Spain’s Minister for Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, announced that Adif is finalising the work to put out to tender five design contracts for the Seville – Huelva high-speed rail.
The tenders will be launched during the first quarter of this year and involve the following sections:
- Section 1: Majarabique – Valencina de la Concepción
- Section 2: Valencina de la Concepción – Sanlúcar la Mayor
- Section 3: Sanlúcar la Mayor – La Palma del Condado
- Section 4: La Palma del Condado – Niebla
- Section 5: Niebla – Huelva
The five contracts will cover design work for these sections totalling 95 km for which a EUR 1.6 billion investment will be allotted by the Ministry. The construction of the line will allow Huelva to be integrated into the high-speed network, improving the province’s connectivity with the rest of Spain and, mainly, with Seville, a city with which the current travel time, which is around an hour and a half, will be drastically reduced.
“We are much closer to materialising the Seville – Huelva high-speed rail because we are not going to waste a second in continuing to move forward,” the minister said.
All sections will be designed with standard gauge and allow trains to operate at a maximum speed of 350 km/h. The project covers the construction of more than 30 bridges and viaducts, a 2 km tunnel and an intermediate station in La Palma del Condado.
Seville – Huelva high-speed rail will reduce journey time from 1 hour and 30 minutes to 30 minutes after will be completed and will include an intermediate station in La Palma del Condado.
The construction of this line will improve the quality of railway services, which will promote a transfer of passengers from private vehicles to railways, contributing to promoting more sustainable and safe mobility and reducing pollution and congestion.
Increased investment in Huelva
Within the objective of improving the railway services and connectivity of Huelva, the Ministry is carrying out actions to improve the conventional network. Since 2018, EUR 120 million have been invested in modernising the Huelva – Zafra line with, for example, the elimination of telephone blocking and the comprehensive renovation of infrastructure and track in five sections totalling 90.5 km in length. The works, which have a total budget of EUR 240 million, will be completed this year.
In addition, work is being done to improve the tracks, embankments and drainage network of the Huelva – Seville line, and progress is being made on the implementation of a railway motorway between the Port of Huelva and Madrid, with plans to extend it to Zaragoza.
In 2024 alone, the Ministry has invested EUR 70 million in strengthening the railway in Huelva, the largest in the last 24 years. Thus, in one year almost the same amount of work has been carried out as between 2011 and 2017, and more than 70 times more than in some years, such as in 2000, 2013 or 2014, where less than one million euros of investment was carried out.
In total, the Government has broken the record for investment in infrastructure in the province of Huelva with EUR 108 million executed, double that of 2018.
“We are working to reverse the historic infrastructure deficit that the province is suffering from and we are achieving it,” Óscar Puente said, before confirming that he will continue the investment path since there is “committed spending for the coming years” and the “rhythm of tendering in the province has doubled,” reaching an annual average of EUR 76 million compared to the EUR 37 million of the previous government.
The evolution of the railway in the province is closely linked to the activity of the Port of Huelva, which has an investment plan of more than EUR 280 million for the period 2024-2028. In 2025 alone, it is planned to invest EUR 75 million, leading the ranking of Andalusian ports together with Algeciras. The objective is to turn it into an energy and industrial cluster and promote intermodality and sustainability.
Among the actions underway, there is the extension of the railway terminal of the South dock, recently awarded, the remodelling of the Levante dock and the creation of Avenida Hispanoamérica, which is in progress, and the new Ro-Ro ramp of the South dock or the access and road reorganisation to the ZAL of Punta del Sebo. In addition, the new access to the outer port has just been completed.
Public-private collaboration is essential to boost the development of the port for which Adif and the company Exolum signed a collaboration agreement to facilitate the logistics and transport of liquid bulk from the production facilities to the storage terminals located in the ports of the Atlantic Corridor.
The first project consists of putting into operation the loading dock that Exolum has in the port of Huelva and that has been closed for several years, which will involve more investment and generate employment. The second project is the transport from the ENCE facilities in Huelva to the Exolum facilities in the port terminal and from there the unloading for subsequent loading onto a ship.
This alliance favors the start-up of new freight traffic in the Atlantic Corridor and will allow the volume of rail transport in Spain to increase by 5%.
As regards private investments, the Green Methanol Plant stands out, which will turn the port into the largest green methanol hub in Europe following the signing of the collaboration protocol between the Government and Maersk, and the Tartessos South Dock project for a ship docking terminal and storage of liquid energy bulk, which will generate some 310 direct jobs.
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