The government guarantees that the privatization of PC is a "fantasy"

The privatization of CP – Comboios de Portugal is a "fantasy", said Monday the Minister of Planning and Infrastructure, following the news of this scenario.

"I call it a fantasy.This idea of ​​wanting to give this government the ambition to privatize the PC is only a fantasy," said the governor, assuring that the government "permanently removed" the private delivery of the railway equipment maintenance company – EMEF and the line of

Acknowledging that "a large part of the fleet is old" and that there has "maintenance problems", Pedro Marques noted the strengthening of EMEF resources in this legislature and the recent announcement of the hiring of 102 more people. In addition, we will rent rolling stock in Spain, diesel and electric, and in a long-term perspective, we will acquire more rolling stock. These are contests with tens or hundreds of millions of euros, which must be legally well prepared, and as we prepare this process and it takes a few years to deliver this material, we will be renting more than material in Renfe and we will have more people to do As the negotiation is still going on with Spain, the Minister has refused to disclose, for the moment, details such as the number of compositions to rent and the costs, but said "the expectation that the first rolling stock could circulate."

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On Sunday, the Portuguese Association of Friends of the Railways (APAC) today asked the Government for clarification on the process of purchase of trains by the CP and has warned against "the chaos that lives in the rail network. "

In a letter sent to Pedro Marques, the association asks for explanations on" the current railway and the prospects for its evolution, given the "serious situation of operational collapse in which the PC is in a very special way ", and" strongly condemns "the chaos that exists in the rail network to which" decades of divestment "has contributed.

The Ministry of Planning and Infrastructure issued the same day in a statement that "CP and the government are preparing the launch of an international tender for the procurement of trains that will equip the rolling stock company appropriate to its commitment to the Portuguese, as well as its development on the various fronts in which it operates: suburban, regional and intercity services. "

The launch of this competition is provided for in the budget of the This is the case for 2018 and is the result of a proposal made by the current CP Board of Directors, the implementation of which was developed in coordination with the government, the statement said.

"Given the normal period of time In addition to this type of acquisition, the CP and the Government agreed to maintain the rolling stock leasing program in Spain in order to meet the short-term needs of the regional service. "

" invests heavily "in the maintenance of rolling stock, through the restructuring of the railway equipment maintenance company (EMEF), for which the recruitment of 102 workers has just been authorized, according to the ministry