CABILDO INSISTS RAILWAY RING STILL ON TRACK

Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Friday January 15 2010

From left: cabildo vice-president Carlos Alonso, cabildo president Ricardo Melchior, INECO president Fernado Palao and cabildo secretary general of infrastructure Antonio Monfort

TENERIFE'S Cabildo government sought to reassure voters that the long-promised railway scheme was still on track on Friday.

by JAMES TWEEDIE

Speaking at a press conference in the regional capital Santa Cruz, Cabildo president Ricardo Melchior said that the island's government had given approval for the plans and was working “hand in hand” with engineering contractor INECO to bring the scheme to fruition.

He was joined by Cabildo vice-president and minister for economy and competitiveness Carlos Alonso, secretary general of infrastructure Antonio Monfort and INECO president Fernado Palao.

Despite numerous delays in the project, Mr Palao insisted that “there is no fundamental problem.”

He added that his firm would sub-contract basic construction work on the railway to other companies.

Mr Alonso said that the necessary funding was in place and that construction work would begin at the end of 2011 and take seven years to complete.

He said that the project would employ 4,000 workers in the construction phase but a mere 200 to run the rail service.

Mr Alonso played down residents' and environmentalists' concerns about the effects of construction on urban housing and the rural environment, saying that the railway would follow the routes of the existing northern motorway and would have some underground sections.

He stressed that the railway was expected to yeild environmental gains by reducing road traffic and energy usage.

The northern route will run from picaresque Los Realejos to the economically deprived neighbourhoods of Añaza and Acoran in the south of the Santa Cruz municipality.

The Southern line will connect the capital, the southern Reina Sofia airport and the tourist resort and English colony in Costa Adeje, terminating at Fonsalía in Guia de Isora.

The Cabildo is also studying the feasibility of extending the northern line to Icod de Los Vinos and on to Adeje, thus completing the anillo or ring.

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