This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at
Montilla y Blanco acuerdan el traspaso de Cercanías a la GeneralitatMontilla and white agree to the transfer of vicinity to the Generalitat
May 8, 2009
The President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, José Montilla and the Minister of public works, José Blanco, have agreed the transfer of competencies commuter to the Generalitat. José Montilla welcomed the "extraordinary importance" of the agreement with the Ministry of public works.
The agreement provides for the Catalan Government to assume the responsibilities of the service as of January 1, 2010 through a contract programme for a year. This year, the management of the service will be mixed between the State, Government and Renfe. And it will be at the end of next year when the Government assumes full powers, which will include the transfer of personnel and material of Renfe.
Montilla has remarked that this transfer will be made as soon as it has ensured that the State will invest in the improvement of the railway network and has stressed that the Generalitat will have free hand to decide if the contract extension at the end of 2010 programme which makes borrower Renfe service. The President pointed out that the commuter Plan of the Ministry of development, which provides for investment by more than 4 billion euros in fixed infrastructure is "extremely important" because "this investment is no doubt guarantee for the improvement of the service".