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Project description
This project is part of the Atlantic branch of Priority Project 3 (Paris-Madrid high speed railway line) and covers the section between Arrazua/Ubarrundia and Mondragón in the Basque Country in Spain. |
It supports the construction of the following high speed railway lines in the provinces of Álava and Guipúzcoa:
- Arrazua/Ubarrundia-Legutiano (section completed)
- Legutiano-Eskoriatza (tunneling ongoing)
- Eskoriatza-Aramaio (works ongoing)
- Aramaio-Mondragón (works ongoing)
Due to the mountainous landscape of this region, the works include the construction of a series of viaducts and tunnels.
Benefits of the project
Once fully complete, the project will boost the competitiveness of rail transport between Madrid and the cities located along the affected corridor (Valladolid, Burgos, Vitoria, Bilbao and San Sebastián).
The project also aims to substantially improve travel time along this line by replacing conventional rail transport with high speed trains and by creating a faster direct rail connection between the cities involved. Once the entire line is complete, passengers will be able to travel from Madrid to Bilbao in 2h30min, compared with the current journey of over five hours. Safety will also be improved through modern signalling and train control systems (ERTMS).
Local and regional rail traffic — both passenger and freight — will benefit once the project is complete: passengers will take advantage of faster travel times, and business customers will profit from the reliability of the new infrastructure. The high speed line will increase rail’s share from 3% to 21% of the total trips between Madrid and the various cities along the rail line in the Basque Country.
Completion of this rail section will also have a positive effect on eastwest mobility in the EU, by completing one of the missing high speed rail sections needed to connect Paris to Madrid.
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Info and links
Member States involved:
Spain
Implementation schedule:
Start date: January 2007
End date: September 2012
Beneficiaries & Implementing bodies:
 Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias (ADIF)
View the info page about this project |
