Conference Calls For More Freight Routes To And From Spain
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette.
This is the first paragraph.
Salvador Galve, Chairman of the Railway Commission of the General Council of Industrial Engineers, presented the European Alliance for the Development of Railway Corridors in the Iberian Peninsula initiative at a conference held in Madrid on March 9.
These are some points from the article.
- Less than 4% of freight is currently transported by rail in Spain, compared with an average of 18% across the EU.
- The Spanish government wants to raise this to 20%.
- Incidentally, in the UK, rail freight is at a level of 5 %.
- Italy has seven main lines connecting it to its neighbours, Spain has only two!
- Spain also has a break of gauge, whereas the UK and Italy do not!
- Plans exist for more freight corridors in Spain, and linking these to ports in North Africa and logistics hubs in the rest of Europe.
- Zaragoza, could be turned into a key southern European logistics hub, linked by tunnels to the main line between Toulouse and Bordeaux.
But to me the most interesting plan is set out in this paragraph.
On March 1 the Infrastructure Ministry gave its provisional approval for study into the feasibility of converting the single track, non-electrified line from Huesca to Canfranc from 1 668 mm gauge to 1 435 mm gauge, ahead of any possible reconstruction of the through route to Pau in France in the longer term.
It has always been on my bucket list to visit the magnificent Canfranc station.
The Anonymous Widower 
Like you I have a romantic attachment to the concept of the Pay-Canfanc-Huesca line being renovated to provide another standard gauge option to Spain’s growing railway network.
Comment by fammorris | March 28, 2022 |