IDEES, revista de temes contemporanis

Thirst for concrete

The Xunta (Autonomous Government) of Galicia has historically been committed to building roads, while the state has been devoted to investing in the main connections with Portugal and the Castilian plateau. The result is a country without a suburban railway network and with important cohesion deficits.

As a result of a sensation of historical abandonment by the state, the Galician autonomous power and civil society have focused their priorities on building kilometres of roads and demanding connections with Castile from the Spanish government power. With the dual carriageways to Madrid completed and the high-speed train in progress, it is clearer than ever that Galicia has important internal communication problems. This is sustained by Miguel Pazos, the author of a study on transport infrastructures in Galicia. There is no suburban railway network, you need a car to get around and the metropolitan areas suffer from serious traffic problems.

The dispersion of powers and objectives between the state, the Xunta and the local authorities has led to a lack of a global strategy which burdens the Galician infrastructure system and makes it hardly sustainable. Incipient policies with a vision of a country have just begun to be applied in the last few years, and public opinion is beginning to demand more and better territorial cohesion through the railway network and public transport. The Xunta’s role of leadership is a key to turn the situation around.