Tenerife Cancels Northern Railway Competition After Disqualifying All Finalists
The Tenerife Island Council has cancelled its railway project competition for the north of the island after all three finalists were disqualified for violating anonymity rules.
The proposed railway project for northern Tenerife has hit a major roadblock. The Island Council (Cabildo), through its transport entity Metropolitano de Tenerife, has cancelled its ideas competition after the technical jury disqualified all three finalists—Sener, Ardanuy Ingeniería, and the partnership of Consultans and Transconsult—due to procedural errors.
As reported by Diario de Avisos, the candidates were excluded because their digital files contained metadata that revealed their identities. This violated the competition’s strict anonymity rules, which are designed to ensure impartiality. Legal advisors concluded that this breach could not be fixed without breaking the competition’s own rules, leaving the council no choice but to void the process.
This is a significant blow to the infrastructure plans of island president Rosa Dávila, who had championed the railway as the primary solution to traffic congestion on the TF-5 motorway. The competition was intended to identify the best technical, economic, and environmental approach for the region. With no valid proposals left, the Cabildo must now decide how to move forward, though no clear alternative plan has been announced.
The political opposition has been quick to criticize the outcome. Tamara Raya, secretary-general of the Tenerife PSOE, labeled the situation a "fiasco" and questioned the government’s management of the project. The Socialists pointed to a lack of interest from firms—with only three reaching the final stage—and noted that the project’s budget had been significantly reduced from an initial €481,500 to €285,373 during the process.
Beyond the technical error, the debate has turned to the project's overall planning. The Socialist group argues that the government announced the infrastructure before conducting the necessary studies to prove its demand or profitability. They also noted that the island’s mobility plan did not originally prioritize this railway, casting further doubt on the future of the project and the government's promises to resolve traffic issues in the north.