The difference in railway gauges between the Iberian peninsula and the rest of Europe remains a significant bottleneck for international rail freight services. However, it seems that the issue might be solved soon, at least in the Catalunya region. ”The forecast is that in two or three years we will have European gauge throughout Catalunya”, said the region Secretary of Mobility and Infrastructure Manel Nadal.
The priority remains the coastal line, with a missing link between Castellón de la Plana and Tarragona which would connect Barcelona to Valencia. After that, efforts should be redirected towards upgrading the Tarragona-Lleida-Zaragoza line, Nadal pointed out. The line is already in standard gauge, but Nadal is now pushing for doubling the track, at least in some key sections.
To this end, Nadal recently asked the Commissioner of the TEN-T Mediterranean Corridor Josep Vicent Boria for the creation of a new rail standard gauge terminal in Lleida, between Tarragona and Zaragoza. Nadal’s request follows the one brought forward by the mayor of Lleida, which aims at creating a logistics hub for the agro-food industry, as Spanish media El Pais mentioned. Boria said that the requests will be looked into, but that the issue of financing the projects still needs to be analysed.