The AVE stations generated an additional cost of 7.637 million, 186% more

The AVE stations generated an additional cost of 7.637 million, 186% more

The Court of Audit once again questions the economic efficiency of high speed, criticizes burglaries and the low degree of execution of works

  The works of the high speed railway in Spain, crossed out at times of almost pharaonic, have in the Court of Accounts one of their main detractors. And it is not the case that the oversight body does not recognize the significant time savings that are achieved in the displacements, it is that numbers in the hand imply that it could not possibly compensate the public treasury.

At least this is the result of his latest report, published this Thursday and very severe with the apparent waste in the construction of AVE stations . And is that after analyzing the works of 13 of these infrastructures between 2002 and 2010, concludes that there was an additional cost of 7.637 million euros, which represents almost three times more than the item dedicated to education in the draft Budgets for 2019.

   Those responsible for this mess would be the Railway Integration Companies (SIF) , majority owned by ADIF, the public manager of railway infrastructures, together with communities and municipalities. The initial cost of its 13 agreements amounted, in total, to 4,102 million, but at the end of 2016 the Court estimated that it had skyrocketed to 11,738 million, 186% more .

The investigated AVE stations are those of Alicante, Almeria, Barcelona, ​​Cartagena, Gijón, León, Logroño, Murcia, Palencia, Valencia, Valladolid, Vitoria and Zaragoza . And where the budget went most was in the Catalan and Valencian capitals, 269% in the first case (2,167 million in total, 3.6 times more than the initial sum) and almost 547% in the second (2,965 million) , 6.5 times more).

The bill of financial excesses was also bulky to bring high speed to Alicante (396% cost overrun) and Cartagena (282%) was also very successful. However, it seemed to approach more acceptable levels for this type of work in the stations of Almeria (30%), Vitoria (27%) and Palencia (30%). Of course, the report warns that the three coincide with agreements with low degree of execution, which makes it presume that they may end up firing equally when this analysis is updated again with the data of 2017, 2018 and, if necessary, even 2019

But going further, the Court deepens its criticism over the accounting balances. Thus, it strongly criticizes the low degree of execution of the work in many stations, on average, only reached 29.4%. In the cases of Almería, Murcia, Vitoria and Cartagena, it had not even reached 2%, although it can be explained to a large extent as the latest ADIF projects are underway. Only in two of the cities, at least 50% of the works had been completed, highlighting Zaragoza (81%).

Claims greater «realism»

The censorship of the supervising body also reaches the technical method chosen to take the AVE to those 13 provincial capitals. Thus, warns of the "high cost" involved in opting for the formula of underground routes , as it states that "is not essential to ensure good service , nor the functionality of the rail network." That is why it urges the Ministry of Development, on which ADIF depends, to draw up financing plans for the development of high-speed rail with "realistic criteria", thinking in the short and medium term and not only in a generation of urban capital gains »from uncertain realization «.

However, in the allegations made by this public society, it is insisted that the crisis negatively affected its initial budgetary calculations, among other things because it intended to obtain considerably higher resources (capital gains) from the sale of land than it finally could. take. In fact, the cost overruns for urban actions went to 1,221 million, but also increased much related to operating expenses to add 634 million. However, the combined financial liabilities of the 13 SIFs at the end of 2016 amounted to 1,126 million, a sum that ended up adding to the already high public debt .