As questioned by Sustrai Erankuntza the High-Speed Train is anti-social, anti-ecological and energy loss. They defend a Public and Social Train system –Tren Publiko eta Soziala in Basque (TPS)– which should be permanent, popular and democratic.

The foundation presented the TPS proposal last October for the first time and since then they have been collecting local peoples’ contributions: in total more than 1,600 people have taken part in the process. Among other things, the possibility of locating railway stations near cities has been analysed in the proposal and the environmental impact caused by the High-Speed Train has also been pointed out.

In fact, a little while ago the HST works in Navarre started at Tafalla and those in favour of a social train system demonstrated against them.

We interviewed Alfonso Gartziandia, an anti-HST activist, last October in ARGIA. As Gartzaindia reported, locals’ opinion was not taken into account. “After detailing the project and closing money matters, explanations were given to the public”. In his opinion it is going to be difficult to take the proposal of the social train to authorities. “The parties in power have a specific political perspective and construction lobbies are the driving force behind HST”.

This article was translated by 11itzulpen; you can see the original in Basque here.