Wedoany.com Report-Nov 15, The Spanish government has approved a 64.7 million euro tender for renovating the Bobadilla-Algeciras line to make it suitable for a rolling highway. The Council of Ministers has given the go-ahead for this contract, which includes two infrastructure renewal projects on this conventional line. The first of these projects aims to improve the stability of a 7 km stretch of slope along which the line runs in Almargen, in the province of Málaga. The second project will adapt the gauge of 21 tunnels to the measurements required for the rolling highway service.

Specifically, the infrastructure works will include the widening of the tunnel section where it meets the new required gauge, and the superstructure, which will be re-centred by means of track shaving. These works do not include the electrification of the line. However, the new gauges will take into account the space required for the future implementation of this traction system.

The Ministry, through Adif, has launched an ambitious investment plan for the introduction of the AF service on the Algeciras-Madrid-Zaragoza ruling highway with a budget of 468 million euros. Implementing this service will be decisive in increasing the share of rail transport, both in the central branch of the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic corridor. It will also strengthen intermodality with traffic between Europe and Morocco.

On the Algeciras-Zaragoza route, there will be two daily trains in each direction in the initial phase, which will be increased to three daily trains in each direction one year after the start of the service with lorries from/to Morocco, Two daily trains (one in each direction) will be added from Huelva to Zaragoza, with lorries destined for the Canary Islands and the Huelva area, and four daily trains (two in each direction) will be added between Seville and Zaragoza, with lorries destined for the port of Seville and the rest of Andalusia.

In this way, around 12,000 train-kilometres per day will be covered and around 360 lorries will be transported on this route. 360,000 lorry-kilometres per day will be avoided on the roads. The implementation of the rolling highway service between Madrid and Zaragoza will receive European funding through the 'Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan'. Funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU'.