of passengers in the
European Union (decided in 2013 and to be implemented at the beginning of 2021),
that part of the competition, however, is excluded from the start because there
is a "natural protection": the Iberian gauge. As already mentioned,
in addition to the profound contradiction of this anti-competitive position,
which aims to establish a restriction of effects equivalent to a prohibition of
competition on the Portuguese market, serious consequences for Portuguese exporters
(and Europeans as a whole, when exporters to Portugal) result from this
position. In order that local rail operators are protected in their natural
market, all other European rail operators find themselves impaired in the
ability to move goods in the European economic space.
- It is therefore sustainable that
certification as interoperable within the Core Network of European Union of
Portuguese railways, of lines in Iberian gauge (1668 mm), in itineraries of the
Atlantic Corridor of the Core Network, violates the principles contained in article
170 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, TFEU
( https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A12012E%2FTXT
) and, more specifically, the ban of aid affecting trade between Member
States contained in Article 107,1, of TFEU [2] , as it is very clear that the
maintenance of the Iberian gauge, according to the Portuguese Government, aims
to protect CP from competition [3] ,
creating an artificial barrier protection of the incumbent in detriment of
potential competitors.
- It is up to the European Commission, under
Article 108 of the TFEU, to control the compatibility of this aid with the
internal market, our understanding being that in addition to the enormous
damage that this form of aid to CP causes to the Portuguese economy, violates
the competition rules and free market access imposed by EU Treaties.
[1] Artº 38º, 1, of Regulation 1315/2013: The core network, as shown on the maps contained
in Annex I, shall consist of those parts of the comprehensive network which are
of the highest strategic importance for achieving the objectives of the
trans-European transport network policy, and shall reflect evolving traffic
demand and the need for multimodal transport. It shall, in particular,
contribute to coping with increasing mobility and ensuring a high safety
standard as well as contributing to the development of a low-carbon transport
system.
Furthermore, an understanding with the Spanish RENFE is implied. See the
interview of 20 October 2018, already mentioned.
