The delegate of the Government in La Rioja, Beatriz Arraiz Nalda, insisted this morning that the award of the execution of the works of the variant of Rincón de Soto by Adif “means taking a decisive step to finally achieve progress in a priority objective for our autonomous community such as modernizing our railway route at high speed”.
Adif promotes the new variant of Rincón de Soto, in the Castejón-Logroño section of the Cantabrian-Mediterranean corridor, with the award of execution of the works, for an amount of 58.7 million euros. To this investment is added 6.9 million euros for the supply of the materials that will be used in the execution of the work: sleepers, detours, ballast and rail.
The variant, which will run between the municipalities of Alfaro and Rincón de Soto, will have a length of 9.3 km and has an execution time of 34 months. The performance includes the civil and railway work - platform, superstructure, track and energy -, the civil work of the new station and a station for overtaking and parking of trains
According to the delegate, “we are all aware that La Rioja urgently needs to improve its railway infrastructures and therefore, it is worrying that the demagogy is promoted by the Government of La Rioja by criticizing now the impulse of this variant of Rincón de Soto for the northern route”.
Arraiz Nalda has recalled that the competition on railway routes is from the State and in 2008 this option was selected from the northern route of the variant of Rincón de Soto because it is the most favorable option with respect not only to technical, functional and economic criteria, but also environmental.
“The option of the northern route is the one that minimizes the impact on the municipality as a result of the lower environmental incidence,” he insisted.
In this sense, he has described as “striking” that both the City of Rincón de Soto and the Government of La Rioja of the Popular Party at the time considered that this was also the best option, and even “the regional executive influenced in his reports that transferred to the Ministry of Development the primary urgency of its construction to eliminate the very serious problems caused by the railway as it passed through the municipality. Since then, 14 years ago, the need to promote this variant of Rincón de Soto has always been defended.”
In addition, the delegate added that during these years work has been done to modernize the railway network of La Rioja with a route at speeds of 200 km/hour, without affecting environmental and economic parameters.
In this sense, he said that “after the advances that have been achieved, we cannot bow to particular and partisan interests. If we now give up this great project, La Rioja will be conditioned forever in the advance of high speed.”
On the other hand, Arraiz Nalda has pointed out that the steps taken for more than a decade to reach the award of the variant of Rincón de Soto is an achievement of all. For this reason, he criticized that “the change of opinion of the Government of La Rioja and the request for paralysis of this project resembles more a partisan outburst and inconsistent with the whole route that has allowed to reach the announcement of the award of the works.”
An announcement that has explained that it is “important for the interests of La Rioja and the Riojans and Riojans”. In comparison with this positive development, he has criticized “the attempt to curb the interests of our autonomous community, an improper behavior of a government that must defend them for the good of the citizens.
In this sense, he pointed out that “the president of this autonomous community denotes in his statements, in which he affirms that the construction of this variant would be like ‘annihilating the historical, cultural, territorial, natural heritage…’, which moves more by partisan decisions than by the general interest”.
Finally, Arraiz Nalda has reiterated that it is evident that the unanimous support that was present since this variant was projected, now inexplicably wants to disturb the Government of La Rioja. “It is worrying and a serious irresponsibility because the regional president omits that this northern option is, as all the reports confirm, the most appropriate alternative and the one that obtained in the environmental assessment a better result in the global impact.”