Atlantic Axis high-speed rail line

rail lines in Spain

The Atlantic Axis high-speed rail line, also called Atlantic Corridor high-speed rail line, is a high-speed railway line that links A Coruña and Vigo in Spain. The Atlantic Axis was inaugurated in April 2015.

History

Construction started in 2001 and the first section between La Coruña and Santiago de Compostela opened in 2009 and was electrified in 2011. The extension from Santiago de Compostela to Vigo completed in March 2015[1] and the entire line was inaugurated on 18 April 2015. The total investment of the project exceeded €3bn.[2]

The line was planned to be extended to the south towards the border between Spain and Portugal and with a further connection to the city of Porto including the longest railway bridge on the Iberian Peninsula for the 4.5 km crossing of the Minho River. It was also planned to be extended to the north from A Coruña to Ferrol. However, these plans were shelved in 2011.[2]

Features

The line has a length of 155.6 km of Iberian gauge track of 1,668 mm (5 ft 5 2132 in), which is due to be converted to Standard gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 12 in) in the future. It is an upgrade of the former 241 km non electrified single railway line between the town of Ferrol and the Portuguese border into a double electrified high-speed line for the part between A Coruña and Vigo. The new rebuilt railway permits mixed use traffic with a maximum design speed of 250 km/h for passenger trains.[3] The new line has 37 tunnels totalling 59.2 km, 38% of the total length and the longest is the 8.25 km tunnel beneath Vigo which connects the line with the new Vigo-Urzaiz station. It also has 32 major bridges, including a 2.4 km viaduct across the valley of the River Sar. The new line shorten the distance between A Coruña and Vigo by 22 km, from 178 km to 156 km, and cut the travel time from around 3 hours on the old railway down to 1 hour and 20 minutes on the new one.[2] The line is linked to the Madrid–Galicia high-speed rail line in Santiago de Compostela, which as of 2016 is under construction.

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References

  1. "Fase final de las obras del Eje Atlántico y de la nueva estación de Vigo-Urzáiz". fomento.gob.es. 30 March 2015. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Fernando Puente (20 April 2015). "Spain inaugurates Galicia high-speed line". International Railway Journal. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  3. "Eje Atlántico". Adif. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
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