INTERNATIONAL passenger services between Spain and France will be "guaranteed" despite the critical financial situation of the high-speed line's concessionaire, according to Spain's minister of development and public works, Mrs Ana Pastor.

DESPITE Spain's economic woes, the country's love affair with high-speed trains is far from over. As IRJ went to press, the candidates best positioned to win the general election on December 20 all had one thing in common: a commitment to continue the massive investment in the AVE network while promising to keep a tight control over the public deficit in 2016.

A Girona court this week finally granted TP Ferro, the build-operate concessionaire for the high-speed line between Figueres, Spain, and Perpignan, France, protection from creditors and placed the company under receivership. Despite the administration procedure, the company says that passenger and freight services will continue to operate as normal on the 44.3km line until at least March 2016.

TP FERRO, the concessionaire for the international high-speed line between Figueres, Spain, and Perpignan, France, which is owned by Spanish and French construction companies ACS and Eiffage, definitively filed for protection from creditors at a Girona court last week.