The city of Valladolid, northwest of Spain’s capital Madrid, will see fewer freight trains crossing its centre thanks to the newly opened Eastern Bypass. The new, freight-reserved 17.5-kilometre line was officially inaugurated yesterday by a train loaded with Renault vehicles.
From now on, the new railway will remove up to eight trains from the infrastructure going through the city centre. The new bypass will also be connected to the future Valladolid Railway Complex, which will provide one single hub for freight trains rather than having various sparsely around throughout the city.
The new line starts in Pinar de Antequera, southwest of the Valladolid city centre. The main line continues through the city, while the new bypass goes around it along its eastern boundaries. The old line and the new bypass meet again near Santovenia de Pisuerga, in the northeast of Valladolid.
The Valladolid Railway Complex
The future rail freight terminal east of Valladolid is currently being built by Spain’s infrastructure manager Adif with an investment of almost 72 million euros. Adif has recently put out to tender the contract for operations at the terminal. The value of the contract is a little over 500,000 euros and would entail a 6-year lease with the option for to extend it to 20 years.
According to Adif, the Valladolid Railway Complex will be the largest facility of its kind in Europe. With 117,000 square metres dedicated to train handling, 14 tracks, a 63,000 square metre terminal and 43,000 more for a possible expansion, it “eill bring together all logistics-industrial, track maintenance, and rolling stock activities in a single space”, Adif stated.
The video shows the first train crossing the new Valladolid Eastern Bypass. Source: LinkedIn. © Spanish Ministry of Transport