Recurrent: Particular
Resolution appealed: R CTBG 0376/2026
In exercise of the right of access to public information, the ADIF/MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT AND SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY was requested to access a full electronic copy of the so-called Technical-Economic Feasibility Study of the southern extension of the Serrería tunnel in the city of Valencia prepared in 2015, including the annexes. The request also included access to the technical reports on the so-called Alternative 3; the announcement of its non-viability in 2025; response provided to the City of Valencia; as well as varied and numerous information on the contract included in the file 2019F463O430.
The Ministry duplicates the file between the General Directorate of the Railway Sector (DGSF) and the High Speed Railway Infrastructure Administrator (hereinafter ADIF), depending on the competences that each one has.
ADIF, which assumes the response of point 1 of the application, agrees to be inadmissible under Article 18.1.b) LTAIBG, defining such information as auxiliary, a condition that justifies on the grounds that “A technical and economic feasibility study is a strategic planning tool that allows preliminary assessment of the advisability of undertaking a certain public action. Therefore, its nature is eminently internal, preliminary» and that “Its function is purely exploratory, aimed at analysing the technical, economic and operational feasibility of a possible action. Therefore, it does not constitute an administrative decision or an act that determines rights or obligations, and its content may be modified or discarded’. Likewise, it indicates that the Informative Study concerned has not yet been finalized or submitted to the legally required procedures, so that the petition must also be inadmissible under Article 18.1.a) LTAIBG, as it refers to information that is in the process of elaboration.
The Council considers the claim, indicating that the file in progress or in progress should not be confused with information in preparation; therefore, nothing prevents the recognition of the right of access to those finished or improved documents that are part of an unfinished file (unless there is a legal limit). Likewise, it highlights that the fact that the study was commissioned at the beginning of a procedure that has not yet been completed (since it is suspended) and that its content does not comply, according to ADIF, with the content required by Law 38/2015, of the Railway Sector for feasibility studies, in accordance with the requirements incorporated after the legislative reform carried out in 2022 (in particular, with respect to the cost-benefit analysis), becoming obsolete, does not imply its automatic conversion into auxiliary information, insofar as, at the time, it was decisive in terms of the establishment of possibilities and feasibility of different alternatives. On the other hand, it highlights that this feasibility study is the result of a commission to an external entity of the Administration, which is the subject of a public procurement procedure.