Andorra willing to share costs for a possible train line with Catalonia
Published:
Mar 10, 2023
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Just a few months ago (December 2022), Andorra said that viable projects would cost between 700 and 4 billion euros and ruled them out, but now it seems to be willing to assume not only the part of the railway project within its territory, but even the costs of a possible arrival of the train from abroad.
Yesterday, the acting head of government, Xavier Espot, affirmed that Andorra's support for the project studies is "total" and offered to collaborate with the Catalan government to "talk and enter into" the possibility of co-financing.
Espot pointed out that Andorra would be willing, within its modest capacities, to share costs in some sections, for example, from Andorra to La Seu d'Urgell.
Espot emphasized the "social benefits" that the arrival of the train would imply, and for this reason he advanced that the hypothetical connection will be part of the electoral program of Demócratas. According to him, Andorra will not be able to do it alone and will require the collaboration of all the administrations involved.
Train connecting Barcelona with Cerdanya and France
It should be recalled that last December, the Minister of the Presidency, Economy and Enterprise, Jordi Gallardo, presented a plan of disengagement that did not contemplate the railway option because it was too expensive.
According to Gallardo, the cost could rise to 4,000 million euros, an unaffordable figure that left the project in second place behind other options.
The Generalitat's studies were awarded in November last year and the conclusions should be completed by the end of this year.
The project would be a 57-kilometer railway line with two sections, La Seu-Alp, which would also go to Puigcerdà and Tolosa; and Andorra-la Seu, with stops in Sant Julià de Lòria and Escaldes-Engordany.