High-speed rail will connect Barcelona and Valencia in 2027

BarcelonaTraveling from Barcelona to Valencia by train is much more complicated than going to Madrid, even though the two cities are closer together. In the best-case scenario, the Euromed journey takes three and a half hours, an hour longer than traveling to Madrid. This centralized design of the rail network has hampered the connection between the Catalan and Valencian capitals for decades, and now seems closer to being remedied. The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, set a new timetable this Thursday for the Mediterranean Corridor, one of the major outstanding issues for strengthening the national rail network. He made this announcement before 2,500 business leaders gathered in Valencia, at an event organized for years by the Valencian Business Association (AVE) to demand the implementation of this infrastructure, and which is being held for the last time. According to Puente, Barcelona and Valencia will be connected by high-speed rail within two years. This objective will be achieved when the standard gauge conversion between Tarragona and Castellón is completed, work that will allow for international gauge trains to run on the route connecting Barcelona and Valencia. The development of the double-track line between Valencia and Castellón will remain pending, and the environmental impact statement will be requested in the coming weeks. The Socialist government also anticipates that the Mediterranean Corridor infrastructure, connecting Almería to the French border, will be completed by 2027. However, the minister has not set a date for the complete construction of the entire infrastructure, which will originate in Algeciras, because the section between Granada and Almería is the least developed and will also have to overcome significant technical complexities. Despite the continued delays, the progress on the Mediterranean Corridor coincides with the investment effort undertaken by the Spanish government since Pedro Sánchez took office. Since 2018, €8.327 billion has been put out to tender, of which €5.389 billion has already been spent, with works underway in all the autonomous communities through which the Mediterranean Corridor passes. According to the Ministry, during this period the percentage of infrastructure in service has increased from 21% to 36%, and the percentage under construction has risen from 45% to 83%. In Catalonia alone, new works worth nearly €917 million have been put out to tender and €1.397 billion has been spent, with a significant portion of the budget allocated to completing the long-delayed Sagrera station project. These works are "practically finished" with regard to the railway component of the future station, which will have represented an investment of €1 billion.

However, the new timeline hasn't entirely convinced the business leaders present at the meeting. "Every minister who's been through here has said the Mediterranean Corridor would be finished in three or four years. Let's hope the last time's the charm," said Juan Roig, president of Mercadona. "There will come a day when there's a minister we'll actually believe, but that day hasn't arrived yet," he added. In a week that also saw the announcement of studies to assess the possibility of connecting Barcelona and Madrid by high-speed rail in under two hours, at a speed of 350 kilometers per hour, Roig insisted that the Mediterranean Corridor works proceed at a "much faster" pace, while also lamenting the situation between Spain's second and third largest cities. "We don't want to travel at 350 km/h; we'd be happy just to exceed 100 km/h between Valencia and Barcelona," he criticized.

Freight transport

Beyond allowing travel from Barcelona to Valencia in less time, the Corridor will also, very importantly, enable the movement of more goods from one end of the Mediterranean coast to the other. In Catalonia, the Spanish government expects the La Langosta terminal, fifteen kilometers from Barcelona, ​​to be completed in the first quarter of 2026, and the access to the Seat plant to be operational in the second quarter of 2027. "The progress is tangible," the minister said. Access to the port of Barcelona is another major outstanding issue, underway for some years, but not progressing at the planned pace. "It will take time because they are very complex, but it has taken 20 years to unblock them, and now is a time for optimism," Puente remarked. Likewise, the connection to the port of Tarragona is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.