BcnRail closes its most international edition, opening the sector to new foreign markets
The railway industry calls for more public-private collaboration to face the crisis
The third BcnRail, Fira de Barcelona’s Railway Industry Show, closes the doors today on its most international edition to date with the sector’s unanimous petition to increase and strengthen public-private partnerships (PPP) as the main way of facing Public Administrations’ current budgetary restriction and, thereby, tackling the crisis. The adoption of this formula, via which the Barcelona Tram was built, will ensure the construction of new infrastructures, according to national and international experts at the 1st International Railway Forum, which was held within the setting of the show.
The President of BcnRail, Javier Vizcaíno, said that, in the current climate, “the policy of concessions is a very good work tool, which makes it possible to follow the calendar of programmed works, regardless of the economic climate”. For Vizcaíno, “the public-private collaboration has to be tighter”.
Speakers such as the head of Barcelona Town Hall’s Hábitat Urbano, Antoni Vives, and the Managing Director of Turkey’s State Railways, Sulyeman Karaman, said that the PPPs are “fundamental”.
Karaman explained that Turkey is planning to invest over 10,000 million euros up to 2023 in railway infrastructures. After a consortium of Spanish companies won the bid to build a high-speed train between Medina and Mecca, Turkey is no longer the only potential market for the Spanish railway industry. Representatives from the governments of Brazil, Russia, Algeria, India and Poland also attended BcnRail 2011 in order to present to the Spanish sector the possibilities of access to other countries.
The President of the Brazilian Railway Industry Association (ABIFER), Vicente Abate, and the Executive President of the National Association of Railway Transporters (ANTF), Rodrigo Vilaça, presented the plan in which Brazil will invest over 15,000 million euros, up to 2023, in the construction of new train lines and in the modernisation of the existing ones.
The R&D Director of the Railway Department of the UralVagonZavod Group, Andrey Vashenko, revealed the project to modernise railway infrastructures in Russia, in which some 450,000 million euros will be invested in the next 20 years.
Over 120 Spanish and foreign companies have exhibited their new products in BcnRail that, a few hours before it closes, has been attended by over 6,400 trade visitors and hosted a wide range of side events, such as the 1st International Railway Forum, the work breakfasts of the Cercle d’Infraestructures, the BcnRail Innova sessions and the first International Railway Clusters Convention.
Barcelona, 2nd December 2011