Óscar Puente announces actions to increase to 350 Km/h the high speed Madrid-Barcelona that will reduce the times between both cities in less than 2 hours

• The minister has reported on the tender for two feasibility studies, which also include the new variants of access to both cities and the construction of two new AV stations, in Parla and El Prat de Llobregat.
• According to Puente “we went from being on the defensive to the offensive to progress in the railway infrastructure. These actions will allow more services, less time, more users, more territorial structuring and flexibility of the exploitation.”
• AYes, a new access to Madrid Chamartín from the east is going to be studied with a branch to the south, providing an alternative access to trains from all over the Mediterranean and Andalusia.
• In addition, it is the first step for the future high-speed station in Parla, connected to Cerca, which will make it possible to stop the Andalucia-Catalonia transversal trains.

The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has announced the tender for 2.3 million euros (VAT included) of the contract to develop two feasibility studies that have the objective of analyzing actions to improve the high-speed line (LAV) Madrid-Barcelona to increase the speed of this corridor to 350 Km/h and reduce the distance between both cities to less than 2 hours.

In addition, the studies include new variants of access to both capitals and the execution of two new high-speed stations in Parla and in the Prat de Llobregat.

Puente affirmed that “today is a starting point day in which we move from being defensive to offensive to progress in the railway infrastructure and keep Spanish high speed at the head of the world. These actions will allow more services, less time, more users, more territorial structuring and flexibility of the exploitation.”

Puente has reported on these studies in a Informative Breakfast held today in Madrid, organized by Europa Press. In particular, one of them will analyze in two phases the improvement of the Madrid-Barcelona-French border LAV and new variants of access to Madrid and Barcelona and, the other, the viability of the station El Prat de Llobregat AV.

The minister pointed out that “this will have an impact on the whole network of our country, because it affects transits throughout Spain. This is a strategic action for the future of rail transport in Spain”.

Improvement and increase of the speed in the LAV Madrid-Barcelona

Óscar Puente, in his speech, detailed the reason for these studies for the LAV Madrid-Barcelona. In particular, the reasons are that “we need more capacity in the face of the increase in passengers in this line that, when it started, moved 2.2 million users and today there are 15 million, which means that 85% of passengers use the train in this connection between cities and it can still grow”.

In addition, the minister has pointed out that the route already allows to go at 350 km/h. “We are going to start with the renewal of the line, after the end of Madrid-Seville. This will mean less than 2 hours of travel, thanks to the renovation and the new accesses to both cities, with more fluidity in the accesses and more flexibility when there are incidents,” he said.

The first phase of the first of the studies will analyze global actions to improve the current LAV Madrid-Barcelona-French Border, aimed at:

- Increase the circulation speed, up to the original design speed of the infrastructure, from 300 to 350 km/h. It takes advantage of the fact that the route is designed for those speeds and a unique Spanish technology is implemented in the world as is the Aerotraviesa, which has similar maintenance costs with better performances and prevents the ballast at those speeds from impacting the bottom of the train.

- Reduce travel times to less than two hours between the different commercial relations of the line, to improve the competitiveness of the railway offer as a whole of the corridor.

- To achieve an increase in capacity, so that the supply of services can be increased in the future, both in the global line and in intermediate relationships.

- Generally increase the efficiency and reliability of railway operations.

New Access to Madrid Chamartín

A new access to Madrid Chamartín Clara Campoamor is proposed from the east and south, alternative to the existing tunnel that links this station with the Madrid Puerta de Atocha Almudena Grandes. In this way, the capital will be provided with an alternative itinerary to the existing tunnel of trains coming from all over the Mediterranean and Andalusia

This connection would allow to provide services of the Barcelona – Madrid corridor with origin and/or destination in the Madrid-Chamartín-Clara Campoamor station, without the need to use the tunnel in standard width existing between the Madrid-Puerta de Atocha-Almudena Grandes and Madrid-Chamartín-Clara Campoamor stations.

In this way, the following functional scenarios at the northern end of the variant will be analyzed at least:

- Connection of the Madrid-Barcelona LAV with the Madrid-Valladolid LAV exclusively in the southern direction, towards the northern head of the standard width beach of the Madrid-Chamartín-Clara Campoamor station.

- Double north-south connection, allowing full interconnection between the corridors of the LAV Madrid-Barcelona and the LAV Madrid-Valladolid, without the need to pass through the Madrid-Chamartín-Clara Campoamor station. This double connection would allow a “north knot” of high-speed access to Madrid to be configured in the future.

Depending on the proposed routes and their feasibility, the following actions could additionally be considered:

- Execution of an intermediate station in the variant that provides service to the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport.

- Closing of the triangle at the southeast end of the variant, by connecting it with the LAV Madrid-Barcelona itself in the southern sense. This connection would allow the provision of services of the LAV Madrid-Seville and the LAV Madrid-Levante to the new “north knot” of Madrid, without the need to circulate through the UIC wide tunnel between Atocha and Chamartín.

New high-speed station in Parla

The study includes a new high-speed station in Parla, connected to the Madrid Neighbourhoods network, which will allow north-south high-speed trains, Andalucia-Catalonia, to have the possibility of stopping in this town in the south of Madrid, which has an area of influence of more than 1.26 million inhabitants and in which, in a range of 15 minutes, 4.7 million people would have access and in less than 1 hour, about 6 million potential users.

This action will have a double purpose:

1. To have a connection in the surroundings of Madrid for possible AV passing services, without having to rely on the Madrid-Puerta de Atocha-Almudena Grandes or Madrid-Chamartín-Clara Campoamor stations.
2. Allow a connection with Madrid for all those services of the LAV Madrid-Seville and the LAV Madrid-Levante, destined for Madrid, in case of possible incidents in the stations or in the tunnel in standard width.

The analysis of this station will be done according to its impact, both in the operation of the LAV Madrid-Seville and the LAV Madrid-Levante, and in the network of Neighbourhoods. Likewise, a demand study will be carried out to determine the potential capture of such a station, based on various traffic and service scenarios to be provided in it.

The new station in Parla will allow to optimize the current node of Torrejón de Velasco, analyzing the feasibility of executing the infrastructures necessary to increase its effective capacity. It seeks to make possible the simultaneous routing, in the same sense, of services between the LAV corridor Madrid-Seville and Madrid-Chamartín-Clara Campoamor, as well as between the LAV Madrid-Levante and Madrid-Puerta de Atocha-Almudena Grandes.

This action is key not only to improve the current capacity of the node —through which more than 250 trains circulate daily—, but also to absorb the increases in traffic expected with the entry into service of the LAV Madrid–Extremadura–Portuguese Border and the expected growth in the LAV Madrid-Seville.

Sustainable, Secure and Connected Mobility Strategy 2030

These actions respond to the objectives of the Sustainable, Secure and Connected Mobility Strategy 2030, aimed at improving social cohesion, economic growth and addressing real mobility problems. The railway mode of transport aligns with these objectives and contributes to sustainable mobility from a social, economic and environmental point of view.

Moreover, in 2022 the Ministry approved the Indicative strategy for the development, maintenance and renewal of railway infrastructure, framed in the current legislation of the Railway Sector and whose main mission is to establish a financial framework and priorities of railway planning, establishing a set of basic guidelines aimed at satisfying the future needs of mobility and the financial sustainability of the railway system.

Downloadable material with video, presentation and photographs of the act a via this link.