Spain will invest 816 million euros in rail and road connections for the Port of Barcelona. The Spanish government, infrastructure manager Adif and the Barcelona port have come to an agreement that will allow the port to be connected to the TEN-T Mediterranean Corridor.
The near-billion euro investment will enable the expansion and upgrading of rail and road infrastructure to the south of the Barcelona port, along the Llobregat river. Such works are considered essential to limit congestion on the already existing infrastructure. The new rail infrastructure will also link up to a current under-construction transport hub in the port, for which Adif and the Port of Barcelona signed a co-managing agreement in March.
No date has yet been set for the commencement of the infrastructure expansion and upgrades, but there is backroom talk of 2027 as the starting year, according to El Mercantil. In a few weeks, the first tender contracts are supposed to be awarded.
The funding for the 816 million euro investment will not solely come from the government. The Port of Barcelona has agreed to contribute around 200 million euros in financing. The remaining costs will be shared “more or less equally” between Adif and the government.
Long-awaited investments
The Catalan authorities have long insisted on such investments in the Barcelona port. Then-secretary for transport and infrastructure Isidre Gavín stated in 2022 that connecting the port of Barcelona to the Mediterranean Corridor is “not a necessity, but an urgency”.
Former Spanish minister of transport Raquel Sánchez concurred, saying that ports are “strategic for social cohesion and the construction of the country”. This is especially the case for the Barcelona port, she says: “It is a reference port in Asia to reach the south of France and the north of the Iberian Peninsula thanks to the Mediterranean Corridor. It is the engine of the Spanish economy and also of southern Europe.”
Also read:
- ‘Spain is light years away from reaching EU rail freight goals’
- Spain allocates an additional 43,5 million euros for eco subsidies
- Spain rejects proposal to bring forward Ruta de la Plata’s reopening
