State-owned public company | |
Industry |
Construction and Management of Rail Infrastructure Telecommunications |
Predecessors | Gestor de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias |
Founded | 1 January 2005 |
Headquarters | Madrid, Spain |
Key people
|
D. Gonzalo Ferre Moltó, Chairman |
Products | Public rail transport |
Number of employees
|
13,761 (2010) |
Website | adif.es |
Construction and Management of Rail Infrastructure
Renfe Operadora Ferrocarriles de Vía Estrecha
ADIF (Spanish pronunciation: [aˈðif], an acronym of Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias) is a Spanish state-owned company under the responsibility of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, charged with the management of most of Spain's railway infrastructure, that is the track, signaling and stations. It was formed in 2005 in response to European Union requirements to separate the natural monopoly of infrastructure management from the competitive operations of running train services. It is the legal successor of RENFE, FEVE (Ferrocarriles de Vía Estrecha), and GIF (Gestor de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias).
ADIF is the result of Railway Sector Act, which arises from the transposition of European directives. It requires that large European national railway independently manage the infrastructure and trains on it. The ultimate goal was to allow any other rail operator operating on the network to do so on equal terms with the operator, in this case, Renfe, promoting free competition. The RENFE division became effective on January 1, 2005 between the two companies:
A similar operation was conducted on December 31, 2012 with FEVE, a company that managed the narrow gauge railways. ADIF took charge of all narrow gauge infrastructures not transferred to the autonomous governments.
ADIF is responsible for administrating rail infrastructures (tracks, stations, freight terminals, etc.), managing rail traffic distributing capacity to rail operators, and the collection of fees for infrastructure, station and freight terminal use