Madrid, (EFE).- The transport of Renfe and Feve will be free in Asturias and Cantabria during the time that the manufacture of the trains lasts.
The new metric gauge trains for Cantabria and Asturias will be circulating in the first months of 2026, as expected by the Government, which, meanwhile, will condition the current ones, expand contracting and appoint a commissioner for the execution of the Cercanías plans of those communities .
As announced this Monday by the president of Cantabria, Miguel Ángel Revilla, and that of Asturias, Adrián Barbón, at a press conference together with the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, the commissioner’s objective will be to have a “direct thread” with the two regions to follow up on the document they have signed.
Free until new trains
“The Renfe and Feve service will be free for Cantabrians and Asturians until the moment the trains provided for in the current contract are delivered, that is, the 38 and, in addition, you do not have to wait for them all to come at once”, has insured Barbon.
The president has also explained that they will designate a specific person who will be in charge of complying with the protocol that they have signed today so that, in this way, they can “hold him accountable.”
“We need people who are on the ground, who are responsible, who are monitored and who can be permanently demanding accounts, beyond the logical conversations of the minister and her team, which are continuous,” Barbón said.
For his part, the Cantabrian president has expressed satisfaction with the free trains, with the creation of the commission and also with the fact that the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, has ensured that the trains will be in operation in the first months of 2026 .
Renfe and Transport Appointments
Raül Blanco will be the new president of Renfe and David Lucas, the Secretary of State for Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, whose positions will be approved on Tuesday by the Council of Ministers, sources from that ministry have confirmed to EFE.
Blanco will replace Isaías Taboas and Lucas, Isabel Pardo de Vera, who announced this Monday that they were leaving their positions after the controversy over the contracting of the new metric gauge trains for Cantabria and Asturias.
Lucas, born in Madrid in 1968 and a PhD in Law from the Carlos III University of Madrid, is Secretary General of the Urban Agenda and Housing.
David Lucas, Head of Transport
He has been a senator for Madrid in the XII legislature, mayor of Móstoles and spokesman for the PSOE in the Madrid City Council and deputy mayor of Getafe.
He has also been president of the Spanish delegation at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, as well as of the International Relations Commission of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, responsible for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in Spanish municipalities. .
Raul Blanco, to Renfe
Blanco, for his part, was Secretary General of Industry and SMEs until the end of last year, when he was relieved of his position after the controversy over the delay of the PERTE of the electric car.
Graduated in Economics, he has been director of Economic Development and Employment at the City Council of l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, as well as manager of Industrial Strategy at the Generalitat de Catalunya, where he worked with the outgoing president of Renfe.
