On 16 March, Public Works Minister Jose Blanco presided over the presentation of the Technical Study of the Mediterranean Corridor.

At almost 1,300 kilometres in length, the Mediterranean Corridor runs through four autonomous communities (Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia and Andalusia) and includes practically half of Spain’s population and 40% of the GDP. The corridor contains five of the ten most important metropolitan areas in Spain, as well as important nodes and centres of activity for freight transport. Following the entire coast from Figueres to Algeciras, the corridor will connect the most active ports on the Iberian Peninsula and leaders in freight traffic in the Mediterranean Sea. This is therefore a transport axis of strategic importance for both passenger and freight transport.

• The rail corridor that will connect the French border with Algeciras will be a transversal rail axis for high speed passenger and freight transport that will break away from the current radial network.

• The corridor will be fully operative by 2020, thus linking the main cities of the Mediterranean coast and providing access to their ports and logistic nodes.

• The Spanish government will allocate over EUR 51.3 billion to all actions planned on this corridor.

• The Ministry of Public Works has already made investments worth EUR 8.4 billion to put this rail artery into operation.