{"id":358743,"date":"2026-01-30T20:53:50","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T10:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=69008"},"modified":"2026-01-30T20:53:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T10:53:50","slug":"operators-in-the-dark-over-resumption-of-france-spain-traffic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=358743","title":{"rendered":"Operators in the dark over resumption of France-Spain traffic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rail operators remain in the dark\u00a0over the resumption of freight trains between France and Spain. The closure of the Rubi Tunnel near Barcelona, for safety reasons following severe weather, has brought rail freight traffic to a near-standstill for the past week.<\/strong>
\n<\/span>Freight trains are no longer allowed to cross the Pyrenees<\/a> and are being parked on the French side, notably at Le Soler, near the border city of Perpignan. DB Cargo France’s president and CEO, Alexandre Gallo, told RailFreight.com that the company has six trains parked and waiting in France and four in Spain since last week. It has also put on hold scheduled train departures from Germany. \u201cWe are far from being the only operator impacted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gallo underlined that Spain\u2019s rail infrastructure manager ADIF had given no indication s to when the freight trains would be able to operate again. DB Cargo France normally operates 20 round trips per week between Germany and Spain. Half of the train loads carried are made up of new vehicles and spare parts and the other half are combined transport shipments.<\/p>\n

Restricted access to port of Barcelona<\/h2>\n

According to the operator of the Perthus Tunnel, LFP Perthus, many trains remain immobilised, particularly on the Perpignan international network, due to lack of access to the port of Barcelona. \u201cThis situation does not only affect France, as several of these trains originate in other European countries, such as Belgium, Germany and Poland, among others, shipments,\u201d a spokesperson told RailFreight.com. Since earlier this week, however, one or two trains per day have been running to the Port of Barcelona\u2019s new La Llagosta terminal managed by Combiconnect (Hupac\/TP Nova). But operations remain disrupted because the terminal is not yet in its final configuration.<\/p>\n

‘No indication of reopening date’<\/h2>\n

\u201cAt this stage, there is no visibility on when the problem in the Rub\u00ed Tunnel will be resolved international freight traffic will return to normal. Stakeholders in several countries, as well as the European Corridor 6, are working together to find temporary solutions and provide the best possible service despite this exceptional situation,\u201d the spokesperson added. For its part, Rail Logistics Europe (RLE), which groups SNCF\u2019s rail freight interests, said the current state of Spanish rail infrastructure and in particular, the Rubi Tunnel, in the aftermath of Storm Harry, did not allow freight trains to run.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no indication at this stage as to when traffic might resume. The matter is of course in the hands of ADIF. It is difficult to say more at this stage,\u201d a spokesperson for RLE told RailFreight.com. Traffic handled by RLE\u2019s unit Captrain has been impacted in France and Spain \u201cfor which we are identifying solutions on a day-to-day basis for our customers, mostly and where possible, in using combined transport to allow border crossings. RLE’s other activities are not affected and some of them could even provide an alternative such as VIIA in Le Boulou or S\u00e8te,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rail operators remain in the dark\u00a0over the resumption of freight trains between France and Spain. The closure of the Rubi Tunnel near Barcelona, for safety\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,343,471,47,19429,1024],"tags":[12634],"class_list":["post-358743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-france","category-infrastructure","category-news","category-rail-news","category-rubi-tunnel","category-spain","tag-railfreight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t