The Government is now working to extend the concessions of interurban buses, in force for 25 years

BarcelonaChange of direction in the process to modernize the more than 800 intercity bus lines in Catalonia. As ARA has learned, the Government is reportedly working to extend the concessions again with the same operators and thus maintain a system that has been running for more than two decades with expired contracts. The fact is that the current licenses – already extended in 2003 for another 25 years – expire very soon, in 2028, and everything indicates that the Department of Territory is now studying a new extension, which could last for another decade. Industry sources consider the technical agreement a done deal and point out that only political approval is needed, expected in the coming weeks.

In an event that brought together the major operators and also representatives of the administrationLast Tuesday, however, the good rapport between the bus employers' association and the Generalitat was evident. At an event that brought together the major operators and also the representatives of the administration, neither party wanted to get into the concession controversy, the sector's major pending issue. The Secretary of Mobility and Infrastructure, Manel Nadal, praised and thanked the work of the operators, who in turn boasted that the bus – and more specifically, the concessioned intercity lines – "is saving mobility in Catalonia," in a clear reference to the chaos that Rodalies has been experiencing since January.

The truth is that road passenger demand has doubled in just five years, from 50 million annual passengers in 2021 to 100 million projected for this year. In recent months, moreover, the operators have gone to great lengths to bring buses from all over the State to cover peak demand and resolve mobility problems in Catalonia. Thus, the current situation and the Rodalies crisis would have helped to strengthen the employers' position, argue business sources.

The same sources explain that the other major reason for extending would be "time". "It has gone very late, nothing has been done until very recently," they argue. Last summer, the minister in charge, Sílvia Paneque, explained that the Government was just getting started. The first exercise was, according to Paneque, to divide the bulk of the lines into two large blocks to determine which could be extended and which needed changes. But the new tender documents – for an eventual new competition – were not yet drafted, the Government admitted.

Criticism and praise for the extension

This possible new extension of contracts has drawn criticism from a part of the sector that was calling for urgent changes. "It is a scandal that everything remains as it was and the opportunity to deeply review the model is lost," say some sector experts. From the association Promotion of Public Transport (PTP) they corroborate this: "We are against a possible extension. We consider it essential that the concessions be renewed because it is the way we can correct dysfunctions and control operators, for example with penalties when there are repeated delays," emphasizes spokesperson Georgina Montesinos, who adds, however, that "it must be done very well prepared" to correct "the errors that were made, for example with the concessions of the AMB in Baix Llobregat, where price was prioritized over service and ended in labor conflicts," she points out. In this sense, the PTP maintains that ambitious regulation is needed "and with clear public service criteria."

Those who have also repeatedly positioned themselves against a new extension are the competition authorities. The Catalan Competition Authority (ACCO) has recommended several times that liberalization be encouraged to improve both services and the price and sustainability of the model, with greener and more efficient fleets. In fact, those most opposed to this decision point out that "the process could become mired in a new legal battle, as already happened in 2003." At the same time – and beyond the employers' association – there are sector experts who believe that liberalization could leave many small, often family-run, businesses out of the game, and they emphasize that maintaining the system "that provides a decent service and has a lot of expertise in the territory" is, right now, "the most sensible position" to guarantee mobility in Catalonia.

The background, the 2003 improvement plan

In fact, the extension of contracts should not imply immobility. Nadal also took advantage of Tuesday to set homework for the operators and reminded them that it will be necessary to "expand fleets" in a "more modern" way. "Of the 1,500 intercity buses, there are no more than 30 that are electric – he reproached them – and, therefore, there is extraordinary work to decarbonize the fleet," he said.

In 2003, the last time the Government – then CiU – opted to extend existing concessions instead of tendering new ones, it already requested a series of improvements in return. The decision was argued as a tool to force the modernization of the system. "There was a lot of demand for improvement and, in fact, we achieved great modernization of the fleets, for example to make them more adapted," defends the former Director General of Transport Enric Ticó, who led that process. As he explains, the extension of contracts also allowed operational changes to be introduced at a time when opening the market would have had, he says, too many adverse effects.

Despite everything, with 2028 on the horizon, even the defenders of the current concessions admit that the system needs a thorough review and interpret the new extension as a step forward, a temporary solution to give the administration time to better prepare the future model.