Railway planning

Clearly, the one hundred-kilometre distance can be travelled in half an hour thanks to high-speed technology, but this is only half the story. The other half is that we have is a suitable railway line that links these three vast areas. That might never have been there. In fact, according to the radiocentric logic with which the central Government has promoted the high velocity network, it should not have been built. The most direct route between Madrid and Barcelona does not pass through the station of Camp de Tarragona.

If it does exist, it is owing to the determination of the Catalan institutions – the Generalitat, first and foremost. Thanks to its insistence – and thanks, of course, to favourable parliamentary arithmetics–, the Ministry yielded to Catalan aspirations. The increase in time that this represents for the traveller travelling between Madrid and Barcelona is irrelevant. On the other hand, possibilities it offers to Catalonia’s internal development are extraordinary.

Now that there is so much talk of the public administrations’ lack of foresight, this is a clear example of the contrary, of foresight, of having a vision of a country that alters the initial planning in order not to only to adjust to palpable needs – that everyone can observe –, but to the potentiality of the region – that is detected only by those that endeavour. Indeed, planning consists of this: to cease working for the deficits of the past and begin to focus on future opportunities. Clearly, it has a dual premise: having both the capacity and will to discover these opportunities.

It is good to recall that the Generalitat succeeded in planning the high-speed rail network. And it would be good that it did not lose this capacity. How can it be lost? Through impatience. When launching a service that covers deficits, its success is immediate, because the demand exists. On the other hand, when a service is launched before a need exists, when it is a gamble for development, it is necessary to give it a margin of time for it to create a niche. We must continue on this track, otherwise, all the fine speeches concerning the convenience of good planning become worthless.

In truth, planning is about reflecting on where one should sow to harvest fruit in the future, not necessarily on the morning after. In this case, as in many others, the Generalitat did this.