[Politics] Former president of EFE questions proposals for the Santiago-Valparaíso train: "The subsidy it requires is gigantic"

[FNX Magokiler]

After the Minister of Transport, Juan Carlos Muñoz, affirmed this Thursday that the viability of the Santiago-Valparaíso train project must have "social profitability" to be executed, the former president of the State Railways Company (EFE), Pedro Pablo Errázuriz assured that the private proposals, currently being analyzed by the Government, require a "giant subsidy" that would not be convenient in the future. Specifically, and by way of context, the Ministry of Public Works, through its Concessions Office, is currently studying two private proposals submitted by the 'TVS' companies; and 'Talgo, Agunsa and FCC'. Faced with them, the Secretary of State commented that both are being analyzed to define if any of them meet the standards of "social profitability", and thus initiate the formal development of the work.

However, in a conversation with Radio Pauta, Pedro Pablo Erráruriz stated that he was "a little afraid of this project by the Ministry of Public Works, because I think the subsidy it requires is gigantic. Therefore, in my opinion, it has to be studied very carefully, but it is not in the hands of EFE, rather it is in the hands of the Ministry of Public Works, it is the minister who has to analyze with concessions whether it is socially profitable or not". It should be noted that the projects that are being studied by the MOP are outside the railway plan that EFE currently has, so the state company has no participation in the execution of the specific Santiago-Valparaíso train project. However, according to Errázuriz, there is a proposal presented by EFE, which is not being largely considered by the Government. For this reason, and before Minister Muñoz's announcement that these two private company projects are being studied, the former president of EFE explained that "the biggest problem with this project is that it requires such a large subsidy, that it really It doesn't turn out to be convenient in the end." "Despite the fact that politically and communicationally it is very attractive, it has a risk due to the gigantic level of subsidy it has, of being a solution that may not be the most appropriate.

 

 

It is not capable (of being subsidized), I did the math and it requires the subsidy of the order of 20,000 pesos per passenger, that is, each trip of each passenger requires a subsidy of the order of 20,000 pesos. So, they are amounts too large for the level of need that the country has, "he said. In line with the above, Errázuriz warned that, according to his calculations, "the subsidy that this project requires is of the order of 250 million dollars a year, so it is very large for the number of challenges that the country has. I hope he is wrong and that the private consortiums do not require the subsidy that I estimate, that would be good news and that is what the Ministry of Public Works is now analyzing". Under those possible "difficulties" that the Santiago-Valparaíso train could have if it were concessioned to private parties, the former president of the state company defended that "the EFE projects, which are well thought out, well studied and have been worked on for many years." "The main virtue of an EFE project is that it uses the existing strip of road for a large part of the route, not the entire route, but that means that the investment impact is less as a result of not having to expropriate or have to expropriate much less. And that means that environmentally it is easier, because one has the advantage that there is already a file, that the community already knows about the train in those areas," he mentioned. Lastly, Errázuriz stated that "the challenge of making a train all over again with new expropriations, with new communities, with all the new environmental impact study, is a great challenge. I think there is an advantage in what could be EFE, but the truth is that this is not yet in the folder, what is in the folder are these two private proposals and I hope they do well. "I put the alert that from the State you have to be careful and take a good look at the level of subsidy that the project requires," he concluded.

 

https://www.emol.com/noticias/Nacional/2022/06/03/1062968/efe-cuestiona-proyectos-privados-tren.html