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The logistical pulling power of the Bobadilla-Ronda-Algeciras rail link, with a clear epicentre in Antequera's 'dry port' freight hub and with undoubted opportunities for the port of Malaga too, is mobilising millions of euros in investment in the province, as evidenced by work already underway by Spain's rail network infrastructure company Adif. This work, which has been pending for decades, has finally gained momentum. Such work, coupled with the layout requirements, involves complex work to increase the gauge of the tunnels and also to create new or longer sidings to be able to handle the huge freight convoys.
We are talking about 750-metre-long trains, the most competitive in Europe, capable of carrying large trailers and lorries. Such features produce unquestionable advantages: less traffic jams on the roads and rail, fewer emissions and improved journey times. These long convoys are the ones that allow operators to be profitable. Most of the stations on the line will be adapted to offer sidings for these freight services to wait. This allows for trains to pass on the mainly single-track line, also allowing for these sidings to be used in the event of an incident on the line and offer better punctuality.
The adaptation of the Bobadilla-Ronda-Algeciras railway line is part of a major rail transport link that runs to the French border from Zaragoza in Spain. Therefore it is easy to understand the strategic calling for this project.
"The adaptation of sidings will improve the punctuality of traffic, which is especially important for goods trains as they run on a single track," Adif sources told SUR.
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million euros invested by Adif in the extension of sidings in Campillos and Setenil de las Bodegas.
In this regard, the work done in Castellar de La Frontera (Cadiz province) has been in service since 2022, costing 174,190 euros (IVA sales tax included). Campillos town in Malaga and the Cadiz town of Setenil were in the next batch of improvements. Work in both locations is nearing completion, costing a total of almost six million euros. "In parallel to the above actions, progress is being made on the drafting of the projects for the Almargen and Gaucín sidings," Adif sources stated.
However, that is not the end of the story. The extension of the useful length of track to 750 metres at the stations of La Roda de Andalucía (Seville) and Bobadilla has just been put out to tender for 28 million euros.
In addition, tenders have been invited for sidings at four stations in the province of Cordoba (Pedro Abad, Fernán Núñez, Montilla and Puente Genil) with a budget of 36 million euros. All of this is in line with the work carried out in the San Roque Mercancías freight and logistics hub where they constructed three new sidings with a usable length of over 750 metres.
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This type of lorry-carrying rail service began operating in Spain for the first time in 2011 on the Madrid-Valencia line. Previously, the maximum that had been reached was a convoy of wagons up to 600 metres long. These convoys are not easy to operate. In other parts of the world like the United States, Canada and Australia, they charter even longer trains, typically one kilometre or longer.
It was actually the railway line to Valencia that was the first to apply the policy of taking lorries off the road and putting them onto trains. With such a policy Adif aims to reduce heavy traffic on the country's transport network by 10%.
The entire 'rail corridor' from Zaragoza involves 472 million euros of investment, 70% of which has already been mobilised. In Malaga, the gauge of 21 tunnels will have to be changed to adapt them to large convoys. The investment, including IVA tax, amounts to 78 million euros. The different projects, with a deadline of two years, are in the tendering phase.
360,000
kilometres covered by lorries per day are what Adif aims to save by starting up the Zaragoza-Bobadilla-Algeciras 'rail motorway'.
On the Algeciras-Zaragoza stretch of railway line there will be two daily trains in each direction in the initial phase, which will be extended to three daily trains going both ways one year after the start of the service, transporting lorries to and from Morocco. There will also be two daily trains (one in each direction) from Huelva to Zaragoza, with lorries to and from the Canary Islands and the area around Huelva. Lastly, there will be another four daily trains (two both ways) between Seville and Zaragoza, with lorries to and from the port of Seville and the rest of Andalucía.
In this way, approximately 12,000 kilometres will be covered daily by train and some 360 lorries will be transported on this route. This will avoid 360,000 kilometres of HGV traffic on the road per day.
The port of Malaga is not giving up in its efforts to have a branch of this hefty rail freight link coming to the port as it would directly benefit business there. To this end it plans to connect the line in Los Prados with a logistics centre linked to the land deal it made with Malaga city council for the future Auditorium. It will also be necessary to analyse the possibility of resuming the project to take the port railway underground and the need to adapt the gauges of tunnels such as the one at El Chorro.
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