• Yesterday, the EU Commission decided to refer Spain to the European Court of Justice for failing to correctly transpose Directive 2012/34/EU establishing a Single European Railway Area (SERA).
• Commercial success in Spain is being achieved, but at the expense of French and Italian taxpayers and travellers in those countries.
• We believe that ADIF created a “Spanish model” that contradicts the SERA, especially on State Aid rules. This must be reviewed and, if necessary, replaced.

The EU Commission takes the view that Spain is in breach in several areas: the management independence of the infrastructure manager ADIF – in particular the determination of Track Access Charges (TACs) – and of the state-owned rail incumbent Renfe, according to commercial principles.

Looking at the results of the “Spanish model” so far, the benefits of introducing competition to a previously closed market are clear: more travellers (+80% on the Madrid Barcelona route) and lower fares (-40% on ticket prices), supporting modal shift.

BUT competition in Spain was introduced in a way that contradicts the Single European Railway Area and comes at a high price.

It happened like this:

• Some years ago, ADIF devised a system where operators had to bid for packages and bring their own rolling stock within a very short time frame.
• In effect, this opened the market only for those operators with large amounts of state-backed funding – to finance the rolling stock.
• The result is clear: the only competitors to Renfe are operators owned or controlled by the French & Italian state incumbents SNCF & FS.

As a result, commercial success in Spain is financed by:

• French and Italian implicit state guarantees on the debt of their state owned operators, as acknowledged by rating agencies publicly.
• French and Italian taxpayers covering the deficits of their incumbent subsidiaries in Spain in 2023 which qualifies as State Aid.
• French and Italian travellers paying more expensive tickets. For example, last summer in France, because of the 16 trainsets sent to Spain and financed by taxpayer-backed debt, 40% of SNCF TGVs were closed to booking because of overcrowding. Ticket prices were up 23% in July 2023 as per INSEE numbers (French National Statistics Bureau).
• In addition, because it is a rigid prescribed market, the departure frequencies in Spain are not as optimal as, say, in Italy.

Ultimately, it will all also be part-financed by Spanish travellers and taxpayers as well, with prices already going up in order to fix the inefficiencies of state-owned rail incumbent operations.

Instead, had there been access to a non State Aid-backed pool or a level playing field where all operators could equally access state or EU-wide guarantees for their rolling stock within a stable, long-term ADIF-based framework, it is likely that there would have been a surge in track access applications. This could have led to the same positive results for passengers as we can see them today, but at lower costs for taxpayers, namely:

• more efficiency, greater frequencies, innovative booking systems, and even more demand with decreased operating costs.

ALLRAIL Secretary General Nick Brooks says: “the so-called ‘Spanish model’ does not encourage much private investment and limits the innovation and flexibility to grow new demand. But taxpayers’ resources are limited – long term modal shift will only happen if private investment is fully welcomed.”

Given that “it must be concluded” that the model was introduced whilst ADIF’s independence was not guaranteed – with “the State able to exercise decisive influence on management board decisions” – we call on the EU Commission and Spain to urgently review ADIF’s state aid-based model and, if necessary, replace it with one that adheres to EU rules.