The Mini-Train Wars

When, following a hiatus of some twelve years, Alcúdia revived its mini tourist train service last year, the war that erupted was one that involved the local taxi drivers. They were far from happy about the appearance of two brand spanking new, shiny mini trains. They raised a petition against the train, citing loss of business of anything up to 40%, lodged the petition with Alcúdia town hall and got precisely nowhere. The train was to stay.

The company running this new service was and is Carrilets Turistics Catalunya. It has been operating mini tourist trains since 1995. The first service was in Gerona, where it is headquartered. Founded by Ramon Fuertes Jordà, its director is his son, Marc Fuertes Garcia. It is quite an impressive outfit, with large storage facilities at its Gerona HQ. It is very active in Mallorca: in Alcúdia, in Can Picafort, in Manacor. But not in Sant Llorenç. It wants to be active there, but ...

On 28 March this year, Sant Llorenç town hall's "mesa de contractació" met. The president of this "table" was Mateu Puigròs, the mayor of Sant Llorenç, and a member of the Grup Independent de Son Carrió (GISCa), who was returned as mayor in 2011 with the support of PSOE and and another group of independents, despite the PP having had most councillors voted in (the PP was unable to form a coalition). The meeting of this mesa considered the offers of five businesses which had tendered for the concession to operate the mini-train. The minutes of the meeting mainly comprise a lengthy communication from Marc Fuertes which challenged the valuations placed on the services being proposed by the five companies.

This communication detailed problems with some of these proposals, for example those of Cala d'Or Express SA. One of the problems with its proposals was the absence of a garage or workshop. Sr. Fuertes noted that Carrilets Turistics Catalunya had offered, inter alia, storage both in neighbouring Son Servera and in Puerto Alcúdia. He also noted the greater capacity of the Carrilets' trains and their superior environmental performance.

Of course, you might have expected Sr. Fuertes to have done this. He was defending his company's interests, after all. But Sr. Fuertes had smelt a rat. The goalposts for the valuation scoring system had, he argued, been moved. The award went to Cala d'Or Express. Carrilets Turistics Catalunya filed a denuncia, claiming irregularities in the award and levelling a criminal charge against the mayor and others. Personal friendship had been behind the award, it was alleged.

Mayor Puigròs refuted the allegations. He accepted that one of the owners of the rival operator was not unknown to him, but that was because he was a resident of Sant Llorenç, nothing more. The mayor was scandalised to the point of considering action for defamation. Meanwhile, the PP, which had missed out at the election in 2011, was calling for the award to be set aside and for there to be a repeat process "in the name of transparency". It was then suggested, in a short item in the local press, that there was "something mysterious" about the relationship between the PP in Sant Llorenç and Carrilets Turistics, the mystery - if one understands the implication - having been that the PP had consistently failed to get itself elected, so it was looking for a means of attacking Puigròs.

This little jibe at the PP was probably uncalled-for. It was made in early June, a month after the train service should have started. It still hasn't started. And a key reason why it hasn't started is that the winning operator did not have permission for garage facilities, just as Sr. Fuertes had pointed out in his communication that had been considered at the "mesa" more than a month before the service should have commenced, a communication which had included the allegation that photographic images presented by its rival had been Photoshopped. A few days ago, Sr. Fuertes noted that had everything been ok with the rival bid, then the train would have been running.

Appropriate licences, the town hall says, will be in order very shortly, and so the train will once again operate. It is now, of course, the middle of August, three and a half months after the train should have started running. Carrilets Turistics' complaint is still being considered by the courts, but meanwhile the resorts of Cala Millor, Sa Coma and S'Illot have been deprived of their train. The war in Sant Llorenç is of a different order to that in Alcúdia, and it is one which has a feel of blocking an outsider company. Carrilets Turistics may be moving into a dominant position in the lucrative mini-train business in Mallorca (minimum annual income of 150k in Sant Llorenç), but if it's a good company - and there's no reason to believe it isn't - then so be it.