ADIF, the Spanish Rail Infrastructure Manager, is taking new steps to develop a wide high speed network in Spain: on 18 April, ADIF commissioned a new 94 km-long section of the Atlantic Line, connecting the centre and south of Galicia, in the northwest of the country.

The new section runs between the historic city of Santiago de Compostela, the final destination of the world-famous Road to Santiago, and Vigo, one of the main ports in Spain, and links both cities to Coruña, in the north. The new infrastructure is an electrified double track line that allows for travel time reductions of up to nearly 50%.

The new Atlantic Line is therefore currently155 km long (Coruña-Vigo), and in the near future will be connected to the rest of the Spanish high speed network, when the works between Ourense and Valladolid are completed. It is also expected to extend down to Portugal at a later date.

ADIF manages around 2,400 km of UIC gauge high speed lines and around 500 km of conventional (Iberian gauge) lines upgraded for high speed.
It is currently building an additional 1000 kilometres of new high speed lines that will be commissioned this year, connecting several important cities to the high speed network, thus expanding the benefits of high speed to new regions.

(Source: ADIF)