Minister Óscar Puente has chosen Luis Pedro Marco de la Peña, deputy minister for infrastructure in the Basque government, as president of Adif, the public company with the largest volume of investments in the State. Puente thus opts for someone from outside the company, although since last Friday there has been speculation about the appointment of various directors with experience and a technical profile.
The Ministry of Transport thus fills a vacancy in a company that is giving it more than one headache. On the one hand, the discontent of passengers due to the constant incidents that occur on the commuter and high-speed networks. On the other, the link between the top management of Adif and the corruption uncovered in the “Koldo case.”
Puente assured yesterday that this last aspect had nothing to do with the dismissal of Ángel Contreras and defended the reputation of the man who until last Friday was the president of Adif. The minister is once again looking for key people in the Basque Country for his team after starting the legislature with the incorporation of the mayor of Irun (Guipúzcoa) José Antonio Santano as Secretary of State for Transport.
Luis Pedro Marco de la Peña (Santander, 1969) studied Civil Engineering at the University of Cantabria and began his professional career at Ferrovial. After being recruited by the Basque construction company Amenabar, he worked as a manager at Exbasa, where he was recruited by the Basque PSOE. In 2009, Marco de la Peña took over the management of Eusko Tren Bidea (ETS), the Basque infrastructure manager (the Basque Government’s Adif) that was to reactivate the works on the new railway platform or ‘Y’ in the Guipuzcoan corridor.
Pedro Marco de la Peña, with the socialist councillor Iñaki Arriola, managed to give an important boost to the 17 assigned sections while Adif developed the works -still unfinished- on the section between Bergara and Bilbao
At the end of the socialist legislature of the Lehendakari Patxi López in 2013, Marco de la Peña returned to the private sector. Until 2020, he served as general director of the Basque companies Balzola and Amenabar. In 2020, he returned to the Basque Government as deputy minister under Arriola’s orders again. The new president of Adif is fully aware of the difficulties in completing the so-called Bergara junction and has been the decisive political leader in agreeing on the management contract by which the Basque Government will build the tunnel that will allow the High Speed train to reach the Abando station in the centre of Bilbao.