Puente protests the low prices of Iryo and Ouigo, which "drag" Renfe to "bad results"

MADRID, 21 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Minister of Transport and Urban Agenda, Óscar Puente, protested this Wednesday against the low prices in the services of the Iryo and Ouigo railway companies, while denouncing that the French public company "is putting obstacles" at the entrance to Spain. in the French country.

In this sense, the minister has pointed out that both Ouigo and Iryo "are losing a tremendous amount of money" in Spain and "by dropping prices", which has also dragged Renfe into "those bad results", as explained in an interview on Cadena Ser, which Europa Press has collected. In fact, the French company has been accused of betting "clearly on price dumping."

In this regard, Puente has also complained "about the lack of reciprocity" with France which, he said, is creating "difficulties and obstacles" to Renfe's entry into the French country, while the French public railway company, SNCF, "It has all the lungs in the world, it can hold out and it is generating tremendous distortions in the market."

"I think Renfe is being forced to compete with its hands tied behind its back. It worries me, because it is a public company that we have to support and it cannot be that it cannot compete," he defended.

Asked about more regional issues about the train, Puente has reiterated that frequencies will be recovered in Salamanca "as soon as the new talgo 106, the so-called 'AVRIL', come into service." "We will remove material that we are using at this moment in both Asturias and Galicia and we will be able to bring more frequencies to Salamanca," he said, regretting that the previously communicated date of March 31 will not be met.

On another note, he has recognized the difficulties of returning the rail service to Aranda de Duero (Burgos), practically ruling out this option due to its high cost.

As he recalled, a tamping machine fell into the Somosierra tunnel in 2012. "Since then the track has not been used and today returning its service has an enormous cost and very long deadlines," he stressed, estimating this process at around 1.3 billion of euros something that, in his opinion, is not viable today.

"It is very likely that it will not be done," said Puente, who later defended saying things "crudely." "The reality is that the cost is very high and the relationship between the cost and the usefulness of the infrastructure... the numbers do not give," he concluded.