• The Government of Spain, through Adif, the Government of Cantabria and the City of Santander also agree to increase funding commitments up to 334.5 million euros

The Monitoring Committee of the Santander Railway Integration Agreement held its eleventh meeting on Wednesday and agreed to extend the validity of the agreement for the project until the end of 2029 and increase funding commitments by adapting to construction projects.

The meeting, held in the Delegation of the Government of Spain in Cantabria, was attended by the Government delegate in Cantabria, Pedro Casares; the Minister of Development, Housing, Regional Planning and Environment, Roberto Media; and the Mayor of Santander, Gema Igualada, as well as representatives of Renfe Operadora and ADIF and the Commissioner for the Cantabrian Neighbourhood Plan, Antonio Berrios.

The main agreement adopted has been the processing of a second addendum to the agreement, which will extend its validity until the end of 2029, in line with current planning.

In addition, the need to increase the financial commitments, up to 334.5 million euros, to meet the amounts foreseen in the construction projects that will serve as the basis for the development of the integration works has been confirmed.

The Government of Spain, through ADIF, will finance both strictly railway actions, for a total of 212.75 million euros (without VAT), and 50% of actions not directly attributable to railway development, for 60.88 million euros (without VAT).

For its part, the Government of Cantabria will assume 30% of the non-railway actions (36.53 million euros without VAT), and the City of Santander the remaining 20% (24.35 million euros without VAT).

During the committee, the new design of the covering slab of the station has been presented, which increases its surface to exceed 52,000 square meters, to house the future Railway Museum.

In addition, it has been agreed that the replacement of the current surface parking is adapted to the future development of Calle Castilla, freeing up a wide space for the future pedestrian sidewalk annexed to the parking itself.

This space will be part of the approximately 25,000 meters released in the operation and the new car park will maintain the 500 current spaces and will incorporate the necessary elements for the operation of an installation according to the relevance of the Santander station.

HORIZON 2030

After the Monitoring Committee of the project, the government delegate, the councilor and the mayor agreed to highlight that the three administrations “walk together with the horizon of having the railway integration of Santander in the year 2030”.

The representative of the State has extolled that “when the public administrations work together, in a coordinated and united way, we can do very important things for Santander and for Cantabria” as this project will be, in which the Railway Museum will also be accommodated.

Casares pointed out that the addendum to the agreement agreed on Wednesday, although it will be signed in 2026, is a “definitive step” in what “will be a before and an after for the city of Santander” where, thanks to this project, there will be an “important urban transformation”.

For his part, the Minister of Development has highlighted the “joint work” between the three administrations and that shows that, “when we do things looking all in the same direction and that direction is the benefit of the citizens, things come and go” as in this railway integration, whose first works “we will see next year despite the fact that they seemed so far away”.

“If we continue to work like this, if we continue with this collaboration on the issues that are important for Cantabria, undoubtedly the results will continue to arrive and will be very good for all citizens of our autonomous community,” said Media.

And the Mayor of Santander welcomed the “productive and cordial meeting” in which the Commission approved the addendum to the project agreement and which is the result of “coordination and cooperation” for the “general good” and the “objective of improving” the Cantabrian capital.

To conclude, Equal has indicated that, in addition to the work of the administrations, the Santanderinos will have "much to say in this project" with which it will generate an usable area of 50,000 square meters for "use and enjoyment" of the neighbors.