In recent weeks we have been reading "proposals" for the recovery of the Caste• Soria line and the maintenance of the Tudela train station in its current location, or the construction of a new high-speed station outside the urban area with the excuse of the possible high-speed train stops in the capital of Navarra.
In addition to the national and local multilateralism used by Mayor Toquero to ask for a new station, with the recurring mantras of this bad government of Navarra that does not defend the Ribera and mistreatment Tudela, and that has gone on to wager on the maintenance of the railway station in its current location, we really have to consider the priority, essential and public service needs in the Ribera and the rest of Navarra. In addition, we must also question the model and concepts of hypermobility and speed, since the main parties and, above all, economic and business power are accustomed to this.
More than 15 years ago, from the Platform of the Ribera by the Public and Social Train it was planned to maintain the current location of the Tudela train station, among other reasons, for the reasons that the PSOE has swept these days. But there were more proposals, such as the reopening of all the stations and stops in the Ribera that have been closed for the last 40 years, and the reopening of the Castec-Soria road. This latest proposal, long defended by the Ribera Platform, now seems to be taken over by the Ministry, and also by UPN, in a timid and warm way.
Defining paths or locations is not the main topic, but it is important. We must start, already with decades of delay, with the main theme: what model of the railways we need, for whom and for what. And on this issue, big parties and economic powers are still betting on a high-speed train model. This model is not compatible with a good rail service for the majority of the population, spatial planning, biodiversity and respect for the environment. The State has reduced the economic resources needed for rail transport to provide good quality public service in all people and territories. Navarre, unfortunately, is a good example of this. This model has privatised public resources, reduced staff and resources in the railway sector and has not served to remove lorries from the roads for more than 30 years since the implementation of the so-called Spanish Grand Speed. We are one of the Western states with the lowest and most fun rail freight transport in the world. To this "honor" is added the fact that it is the world's second railway network with the most kilometers of high-speed, only surpassed by China.
The neighbors of the Ribera, like the rest of Navarre, need trains with the services, schedules and frequencies sufficient to stop at the stations and attractions that exist, although they have been for decades without use or completely closed. To this end, we need the current route of the conventional rail, but improving the facilities and services of the stations of Tudela, Castejón, Tafalla, Pamplona and Altsasu, as the main reference for medium- and long-distance stations. Without forgetting that, if the reason is applied, the long-distance night train stations which were abolished in the Spanish State and other European countries, which some European States are already in the process of recovery or in the process of recovery, will soon arrive.
The billions of euros destined for high speed in the Spanish State, hundreds of millions already in Navarre, will not solve or solve the need to move and transport as a public service for people and goods. Only with what has been spent on the journey of the TAV in Navarre could we improve, expand and open for years short, medium and long distance train traffic lines, expanding the number of passenger and freight trains, creating and recovering stable and quality jobs within the public rail service of Navarre. If trade unions defending the railways as a public service, environmental groups or the Ribera Platform had been treated for decades, the debate would be different at this time.
Neither UPN nor PSOE defend a quality public railway for all, beyond the reiterative slogan of the "advance of the APR", an economically unsustainable model due to its very high construction and maintenance costs. Removing the station from its current location in Tudela is an aberration and waste, linked to developmentalist thinking and the interests of the pelotazos, with public money, for private benefit. The same is true of the Etxabakoitz station they want to do in Pamplona. Any sensible, rational and logical head, with data in hand, estimates the construction of new stations outside urban areas, the only case at European level, in order not to stop more than half a dozen trains at most, is like the construction of a palace of Versailles, so that the cavalry blocks of that palace are only used with four donkeys, even if they are very quick.
In the Ribera and in Navarre we need more and better public rail services: trains, stations and personnel, and less unnecessary buildings and outside the urban area, even more so when the current location of the Tudela train station is adequate and under-utilized.
Aitor Lete Aranburu and Pablo Lorente Zapatería, members of the Subai Erakuntza foundation