The liberalisation of the railway sector in Spain is planned for December 2020 and, from that date, a new model for rail transport will come into force. This situation will be the result of the launch of the 4th Railway Liberalisation Package throughout Europe, which will also help to optimise Spain’s high-speed infrastructures, which are the second most important in the world in terms of extension.

Companies such as RFL, an international freight forwarder and integral logistics operator, have begun to review the business opportunities that this liberalisation will entail in such a strategic sector as transport.

The keys

The new law opens the railway market to new entrants and services. It also encourages the use of a qualified workforce among railway professionals and entails also:

The transport package will gradually liberalise the sector. The specialised companies themselves will have to be more self demanding as they are in a more competitive market.
Companies will be obliged to invest in innovation, technology and digitisation, as well as experiment with new business models.
With all these proposals established by Brussels, the aim is to improve the quality of the rail service, extend the offer to users and, on the other hand, recognise this sector as key to the development of the economy.

More demand

The question of regulation is not a trivial one, as operators wishing to enter the new market will have to know the technical specificities (use of tracks, stations, slots, platforms, etc.) to be able to order the trains that, on average, take around 18 months to build.

Examples

Many European countries have already begun to do their homework in this area. In the case of Italy, with a very high level of liberalisation compared to Spain, the demand for this transport has grown by 101% in the last five years.