The Government revives the hopes of the old railroad of the Ruta de la Plata less than three weeks before the elections. The Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda has launched a public tender for the feasibility study that allows reactivating this railway corridor, which links the cities of western Spain between Seville and Gijón and whose central section, between Astorga and Plasencia, was closed in the year 1982 due to the drop in the number of travelers.
The ministry will allocate almost one million euros —specifically €967,612— to the drafting of this study that will determine whether or not it is viable to build a new route that will connect cities such as León, Zamora, Salamanca or Cáceres by train. This new route must be adapted to the standards of the 21st century, since the original line is closed and dismantled in several of its sections, which have even been converted to greenways.
As La Información has been able to learn, the intentions of the current Executive are to study whether it is feasible to start up a new compatible line for passenger and freight rail traffic, but that allows it to be competitive in travel times, which would mean treating to achieve a minimum speed of 200 kilometers per hour in a good part of the layout compared to the original route, with unattractive average speeds.
Likewise, and in line with the plans of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) and the Goods 30 plan, the Ministry intends that this maritime route be included in the Atlantic Rail Corridor. Spain and Portugal and have as their origin or destination the different port facilities of the neighboring country, such as the Port of Sines, to the south of Lisbon and which has become one of the main ports on the Portuguese maritime façade.
The company that is awarded the tender must evaluate the technical and socioeconomic feasibility of this new route, and will have a maximum period of 24 months (2 years) to present its conclusions, which for the moment will already transfer the initial approval periods of this hypothesis. ethics infrastructure by the end of 2026.
As the Ministry has announced, this new study will allow the analysis of the different possible layout alternatives, “which will later be compared under technical, economic, environmental and operational considerations, resulting in a selected or optimal alternative.” It will be completed with shipments of demand studies and socioeconomic profitability.
