Democracy: infrastructure policy vs. transport policy
With the restoration of democracy new changes occurred in this department. Firstly, the second Government of Adolfo Suárez was established with a new department, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, which grouped together the general transport policy, as well as issues related to postal mail and telecommunications. For its part, this body, now called the Ministry of Public Works and Urban Planning, added to its jurisdiction the affairs of the Ministry of Housing - which was abolished - as well as the branches of rural development and environment of the Ministry of the Presidency "Ministry of the Presidency (Spain)").[28] Thus, by the time the 1978 Constitution came into force, the Ministry covered the areas of public works, roads, water and hydraulic works, ports and coasts, housing, urban planning, territorial planning, architecture and environment.[29].
Years later, in 1987, the Ministry of Public Works recovered some historical responsibilities, such as those of geodesy, geophysics, cartography and metrology supervised by the National Geographic Institute "National Geographic Institute (Spain)"), which was once again attached to the ministry.[30] Four years later, in April 1991, the Ministry of Transport, Tourism and Communications created in 1977 was abolished and integrated in Public Works, with the exception of tourism policy, which passed to the Ministry of Industry.[31] During these years, the most important policy that the ministry has developed to date began, the creation of a high-speed railway network, which was estimated at an investment of 60 billion euros (with data from the end of 2023).[32].
Also, in the 1990s, the focus began to be placed on the environment branch, which was strengthened by Royal Decree 199/1990, of February 16, by creating the General Secretariat of the Environment, which was structured through the general directorates of Environmental Policy and Environmental Planning and Coordination.[33] This interest in this area did not end with this body, but in 1993 the department was renamed the Ministry of Works. Public, Transport and Environment, the Secretary of State for the Environment was created and, finally, in 1996 the Ministry of the Environment "Ministry of the Environment (Spain)") was created, which assumed these powers and those of water and hydraulic works.[34].
It was precisely in this year, 1996, when the department recovered the title of "Ministry of Public Works".[34] In 2000 it lost the powers over communications - except for those concerning postal mail -, which passed to the Ministry of Science and Technology "Ministry of Science and Technology (Spain)"), through the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and the Information Society.[35].
Between 2004 and 2012, the Ministry underwent a series of reforms that led to a structure that remained unchanged for more than a decade. At this time, the Ministry of Housing "Ministry of Housing (Spain)") was recovered, which was structured through a General Secretariat and an Undersecretariat. At the same time, the Ministry of Development was structured through a Secretary of State, the Undersecretariat and the newly created General Secretariats of Infrastructure and Transport. With the abolition of the Housing Department in 2010, Development absorbed its powers and structure which, since the end of 2011, revolved around the aforementioned Development bodies plus the General Secretariat of Housing. Likewise, new organizations were created, such as the State Aviation Safety Agency and the State Railway Safety Agency, based on the powers of the competent general directorates, and some markets were liberalized, putting an end to some state monopolies, establishing new public companies - Renfe Operadora, Adif, Adif-Alta Velocity, Enaire, Aena - to manage the remaining powers of the State or, directly, to compete in them.
During the second Government of Pedro Sánchez it was titled "Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda" with the aim of reorienting policies to promote public works and transport, moving away from traditional names alluding to construction and focusing more on the conception of transport and transport infrastructure.[36] It did not alter functions or structure. On December 14, 2020, the rail passenger transport market was liberalized[37] and, in June 2021, Renfe launched a new low-cost brand, Avlo, to compete with the new private operators.[38].
In November 2023, the President of the Government renamed the Department for the second time, this time as "Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility", after separating the housing responsibilities, which passed to the reestablished - for the third time - Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda.[39] Already in December, Minister Puente profoundly reorganized the Ministry; Until then, the transport infrastructure policy and the organization of means of transport were managed separately - through the General Secretariat of Infrastructure for the former and the General Secretariat of Transport for the latter - but, since Royal Decree 1009/2023, of December 5, the powers were reorganized through two new general secretariats - General Secretariat of Land Transport and General Secretariat of Air and Maritime Transport - which unified the different specific means of transport with their respective planning and infrastructure policies.[40][41] This reorganization was concluded in March of the following year, with the creation of the General Secretariat for Sustainable Mobility, which grouped together the powers exercised by various bodies of the Secretary of State for Transport in this area.[3].