Green light upon arrival of the train at terminal T1 of the El Prat airport. The Minister council has authorized this week to Adif the tender for the works of the second phase of construction of the new railway access to the terminal for a value of 73.7 million euros and an execution period of two years. Once the tunnel has been built, the catenary, tracks and stations have yet to be executed so that T1 has a train of CercanÃas more than a decade after its inauguration.
The premiere of the gigantic terminal, in 2009, left passengers and workers in the hands of a shuttle bus from T2, where the facilities’ Renfe station is located. The user who arrives in Rodalies at the old terminal, but works or has a flight on T1, must use the shuttle, which has been of enormous importance for eleven years. The alternative was a taxi or private transport. The arrival of the metro to the infrastructure in 2016 improved mobility, but T1 still lacks public transport. Far is the goal that one in two travelers or workers reach the facilities without using private transport.
Questioned as to whether the political interest of Ministry of development and of the Generalitat in the construction of the terminal was not the same as in ensuring that it could be reached by train, the secretary general of the Federation of Services, Mobility and Consumption of the UGT in Catalonia, Carlos González, affirms that it is “a symptom of what has happened in recent years in Barcelona: a large deficit of investments in transport as well as pharaonic investments in which the price was not considered”. In his opinion, T1 has worked correctly but important things such as accessibility to the airport were left aside.There is nothing more to see the state of the Catalan railway network in recent years», González abounds, convinced that the arrival of the train at the terminal was a necessity after years of lack sensitivity of the different governments.
The Secretary General of Mobility of UGT regrets that Catalonia  «suffers a delay in investment in infrastructure in general, something visible in the Barcelona’s port, where the flow of trains is finally going to increase. It is a historical transport deficit despite the arrival of the metro at the airport. And an old demand from our union, adds González, who values the announcement of the Council of Ministers positively because it will increase the capacity to transport peopleto the Barcelona aerodrome and will enhance the battered state of the tourism sector. It is a reason for happiness, but it would be important that the ticket price was cheaper for the worker than for the tourist, â € he claims.
The promotion plan is for the train to arrive at T1 at the beginning of 2023. The approval of the tender for the final phase of the new rail access to the main Catalan airport – last Tuesday – led to the announcement of the purchase by Railways of the Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) of 12 new trains with which it aspires to provide service between the Barcelona station of Sant Andreu Comtal and the aerodrome, a possible line that they have already called R-Aeroport.
The Generalitat, with competences in infrastructure that allow it to choose the operator of the new railway services, a year ago FGC commissioned it to work on the launch of an offer with a shuttle train every 15 minutes. Unions assume that Renfe and Adif will have to live with FGC. The presence of a new operator may benefit the workers but it is not clear if it is urgent to double the railroad at this time», indicates González. At first glance, it seems like a strange question. Is it necessary for the Generalitat trains to arrive at the airport, with Renfe already being? , he asks.
“Get Renfe out of the way”
The Generalitat  «has wanted to remove a state company like Renfe from the middle», protests the secretary general of CCOO in Renfe in Catalonia, Cristabal Cobo, who does not know what is the plan that the Government currently has. That is exactly what worries us. We do not know if Renfe is going to operate that line or if Adif is going to be the administrator. We are concerned that it may be privatized, ”he says. And we do not like the model of the airport Metro line either, which does not go through the center of Barcelona and requires several transfers. Its stations are privatized and cost the City a lot of money. We do not want this model, we prefer a line managed by Adif and operated by Renfe, a public line.
Cobo assures that new trains do not fit through the tunnels of Barcelona, so it is convenient to consider another model. The union representative insists that another railway tunnel is needed in the Catalan capital, but admits that it would take several years to build. If the traffic from Barcelona to El Prat increases, the problems grow. More cities around Barcelona need to be connected to the airport, as is already the case in Madrid, ”adds Cobo, who advocated that facility workers do not pay any extra on their transport cards. It should be a normal rate. You don’t have to pay anything more.
The future intermodal station at El Prat airport will allow rail access to the airport complex from the center of Barcelona and will reduce the duration of the journey to 19 minutes between Saints and T1. The connection should be a reality in 2015, and later in 2018, but the crisis paralyzed the project. Â «Generalitat and the Government, in almost 12 years, have been unable to bring the train to T1. Meanwhile, a railway line has been opened in the Barajas T4 and the route has been unfolded in Malaga to bet on the Costa del Sol, recalls Cobo. If the train finally arrives at T1 in 2023, the next railway challenge for the facilities will be high speed.
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