The polygons and the CEO close ranks to concentrate rail freight traffic in San Cibrao with a new station.
The businessmen of the San Cibrao, Pereiro de Aguiar and Barreiros industrial estates, together with the Confederación de Empresarios, closed ranks today in support of the transfer of the railway freight station from Ourense to San Cibrao, concentrating here all the traffic that is now distributed between this industrial area, the Taboadela station and the Ourense-Empalme station.
The preliminary draft, presented and defended by the president of the Galician Confederation of Entrepreneurs Commission, Manuel Martínez Rapela, and the architect Fernando Lamas, who is the author, proposes a single station in the City of Transport, in the Polígono. This infrastructure will not only cover the current needs of the largest industrial area in Galicia, but “it is essential for the community as a whole”, according to Martínez Rapela.
Lamas drew attention to the synergies that this new station will generate, which will replace the one in Ourense-Empale and integrate the one in Taboadela.
“Only 10% of the cargo load arrives at the Ourense station, while 90% move in the Polygon”, so it makes perfect sense to group all the traffic in the City of Transport. He also stressed that with the transfer 140,000 square meters of land will be freed in the current Ourense station, which opens up a wide range of possibilities and uses for this space, equivalent to about 20 football fields such as the one in O Couto.
To this argument, Lamas added others such as that “all governments are betting on getting goods off the roads” in favor of the railroad, since “the number of accidents and the emission of C02 into the atmosphere are reduced”, which also coincides with the criteria that Europe demands for the financing of projects like this one, which he referred to as “an opportunity”.
To elaborate on this argument, Martínez Rapela provided another piece of information: “80 trucks are equivalent to a single freight train with only two drivers”, which significantly reduces environmental costs.
Before giving way to the more technical interventions, the president of the San Cibrao Polígono businessmen, José Antonio Rodríguez Araujo, recalled that this preliminary project has already been sent to the governments of Spain and Galicia and that it adds more and more support, although he warned that “everything we have done will be useless if we finally fail to materialize it.” That is why he advocated continuing to insist on “the suitability and timeliness of this project, but also the necessary unity to carry it out together.”
“And that is precisely why we are here again today: businessmen closing ranks with a new infrastructure that we consider essential for our future as an industrial area, all rowing in the same direction, which is what we ask of the rest of the players,” he remarked.
After the meeting with the businessmen, the president of the businessmen transferred the draft to the president of the Deputation, with whom he met in the Provincial Pazo, and tomorrow he will do the same with the new president of the Confederation of Businessmen of Galicia , which he will visit at the headquarters of the CEG.
Likewise, the Entrepreneurs Association has sent the document to institutions, political parties and unions, seeking the greatest possible support and consensus for it.
The reasons that justify the project, at a cost of 20 million euros.
- Three freight stations for the low tonnage that is currently handled are not functional, but expensive, due to their maintenance.
- The Empalme station is very underused on its merchant side and the new High Speed station that is being built there needs a better appearance, more space, which would still be left over, even, for other public uses if that of the current freight area is incorporated .
- The location in the place where 90% of the goods in Ourense are currently handled (San Cibrao) is ideal for the new location.
- The Zamora line, which will be free due to the entry into service of the AV, allows the use almost exclusively for goods and the logical thing is that the operators that circulate towards Medina del Campo / Venta de Baños from Galicia use it more frequently than the one from León, which is older with a worse layout and simultaneous with the movement of passengers. In addition, the route is 160 kilometers less than in León.
