The Generalitat and the State will complete the constitution of the joint venture for suburban trains on Monday

BarcelonaThe transfer of Cercanías signed by ERC and the PSOE more than a year ago has been gradually taking shape, which is why the bilateral infrastructure commission called for next Monday has taken special interest, because it should unblock some of the issues that have been stuck for months. One is the constitution of the mixed company that should serve as the operator of the railway service. According to sources consulted by the ARA, the agenda of the meeting on Monday included addressing the "constitution model" of this company, which will be publicly and mixed owned, with equal representation between Renfe (dependent on the Ministry of Transport) and the Government, which will have the casting vote.

Pere Aragonès' executive had promised to have the statutes of this public company completed during the first half of last year, but the Spanish government cooled this forecast. The statutes are the first to be finalised in order to define the company's corporate model, that is, whether it will ultimately be a subsidiary of Renfe or an independent company. But not only that, other issues should also be detailed, such as which "strategic" decisions will have to be taken by a qualified majority, as established in the agreement with ERC, and which give both parties the right to veto.

In March of last year, seven working groups were formed to begin to finalize the entire transfer. One of these groups was to draft the company's statutes within a period of six months, but with the early elections and the change of Government all these provisions ended up going up in the air. With Salvador Illa in the executive, the promise made by the Minister of Territory, Silvia Paneque, it was that before the end of 2024 these statutes would be ready. This Friday, Paneque admitted "legal and resource complexities" to materialize the entire transfer, but also guaranteed "progress" in the meeting next Monday.

The transfer of R1

Apart from the constitution of the joint venture, the same sources explain that Paneque and the Secretary of State for Transport and Sustainable Mobility, José Antonio Santano Clavero, will also finalize the transfer of the first commuter line that will be managed by the Generalitat, the R1 –which passes through Maresme and goes to Maçanet-Massanes–. The executive council already approved the start of this transfer a month ago, but now it is the council of ministers that must give the green light to start making it effective.

The agreement approved at this bilateral meeting will be the previous step for the Spanish government to officially endorse it. From there, it would still be necessary to finalize the agreement with Adif to define how this service will be managed, as well as to analyze whether it is necessary to make improvements to the tracks and structures of the line. The transfer of R1 will be a pilot test to also apply to other lines. R2 and R3 were the next ones that were planned to be transferred throughout 2025, although a date has not yet been set to begin the procedures.

In this bilateral meeting, both governments will also have other issues on the table, such as Girona's railway infrastructure and pending projects on the N-II, as well as the deployment of optical fibre throughout the territory, which was already announced by the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau. The bilateral meeting on infrastructure this coming Monday is the first of four that should be held in the following two weeks: on 24 February the Bilateral Commission between the State and the Generalitat is scheduled to meet, which should specify the agreement for the individual financing, and on the same day the joint commission on transfers will also meet. On 28 February the Economic and Fiscal Affairs commission will meet with the individual financing as the main point of interest.