The Spanish Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has announced the formation of a technical working group to promote the development of a rail network on the islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife.
This announcement follows a meeting with the Canary Islands Minister of Public Works, Housing and Mobility, Pablo Rodríguez, and the presidents of the councils of Gran Canaria and Tenerife, Antonio Morales and Rosa Dávila, respectively.
The working group, comprised of representatives of the Ministry and the councils of both islands, will aim to specify the projects and analyse their viability. The network’s main objective is to connect Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife with the airports on their respective islands.
The Minister reaffirmed the Ministry’s commitment to decarbonising transport and highlighted the importance of collaboration to tackle the mobility challenges in the Canary Islands. “We believe that the railway can be an effective solution for the decarbonisation of transport and to improve the service to citizens,” said the Secretary of State, José Antonio Santano, who was also present at the meeting.
Currently, the only operational railway in the Canary Islands is the Santa Cruz de Tenerife tram. In Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the possibility of building a tram was studied, but finally, a BRT bus was chosen, as we told you in issue number 3 of Trenvista.
