The Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda in Spain (Mitma) has announced the results of the first call for aid from the railway eco-incentives program of the Recovery Plan Transformation and Resilience (PRTR).
This initiative seeks to encourage railway operators to make their offerings more attractive to customers and improve their environmental performance, encouraging the use of electric traction systems to be prioritised and efficiency to be improved. This was already the second call for such aid, following the first round in 2022.
Nine companies submitted their bids, and the final sum of 26.1 million euros exceeds the assigned budget of 25 million. NextGenerationEU European funds will additionally cover it. The subsidy operators receive within this call's framework ranges between 275,000 and 13,700,000 euros, depending on their traffic.
Of the nine submitting companies, Continental Rail was eliminated due to not being eligible for the subsidy. The remaining companies that will be subsidised are Renfe Mercancías (52.4% of the overall sum), Captrain España (28.4%), Medway (5.5%), Transfesa Logistics (5%), Low Cost Rail (3.4%), CSP Logitren (2.9%), Go Transport (1.3%), Cefsa (1.1%)
The railway eco-incentive program has a triple objective:
- to consolidate and increase the modal share of the railway within multimodal chains as an alternative in the transport of goods
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to help railway operators increase their traffic by making the railway offer more attractive and to improve its environmental performance
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to encourage the prioritisation of the use of electric locomotives
