The Council of Ministers today authorised the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility to tender for 19 million euros (VAT not included) the drafting of the project to build the high-speed section between Alar de Rey (Palencia) and Reinosa (Cantabria), of 51.4 km, including the refurbishment of the Aguilar de Campoo station. This new section will allow the completion of Cantabria’s high-speed rail connection with the centre of the country.
The project, completed through Adif AV, will detail the work to build the platform of the new high-speed route (44.4 km), which will house double standard gauge tracks throughout the route; the access bypass to Aguilar de Campoo (7 km), single track, and the adaptation of the station to high-speed services and the future increase of passengers.
The execution of the route represents an estimated investment of 800 million euros, according to the informative study; an amount that will be concretized in the drafting of the project, and that shows the dimension of this action.
The new section will run from Alar del Rey and the Reinosa station, from where it will connect with Santander through the conventional network, renewed and duplicated in some sections.
To do this, a track gauge changer will be installed in the surroundings of the Cantabrian municipality of Matamorosa, before the crossing with the Hijar River.
The construction project of this new high-speed route will be structured in three subsections and with a stop in Aguilar de Campoo:
1. First subsection of 14 km between Alar del Rey and Aguilar de Campoo.
2. Second subsection between Aguilar de Campoo-Mataporquera (11.5 km) and the baipás of Aguilar de Campoo (7 km).
3. The third sub-stretch of 18.9 km between Mataporquera and Reinosa.
High speed connection with Cantabria is completed
The Ministry thus gives a decisive boost to the Palencia–Cantabria connection, to which it allocates a global investment of 1.7 billion euros, to promote the mobility and high-speed communications of the Autonomous Community with the center and the rest of the country, reinforcing the reliability and capacity of the infrastructure and reducing travel times.
The drafting of the project of the final stretch is addressed while progress is made in the construction of the other five subsections of the line between Palencia and Alar del Rey, which add up to 78.4 km:
- Palencia–Palencia Norte (1.3 km).
- Palencia Norte-Amusco (20.8 km).
- Amusco-Osorno (21.9 km).
- Osorno-Calsalvo de Boedo (20.7 km).
- Calsalvo de Boedo-Alar del Rey (13,7 km).
This action contributes to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 9 (infrastructure, reliable, sustainable and quality), 7 (sustainability) and 8 (economic growth and job creation.
European funding
This action may be co-financed by the European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).