The controversy over the astronomical salaries for Parliament officials that they do not set foot in Ciutadella was aired on Monday by the ‘former president’ of the chamber Ernest Benach, defending that when this golden retirementIn 2008, the context was different. I mean, those were other times. The example serves perfectly to explain what happened at the time, at the beginning of the century, with the operation of the Barcelona tram, whose concessionaire companies have achieved unusual benefits in contemporary public transport management. The time has come, with the extension of the network through the Diagonal, to renegotiate the conditions. And it seems that there is an agreement: the private sector will continue to earn money, but the new section will not fill the piggy bank as it has until now. The industrial profit falls 40% and it is placed at market price, the profit is resized by the amount generated by the new demand, the advertising is distributed better for the public interest and, most importantly, the canon derived from the initial investment of the work disappears. From when the construction companies also acted as banks for the Administration.
The negotiation for redefine conditions had the virtue of presenting on both sides of the table interlocutors condemned to understand each other. In other words, there is no viable alternative to the option that the companies that manage the Trambaix and the Trambesòs (different companies but with identical shareholders) take charge of the new stretch of almost four kilometers that goes from Glòries to Francesc Macià, who it will be executed in two phases and should be working until Sant Joan before 2024. It could be said that there is a plan b, the concession redemption, but that is an operation of more than 350 million euros that has never been put on the table.
next manager?
The idea, yes, is that in 2032, when the 30-year contract expires, the Metropolitan Transport Authority (ATM) recovers the business and transfers it to a public company. Since the Government has 51% of the ATM, it sounds strong Railways of the Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC), although it could well occur, since we are talking about the metropolitan area of Barcelona, of a ‘joint venture‘ with Barcelona Metropolitan Transport (TMB). Both companies, in fact, each own 2.5% of the two companies that control the ends of the invention: Metropolità Tramway (Trambaix) and Metropolità Besòs Tramway (Trambesòs).
But while that arrives, and there are 10 years to go, the goal, because it was a imposition of Esquerra to approve in the Barcelona City Council the proposal of layout of the government of Ada Colau, was to reduce as much as possible the profits of these companies, which since the beginning of the concession have distributed 200 million in dividends on some 220 million profits. Returning to the example of the salaries of Parliament officials, it is hard to believe that a public official is paid for not working and even that his salary is raised with triennials and seniority. Transferred to the tram, that means that, unlike then, the work will be paid for by the Government, not by the construction companies. In the initial project, the companies took care of everything and then, appropriately, passed the invoice to the Generalitat, which since then has paid in easy installments but with interest that has become, according to sources familiar with the contract, the main source of company profits. With the trains and the workshops, the same thing will happen. The purchase of all the new material will be borne by the public manager, so that the concessionaire’s assets will not be increased.
initial bravery
At the beginning of the century there were 260 million to build the Trambaix and 205 million for the Trambesòs. So it was not uncommon for a private person to take charge of public works. “Even more – point out sources from the association Promotion of Public Transport– when there were serious doubts about the success of the project”. “They played it and it turned out well, and the Administration also thought it was good,” says this entity. A ‘win-win’ that perhaps was not so much. Because the tram did not take long to shine: 7.7 million trips in 2004, almost 17 million in 2006 and 29.8 million validations in 2019. The return of that money by the Generalitat is the main saving of the new model of exploitation, since nothing will owe overpay for the new work (the pending initial invoice will continue to be paid). The Government, in fact, has already allocated 37.5 million euros to the construction of the first phase of the union through Diagonal, which It will go from Glòries to Paseo de Sant Joan. In December, the city council did its thing with the part that falls to it, that of urbanization, with the award of the first four lots, endowed with a total of 46 million.
This being the case, the concessionaire will not enter one euro more for the work assumed. And from now on, it will also see a decrease, if the company, as planned, signs the negotiated conditions this week, its Industrial benefit, which was 10% and will become 6%, 40% less. The experts consulted by this newspaper agree that the percentage applied so far “was out of market”, and that the new one is within what is agreed today, which is usually range between 3% and 6%. “Is a good deal for both parties”, indicate the same sources, who applaud the predisposition, above all, of the dealerships.
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The demand generated by the new tram section will also serve to shrink private profits. Or so they don’t increase. Because, in a scaled way, the idea is that whatever generates the Sale of tickets falls more towards the public side at the moment when the tram takes on a greater number of passengers. The last aspect to be modified has to do with the publicity associated with the Tram, both in trains and in canopies. The companies are paid as a bonus, and in fact, the fact that the distribution of the cake changes will be an incentive for the concessionaire to look for more and better advertisers who want to associate their image with that of the Barcelona tramway, a privately managed public transport. For now.
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