Page 110 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 6

Ayrault Pérez, Juan

6.3 Railway challenges in an evolving scenario

The democracy arrived (1977) with the railway system in a very bad mood, unable to compete
with road and aerial transportation.
Consequently, long distance services stagnated. Instead, commuter services demand increased
significantly in a network with scarce capacity to withstand more pressure.

Table 1: Passenger traffic evolution 1973‐1985. Source: PTF 1987

Several plans followed with the intention of closing a substantial part of the network. In order
to start a way to solve structural shortages, Renfe signed in 1979 the first Programme‐Contract
with the Government. The latter would provide economical resources; Renfe compromised with
renovation and services improvement. A new Programme‐Contract was signed in 1984 with the
final aim of making railway profitable. In 1985, 901 km of highly loss‐making lines were closed
all over the country, many of them in scarcely populated areas.

6.4 Urban growth and transport crisis

Table 2: Madrid city population growth 1842‐2011. Source: Wikipedia and Juan Ayrault

108 360.revista de alta velocidad