The Spanish government has given the green light to the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility to tender, through Adif, the drafting of renewal designs for thirteen sections of the conventional rail network, with an estimated value of €16.8 million (excluding VAT).
In total, the sections span 405.5 route-kilometres — or 607.5 km when double-track sections are counted separately — and cover both Iberian-gauge and metre-gauge lines.
These design contracts will establish in detail the works required on each section prior to a second tender for their execution. The scope will encompass plain-line renewal and, where necessary, localised interventions on infrastructure elements such as cuttings, embankments and drainage systems.
Sections included in the tender
The corridors concerned cover connections of strategic importance for both passenger and freight traffic, including some sections planned for future rail motorway services:
- Cortes de Navarra-Casetas ( 40.3 km) and Casetas-Zaragoza (8 km), on line 700 (Bilbao-Casetas).
- San Juan de Mozarrifar-Almudévar (36.5 km), on line 200 (Madrid-Barcelona).
- Quinto-Escatrón ( 39.3 km), Nopaspe-Faió/La Pobla de Massaluca (5.7 km) and Reus-Tarragona (17.8 km), on line 210 (Zaragoza Miraflores-Sant Vicenç de Calders via Reus and Tarragona).
- Massanes-Girona (27.6 km) and Vilamalla-Figueres (9.4 km), on line 270 (Cerbère-Barcelona).
- Almansa-La Encina (20 km), on line 300 (Madrid-Albacete-Valencia).
- Santa María de la Alameda-Ávila (53.1 km), on line 100 (Madrid-Hendaye).
- Vallecas-Vallecas Industrial ( 7 km), on line 930 (Atocha-San Fernando de Henares).
- Oviedo-Arriondas (69 km) and Arriondas-Unquera (71,4 km), on the metric gauge line 770 (Oviedo-Santander).
Continuing the policy of renewing the conventional network
This initiative forms part of Adif’s strategy to modernise the conventional rail network, which in recent years has encompassed renewals already completed — such as the Huesca–Canfranc and Torralba–Soria lines — as well as works currently under way, including Ourense–Monforte de Lemos–Lugo, Zaragoza–Teruel–Sagunto and Ronda–Bobadilla–Algeciras.
These are complemented by ongoing works on the Alcázar de San Juan–Cádiz and Sevilla–Zafra corridors, as well as design contracts in progress for the Granada–Almería and León–Monforte de Lemos routes.
The renewal of conventional infrastructure — which has long suffered from deferred maintenance and an excessive number of temporary speed restrictions (TSRs) — is essential to improving network reliability and capacity, both for medium-distance and commuter passenger services and for freight, demand for which is growing in step with the expansion of new rail motorway operations.