Spain and France Boost Rail Crossing Project across Central PyreneesAt the Spanish-French summit held in Saragossa on 7th December, 2004 the rail project to cross the central Pyrenees through a base tunnel, designed for ever increasing freight transport, has made a major step forward as both Spain and France decided to include the project in their strategic planning. The Spanish minister for public works, Magdalena Alvarez, and her French counterpart, Gilles de Robien, agreed to include the new high capacity railway link through the Pyrenees, the so-called Vignemale crossing, in their respective strategic planning. France and Spain have committed to launch the studies in 2005 on the possible routes for this new rail link, which is one of the priority projects of the EU's trans-European transport network (TEN). The government of Aragon already conducted a study of alternatives and preferred a 42 km tunnel, estimated at EUR5 billion, under the Vignemale massif between the municipalities of Biescas, Spain and Pierrefitte-Nestalas, France. However, there is strong local opposition in the Lourdes valley in France and the way is still long until France selects a route. To date, traffic flows have only been studied and France has not decided at all where exactly the tunnel will be built. This is what both countries will now start to study. The agreement reached stipulates that the start point of the central Pyrenean crossing in Spain is in Saragossa and any route alignment outside Aragon seems excluded.French president Jacques Chirac insisted that "the political will exists and stands firm" while Spanish PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero stressed that the link, apart from being "enormously important" for the development of Aragon, "is a big priority for Spain because it is going to be remarkably backed by the two governments".In 2000, 17,000 trucks crossed the Pyrenees, 6,000 more than through the Alps between France and Switzerland. 90% of ongoing freight traffic is concentrated on the coastal corridors in Irun (Atlantic coast) and La Jonquera (Mediterranean coast), the unique corridors in condition to absorb this traffic although they already suffer serious problems due to the uninterrupted flow of trucks. In 2002, the average daily traffic amounted to 7,200 heavy vehicles on the Catalan border and 8,000 on the Basque border. Through traffic is hardly possible via other corridors. The other four crossings are unsuitable to meet today's traffic needs, with poor connecting roads on the French side, so that they can only handle limited traffic. Traffic through the mountain range will continue to grow in the next years, at a annual pace of 10%. Several studies have confirmed that in a few years, the present Pyrenean corridors will be badly gridlocked. Not only the problem will affect the border but also France's inner territory, just because half of road traffic that crosses the Pyrenees is through traffic to other European countries. Most freight traffic to the Iberian peninsula is generated by the German regions of Westfalia, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria and several north Italian regions. From Spain, half of the exchange of goods are directed to France and the remainder to the German regions of Westfalia and Baden-Württemberg, Lombardy in Italy, Great Britain and Benelux.In April 2004, the EU approved a list of priority projects for the development of the Union, as part of the trans-European network (TEN). The Vignemale crossing then received official endorsement. For transnational projects or projects executed in mountainous areas, European funding can be as high as 30% of the required investment.On the other hand, the reopening of the Sagunto-Saragossa-Canfranc-Pau railway line that crosses the Somport through a tunnel has been officially relegated to the status of a little viable cross-regional project. In view of the regional interest for this connection, the ministers decided the involvement of the different local authorities to evaluate the project for reopening the line, from an interregional cooperation standpoint keeping in mind the new central Pyrenean railway crossing.Moreover, the Spanish and French governments agreed to enhance the role played by the Somport road tunnel, opening it to vehicles carrying hazardous materials in the last quarter of 2005, in compliance with the conditions agreed by the Somport tunnel intergovernmental commission, who implements the latest technological advances to guarantee the highest traffic safety levels. This is exactly that type of traffic, above all, which the Somport rail tunnel and Canfranc line were thought to take off the roads. Visit www.transpirenaica.org 51-52/04.