Óscar Puente raises the need to accelerate train manufacturing and delivery processes at the EU Council of Ministers

Minister Óscar Puente attended the session of the Council of Transport Ministers of the European Union, held in Luxembourg, where the ministers deliberated on the most pressing issues in the sector at the continental level.

Puente spoke at the session to raise the need to accelerate train manufacturing and delivery processes. The minister noted that in recent years, trains contracted from major European manufacturers have never been delivered on time. The average delivery delay ranges from 2.5 years in Europe to 3 years in Spain, meaning that new trains take approximately eight years to enter service after their acquisition.

The causes of these delays are multiple: high demand for trains; complex and non-unified certification processes; lack of standardisation in manufacturing or the lack of a European-level test circuit are some of the issues highlighted by the minister. This multitude of factors requires a multifaceted approach, always adopted in a coordinated manner within the EU.

For all these reasons, Puente has called on the Commission to promote spaces for dialogue with high-level representatives of all social, economic and political stakeholders involved in the railway industry, such as member states, train manufacturers and the European Railway Agency itself. This high-level dialogue should generate concrete proposals to reverse this problem, which is hindering the sector's competitiveness.

The session of the Council of EU ministers also addressed other issues related to the transport sector such as decarbonisation, the maritime and ports industrial strategy, the response to the crisis in the Middle East and various legislative proposals currently underway, such as the Regulation on air passenger rights and the Regulation on military mobility.

Continuous appeal to Europe

This is not the first time Óscar Puente has warned European countries about the lack of competitiveness in their railway industry. This issue has been a central theme in all of the Spanish minister's meetings with other foreign leaders, to whom he has conveyed the urgent need to adopt common approaches and strategies that standardise production processes and optimise the supply chain.

He made this clear at the informal Council of Transport Ministers in Cyprus, where he had the opportunity to warn his colleagues about this economic burden. In Brussels, he conveyed to the Commissioner for Transport and the Vice-President of the European Commission the need for joint action by the EU-27 within the EU. In Spain, the continued delays in the delivery of new trains are deteriorating service reliability, increasing operating costs due to the maintenance of obsolete fleets and hindering the growth plans of the continent's main companies.

Non official translation