The Central Administrative Court for Contractual Resources has annulled several clauses of Renfe's tender to create a bus company, following appeals from the associations Anetra and Fenadismer.
The Central Administrative Court for Contractual Resources (TACRC) has dealt a blow to Renfe by annulling several clauses of the tender with which the public railway operator aimed to create a bus company to provide alternative services when trains are not running. The ruling, notified this Friday to the appealing associations, orders the procedure of the so-called 'Framework Agreement for Alternative Road Transport Services' to be reverted.
The National Association of Bus Transport Entrepreneurs (Anetra) and the National Federation of Transport Associations of Spain (Fenadismer), along with Direbús and other organizations, had challenged the clauses of the tender. According to the associations, the design of the tender excluded 99% of companies in the sector, which is mainly composed of SMEs and self-employed individuals, in favour of a handful of large corporations.
The TACRC has upheld the appeals and points out, among other irregularities, the lack of justification for the need to create a company, the unjustified absence of division into lots, disproportionate solvency requirements, barriers to company groupings, violation of legal deadlines, omission of publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, and lack of transparency in the breakdown of costs.
The associations have described the ruling as "a victory for legality, free competition, and the survival of Spanish SMEs and micro-enterprises." "We could not allow a state public operator to attempt to hand over a market worth nearly 1 billion euros to an oligopoly," they stated in a joint statement.
From Direbús, its president Alfonso Taborda, has celebrated that the ruling forces Renfe to review all these aspects, which will open the door to a "more balanced and competitive" tender. "Everyone deserves to participate in public tenders on equal terms," he stated, adding that they are willing to collaborate with Renfe to develop a contracting model that guarantees quality service for travellers.
This decision by the TACRC represents a setback for Renfe's plans, which sought to outsource the alternative bus service through a framework agreement. The public company will now have to rethink the tender to comply with the law and avoid further challenges.
For Renfe users in the province of Málaga, this ruling does not have an immediate impact, but it does in the medium term, as the alternative road service continues to be provided by the current companies until the new tender process is resolved. The company must ensure the continuity of the service while the new tender is processed.
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