Adif is investing EUR 107 million in adapting the Madrid-Zaragoza section to future Highway Railway (AF) services on the Algeciras-Zaragoza route, for which more than 60% of the planned global investment, amounting to EUR 468 million, has already been mobilised.
The company has awarded the contract for the adaptation of the railway gauge of tunnels and overpasses to the dimensions required by the semi-trailers, which will use the Madrid-Zaragoza AF service. The investment amounts to EUR 78 million and will involve work on 40 overpasses and 26 tunnels on the conventional line, located in the provinces of Madrid, Guadalajara, Soria and Zaragoza.
Specifically, work will be carried out on the infrastructure, such as the expansion of tunnel sections and platform cuts; and the superstructure, with the renewal of sleepers, rails and ballast, as well as drainage and electrification works.
The adaptation of the gauge in the tunnels and overpasses located between San Fernando de Henares and Santa María de Huerta (Soria) will be carried out by the joint venture made up of Contratas y Ventas Convensa, Ferrovial Construcción, Vías y Construcciones and Agrupación Guinovart Obras y Servicios Hispania, while those located between Santa María de Huerta and Zaragoza will be carried out by the joint venture formed by Tecsa Empresa Constructora and Dragados.
Madrid-Zaragoza Highway Railway: Extension of sidings
As part of the work on the Madrid-Zaragoza line to develop the Railway Motorway, Adif has also put out to tender for EUR 8.9 million the extension to 750 m of the sidings at the stations of Arcos de Jalón (Soria) and Sigüenza (Guadalajara).
This project will enable the parking and crossing of trains of interoperable lengths, increasing the capacity, efficiency and competitiveness of the line to boost rail freight transport.
These investments are in addition to the 20 million euros allocated to the supply of rail and sleepers, which will be used both for the expansion of sidings and for the adaptation of gauges on the section.
60% of the planned investment has been mobilised
Adif has an ambitious investment plan underway to launch high-speed train services on the Algeciras-Madrid-Zaragoza route, for which it has already mobilised EUR 287 million.
The launch of the Algeciras-Zaragoza AF service will be crucial to boosting the increase in the share of rail transport, both in the central branch of the Mediterranean Corridor and in the Atlantic. In addition, it will strengthen intermodality in the Iberian Peninsula with traffic between Europe and Morocco.
The tendering of the works to adapt the gauges on the route between Madrid and Algeciras is planned for the second half of the year. Specifically, on the AF Algeciras-Zaragoza route, which runs between the Port of Algeciras Bay and the Zaragoza Plaza terminal, work will be carried out on 174 structures: 43 tunnels and 131 overpasses.
The contracting of track extension works to 750 m at 11 stations will also be undertaken, which will reinforce the efficiency and competitiveness of the route; as well as the consolidation works on the Almargen slope (Málaga), where the platform and track will be renovated over 7 km; an action that will improve the operability of the infrastructure for all traffic on the Bobadilla-Algeciras section.
The investments include the implementation of the Automatic Banalized Block (BAB) between Guadalajara and Calatayud -already contracted-, a system that guarantees the distance between trains by means of signals.
360 trucks ‘on board’ the train every day
There will be 6 daily trains (three in each direction) running on the Algeciras-Zaragoza route with trucks to/from Morocco, plus 2 daily trains (one in each direction) from Huelva to Zaragoza, with trucks to/from the Canary Islands and the surrounding area of Huelva; and another 4 daily trains (two in each direction) from Seville to Zaragoza, with trucks to/from the Port of Seville and Andalusia.
In this way, approximately 12,000 km of trains will be carried out daily and some 360 trucks will be transported on this route, avoiding 360,000 km of truck traffic on the road every day.
Continuation of services to Tarragona
The Algeciras-Zaragoza AF services will continue from Zaragoza to Tarragona, via Lleida, a section that links the main production and consumption nodes of the Iberian Peninsula, Madrid and Barcelona, and forms part of the flows from the centre and south with the northeast of Spain and the rest of Europe.
Adif has just put out to tender for EUR 2.8 million for the drafting of the projects to adapt the gauges of 6 tunnels and 16 overpasses to the traffic generated by these services on this stretch of Iberian gauge. The planned investment amounts to more than EUR 60 million.
This line, the most in-demand in the entire railway network, with more than 100 trips/week in each direction, will also make possible future services on the routes from Vitoria to Tarragona and Barcelona, taking advantage of the synergies between maritime and rail transport.
2 routes in operation and 15 in progress
AF is a freight transport service that loads road trailers or semi-trailers, using specialized wagons. The initiative offers a competitive and collaborative logistics solution with significant savings, both in external costs and in GHG emissions. Emissions from road compared to rail are 4.7 times higher (annual savings: 620,000 tn CO2).
Adif has two high-speed train routes in service: Valencia-Madrid (in Iberian gauge) and Barcelona-Le Perthus (in standard gauge). It is also working on 15 routes, 12 in Iberian gauge and 3 in standard gauge, after receiving, through its Office of Support and Advice to the Railway Authority (OAA), the interest of logistics operators, port authorities and railway companies.
The deployment of the AAFF is part of the set of actions that Adif has underway (development of strategic logistics nodes, rail-port connections, etc.) to increase the transport of goods by rail in Spain, with the aim of advancing towards more sustainable, competitive, multimodal and safe mobility.
These actions contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 8, aimed at promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth; and 9, which has among its goals the development of reliable, sustainable, resilient and quality infrastructures.
The implementation of the Madrid-Zaragoza Railway Highway will have European funding through the “Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. Financed by the European Union – NextGenerationEU”.
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