by lpetrich
Spain inaugurates Galicia high-speed line | International Railway Journal - on April 18. Illustrated with a picture of a train going across one of its bridges, an under-deck truss bridge with the truss being painted light green. A rather atypical color. Also, A Coruña - Vigo upgrade completed - Railway Gazette
It runs Vigo - Santiago de Compostela, adding to the existing SdC - A Coruña line to complete the Atlantic Axis (Eje Atlántico). That line (Vigo - A Coruña) is about 155.6 km long, with both new and upgraded parts, and it is 21.8 km shorter than the original route. It has 37 tunnels, totaling about 59.2km, with its longest one being 8.25 km long. That one runs from Vigo's new Vigo-Urzaiz station. It also has 32 "major" bridges, including a 2.4-km viaduct across the Sar River. It reduces end-to-end travel times 50m to 1h 20m. Its current top speed is 200 km/h, but will be increased to 220 km/h when ETCS is installed, and to 250 km/h when it is converted to standard gauge. Finally, it is double-tracked and electrified.
The Atlantic Axis, along with SdC - Ourense, are both in Iberian gauge, and both are to be converted to standard gauge when the main HSR network is built out to it.
Spain to open 800km of high-speed lines in 2015 | International Railway Journal
Also to be opened:
It runs Vigo - Santiago de Compostela, adding to the existing SdC - A Coruña line to complete the Atlantic Axis (Eje Atlántico). That line (Vigo - A Coruña) is about 155.6 km long, with both new and upgraded parts, and it is 21.8 km shorter than the original route. It has 37 tunnels, totaling about 59.2km, with its longest one being 8.25 km long. That one runs from Vigo's new Vigo-Urzaiz station. It also has 32 "major" bridges, including a 2.4-km viaduct across the Sar River. It reduces end-to-end travel times 50m to 1h 20m. Its current top speed is 200 km/h, but will be increased to 220 km/h when ETCS is installed, and to 250 km/h when it is converted to standard gauge. Finally, it is double-tracked and electrified.
The Atlantic Axis, along with SdC - Ourense, are both in Iberian gauge, and both are to be converted to standard gauge when the main HSR network is built out to it.
Spain to open 800km of high-speed lines in 2015 | International Railway Journal
New lines that will open the northwest include Olmedo - Zamora - Sanabria (210km), Valladolid - Venta de Baños – León (163km) and the 50km Pajares Base Tunnel. To cut construction costs, Adif has installed standard-gauge single track on several sections of the first two lines, even though both have been designed and built to accommodate a double-track formation.The Olmedo - Zamora - Sanabria line branches off of the Madrid - Valladolid line a little south of Valladolid, and goes about 2/3 of the way to Ourense. The Pajares tunnel is in the remaining 1/3.
On the Pajares bypass, only one of the two tubes will open after 10 years of construction due to difficulties in controlling water ingress, and this will only be used by broad-gauge trains.
Also to be opened:
- Venta de Baños - Burgos (75 km), though it may not be done this year
- Monforte del Cid (near Alicante) - Murcia (62 km)
- Granada - Antequera (Córdoba - Málaga line) (100 km)
- Sevilla - Cádiz (145 km) upgrade
- Plasencia – Badajoz (165 km) (western half of Madrid - Portugal) - single-track, Iberian-gauge, non-electrified