The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has announced the tender for two feasibility studies with one objective: to carry out actions to improve the high-speed line (LAV) between Madrid and Barcelona to increase the speed of this corridor to 350 km/h. This will allow the journey between both cities to be made in less than two hours, but the problem is with the state of the railway network in the rest of the country.
All focus in one line. Puente has explained that the reasons for focusing on this route are that “we need more capacity due to the increase in passengers on this line which, when it started, moved 2.2 million users and today there are 15 million, which means that 85% of the passenger share uses the train in this connection between cities and can still grow.”
Vibrations. The modernization of the line that has already been carried out on the Madrid-Seville route is now urgently needed for the one that connects Madrid with Barcelona: it is already close to having been in service for 20 years and reports have appeared that point to an increase in vibrations between Madrid and Calatayud.
Air traverses. For the renewal of the line, use will be made of a “unique Spanish technology in the world”, the aerotraviesa, which according to ADIF reduces the aerodynamic load in the space immediately above the ballast bed by 21%. This allows the operating speed of the train to increase by 12%: the aerodynamic load caused at 330 km/h by the current crossing would be equivalent to that generated by the aerocross at 370 km/h.
New stations. The plan also includes new access variants to both cities and the construction of two new high-speed stations in Parla (connected to the Madrid Cercanías network) and in El Prat de Llobregat. A new access to the Chamartín station from the east and south is also proposed as an alternative to the existing tunnel. that connects this station with that of Atocha. In this way, the minister indicated, the capital will be provided with an alternative route to the existing tunnel for trains coming from throughout the Mediterranean and Andalusia.
Impact on other lines. The Parla station will also have another purpose: to allow a connection with Madrid for all those services of the Madrid-Seville LAV and the Madrid-Levante LAV, with destination Madrid, in case of eventual incidents at the stations or in the standard gauge tunnel.
Giving room for maneuver for the future. This action, the Ministry states, will improve the current capacity of the Torrejón de Velasco junction—through which more than 250 trains circulate daily—and absorb the increases in traffic expected with the entry into service of the Madrid-Extremadura-Portuguese Border High Speed Line. the planned growth on the line between Madrid and Seville. The studies also include the construction of a new railway access that allows services to be provided from Lérida with origin and destination in Barcelona and without the need to circulate through Camp de Tarragona.
sticking out chest. Minister Óscar Puente stated in the announcement that with this improvement Spain will become “the only country, together with Chinawhich has an infrastructure of these characteristics.” Not only that, it has compared the costs with that is supporting uk: “They have 40,000 million and do not have a single kilometer of track installed. There is talk of a project that will cost 100,000 million pounds for 250 kilometers. We will have invested, from the beginning (of high speed) until the end of this year, in 4,091 kilometers, around 70,000 million euros. We have the lowest cost per kilometer in the world.”
Where can you travel in five hours by train from cities like Gijón, La Coruña or Badajoz? To Madrid, almost certainly… and little else. Source: Chronotrains.
The problem is the rest of Spain. The improvement plan makes sense from the point of view of the growing demand on that route, but it once again penalizes the rest of the railway network, which does not have high-speed lines… or even lines. We already talked about how from Chronotrains It is possible to see how from Gijón, La Coruña or Badajoz (in the image) in five hours the train coverage is very poor, and the problem is repeated everywhere. The connection with Madrid is normally well covered: the problem is the connection between cities other than Madrid and Barcelona.
Supply and demand. Here there must be a balance between supply and demand, and criticism is logical among those who see how other routes, even having a certain demand, they are neglected again and again. Platforms like “Soria NOW!” they manifested recently claiming that “the only train that passes through Soria is the one of excuses”, and the same thing happens with others like Teruel Exists or the concentrations that for years They demand a “decent train” in Extremadura, although in the latter region there is somewhat more hopeful newsand the AVE to Galicia is also proving to be a real success.
Image | Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility
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