Page 87 - Vía Libre Special - 25 Years of Spanish High Speed Rail

over 4,000 railway sector workers, including engine manding nature. An example of this are the extreme
drivers, AVE infrastructure maintenance staff, opera- conditions and previously unknown challenges we
tors, etc. In that same year CEFF was set up as a rai- have had to overcome in order to build in the desert.
lway staff training centre, homologated by the AESF
of the Ministry of Development. The training deli- 3. In Spain COPASA has participated in the construc-
vered and the advice given is of an excellent quality, tion of all the Spanish high speed lines: Madrid-Za-
as required in a highly technological and extremely ragoza-Barcelona, Madrid-Valencia, Madrid-Galicia,
strategic environment in which safety is paramount. Madrid-Valladolid-Palencia-León, and Valencia-Mur-
cia.
2. CEFF constantly invests in technological innova- Abroad, COPASA is participating in the construction
tion and in the preparation and selection of its trai- of the Mecca-Medina AVE in Saudi Arabia, the largest
ners and external collaborators. We are also the only infrastructure project ever awarded to a Spanish
private homologated railway training centre to have consortium. COPASA, which is the leading company
developed railway simulators in accordance with the of the consortium for civil works and the third ran-
current regulation on rail traffic, previously the RGC king by volume of work allocated, has set up factories
and now the RCF, based on driving locomotives S/253 in the desert itself for the manufacture of sleepers
and S/335. There are currently a total of six simula- and the welding of rails. Its track laying performance
tors. has been world record beating.

3. With regard to staff training, in May CEFF is to de-
liver the first edition of a course on ERTMS signalling
and control commando systems. It will be a new high
level training action.

GLOBALVIA

1. G1. As the first private railway operator for the
transport of passengers and holder of a railway ope-
COPASA rating licence, Globalvia has been very aware of the
importance of facilitating intermodality between mo-
des of transport, in this case rail travel. Malaga, and its
1. S.A. de Obras y Servicios, COPASA, has partici- station, María Zambrano, are a cutting-edge example
pated in the development of all the major AVE lines of how high speed rail can be integrated with urban
built in Spain during the last 25 years, building the transport by means of a light rail service, provided in
infrastructure, laying and maintaining the tracks, and this case by the concession holder, Metro de Málaga.
supplying ballast and sleepers. The experience and Meanwhile, Globalvia’s experience in concessions
specialization acquired in these years has enabled us under PPP arrangements has made it a benchmark
to export railway technology to Saudi Arabia, whe- operator under this new paradigm of railway infras-
re COPASA is the principal civil works partner of the tructures and their connection to high speed rail ser-
Spanish consortium building the Mecca-Medina AVE. vices.

2. Since its foundation, COPASA has always been 2. Any approach targeting intermodality with bes-
involved in railway projects. Having contributed poke solutions ultimately means a better utilization
towards connecting Spain by train has enabled us to of infrastructures and, consequently, a higher de-
innovate, develop construction techniques of a high mand from passengers. This latter factor is key to the
technological level, assemble the most advanced success on the company’s business strategy.
stock of machinery for track laying, and form a top-
notch, highly specialized team of technicians. We 3. Globalvia is very active in the US market, partici-
have acquired the capacity to undertake large sca- pating in high speed projects in California with the years of Spanish high speed rail
le projects and highly complex works, in some cases CHSRA and in the Dallas-Fort Worth corridor with
unique due to their difficulties and their highly de- the FRA.