The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has listed for 1.8 million euros (including VAT) the drafting of the project to build the 3.2 km link, which will advance in three years the implementation of high-speed circulations between Cantabria and the center of the country, as announced by Minister Óscar Puente on his recent visit to Santander.
With this, the capacity and reliability will be improved, as well as the travel time with the construction of this new connection that will represent an investment of about 65 million euros.
The link, to be executed through Adif AV, will connect, at the height of the Palentine town of Nogales de Pisuerga, the route of the high-speed line (LAV) under construction between Palencia and Alar del Rey (of 78.4 km), with the current conventional railway line Palencia-Santander.
In this way, it will allow to put into service this first route of the high speed - once the construction is finished - and continue along the conventional line the route to the capital of Cantabria, while completing the construction of the second route of the line between Alar del Rey and Reinosa (of 51.4 km), in the phase of drafting the project.
New 3.2 km link and two viaducts
The connection will start, drawing a curve, from the end of the stretch of the high-speed line Calsalvo de Boedo-Alar del Rey, the last of the five under construction. After crossing between the link of the A-67 and Nogales, it runs in a straight line in a stretch that will be located an exchanger of width (device that adapts its rolling to the different track widths) and is completed with two viaducts that circumvent a plain (432 m) and the river Pisuerga (280 m).
The performance includes the 2.7 km eastward travel of the conventional Palencia-Santander line, so that it shares traces with the new connection and minimizes its impact on the environment.
Once the Alar del Rey-Reinosa route is completed and the new high-speed line is operational in its 130 km between Palencia and Reinosa, the connection will be maintained to reinforce the capacity and versatility of the network and allow connections that combine conventional and high speed.
High speed development to Cantabria
The Ministry promotes the Palencia-Santander connection with a global investment of 1.7 billion euros to promote high-speed mobility between Cantabria and the rest of the country, strengthening the reliability and capacity of the infrastructure and reducing travel times.
Thus, progress is made in the construction of the first five sections of the LAV, which add up to 78.4 km (Palencia Norte; Palencia Norte-Amusco; Amusco-Osorno; Osorno-Calsalvo de Boedo; and Calsalvo de Boedo-Alar del Rey) and in the contracting of the project of the section with which the high-speed infrastructure will reach Cantabria, the Alar del Rey-Reinosa (51.4 km).
In addition, it promotes capacity increase actions of the conventional line that completes the Reinosa connection to Santander.
This action contributes to SDGs 9 (infrastructure, reliable, sustainable and quality), 7 (sustainability) and 8 (economic growth and job creation. The drafting of the platform construction project for the Palencia Alar del Rey High-Speed Line can be co-financed by the European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).