The Pajares variant is slated to open next November, barring any further delays. It is the twenty-ninth of forty-three planned sections in Spain open to commercial traffic, according to calculations from the Railway Infrastructure Manager (Adif). The Ministry of Transport’s plans indicate fourteen sections will be opened in 2024 and beyond, including the León to La Robla segment, which ends at the Variante tunnels and is essential to linking the network to Asturias.
It has been 31 years and two weeks since Spain launched its high-speed era on April 21, 1992. The initial commercial service ran between Madrid and Sevilla, backed by an investment of 3 billion 250 million euros and a feat at the time as Europe’s longest high-speed line with a length of 476 kilometers. Since then, a sprawling network of high-speed trains has evolved across the country. Today, it spans 3,966.7 kilometers, making Spain’s system the longest in Europe and second only to China globally. More than 57,000 million euros have been invested in high-speed lines to date, with Adif planning a further 23,500 million euros leveraging European funds to support ongoing work and planned projects in the coming years. [citation: Adif]
Before Asturias, high-speed reached nine autonomous communities as either final destinations or key intermediate stops: Andalusia and Castilla-La Mancha (1992), Castilla y León, Aragón and Cataluña (2003), Comunidad Valenciana (2010), Galicia (2011), Murcia (2021) and Extremadura (2022). Four regions remained without high-speed service and are expected to receive it after Asturias: Cantabria, Basque Country, Navarra and La Rioja. [citation: Adif]
In the high-speed race, the Madrid-Seville corridor stood on the podium, followed by Madrid-Lérida and Zaragoza-Huesca segments, both opened in 2003. The route then entered the top ten with Madrid-Toledo in 2005; Córdoba-Antequera and Lleida-Tarragona in 2006; Madrid-Valladolid and Antequera-Málaga in 2007; Tarragona-Barcelona in 2008; and Madrid-Valencia in 2010. [citation: Adif]
Asturias saw a shift when the final run paused as work continued on the Bypass. New sections opened last year, including the Chamartín-Atocha tunnel, Plasencia-Badajoz (first stage), Venta-Burgos from Baños and Beniel-Murcia. Yet some components lag behind the Pajares variant, notably León-La Robla, which still requires at least another year of work and cannot yet be classified as high-speed. The plan is for AVE to reach Asturias by advancing through both high-speed and conventional sections. [citation: Adif]
What is the current status of studies for León-La Robla? Adif’s latest response indicates that the main contract, the second phase of the runway modernization with an estimated budget of 21 million euros, and related actions, is in the final draft stage. Work is also underway on another contract to improve the safety barriers for overpasses along the line, with the project presently in the development stage. The authority noted that the final budget would be defined during the drafting process. [citation: Adif]
Beyond León-La Robla, six more episodes are in active production: Tarragona-Vandellós and Castellón-Vandellós (both aimed at European scale), Vitoria-Bilbao-Irún (the Basque Y), Murcia-Almería, Palencia-Santander and Plasencia-Badajoz (second stage). There are seven additional projects or studies in the pipeline: Toledo-Plasencia, Burgos-Vitoria, Zaragoza-Pamplona, Almería-Granada, Orense-Vigo via Cerdedo, Orense-Lugo and Pamplona-Logroño. The government has signaled a cautious pace for higher-speed initiatives, prioritizing a balanced rollout and the reinforcement of existing corridors. [citation: Adif]