The southern train project

[Janet]

Only in November it seemed the train wasn't going to happen. Madrid hadn't come up with the funds needed for the project, and so contracts had been cancelled.

Now today, the Tenerife Cabildo says that the funds might be late, but they're coming, apparently. Madrid has finally come up with the 8 million Euros required for the technical project to be drawn up, with 3 million being paid this year, and the remaining 5 in 2013. The confirmation was given by Tenerife Cabildo councillor for Economía y Competitividad, Carlos Alonso, who clarified that the agreement will now be processed by the Public Works Department. He added that the delay in confirming the monies will, in effect, only add six months on to the original estimates, and that the critical point was the environmental impact statement which is still awaited from the Canarian Government's Environment Dept.

These early stage projects are, essentially in three parts: the "land plan", which is almost complete; the environmental impact statement, which is expected shortly; and then the drawing up of the projects, whose financing now seems secure. In a statement of what might seem to some to be the bleeding obvious, however, Sr Alonso said that after this was all completed, the really important thing was how to finance the actual works themselves. Given that, as I posted HERE, the cost for the whole thing is estimated at 2 billion Euros, 70% of which was to be funded by Madrid, and given the national finances right now, one really does wonder if this isn't all just pie in the sky - and that this is 8 million Euros down the drain. JA

[Perikles]

given the national finances right now, one really does wonder if this isn't all just pie in the sky - and that this is 8 million Euros down the drain. JA

Of course it's utterly pie in the sky, and what we really want to know is who is getting the 8 million for a feasibility study, and what family connection they have with people in the Cabildo. I can guess. This is so transparent it is absurd.