State takes control of Andalucia’s AVE investments

Remember that the EU has promised to finish off the high speed railway AVE down to Algeciras?

Well, today Madrid announced that it will take control of all of the construction work back from Seville, and will “compensate” Seville for the 280 million euros it has invested so far. The money was spent building 77km between Marchena and Antequera (Málaga).

Andalucia was the only region to have spent any of its own money on the AVE network, and had been told previously by Madrid that it would have to finance the Almería – Seville transversal route itself, something that it obviously couldn’t do.

Seville will now hand back total construction control of the project back to Madrid, which will complete the works using EU cash and EU project managers.

By 2020 it is hoped that you will be able to go from Almeria to Huelva in under three hours by train. Hurrah!

Incidentally, the 280 million won’t be paid in cash. It will be “reinvested” (via some unspecified means) into a regional project in the future by Madrid.

The EU had told Madrid it would finish off the AVE network, but using most of its own cash and would oversee the project itself, thank you very much, we want to get it finished this century and without too many kickbacks, if you don’t mind please and thank you.

(see El Pais)