The deterioration of the railway track between Teruel, in the Spanish region of Aragon, and Sagunto port in Valencia, is resulting in loading constraints between these two points.

Currently the infrastructure can only to handle axle loads of 20 tonnes, which is 2.5 tonnes fewer than before. This issue is cutting the number of wagons between Zaragoza, 171 kilometres from Teruel, and Sagunto port, in a bid to avoid rail freight accidents. Zaragoza railway authority regularly removes wagons from the trains coming from the port of Bilbao.

Solve

The Spanish Ministry of Development is going to invest around 330 million Euros in updating this infrastructure, and expects to solve this issue in the autumn. The civil works will finish in 2022.

This railway is vital in connecting the Spanish Atlantic coast with the future Mediterranean Corridor and Spain’s east coast. Once the infrastructure is updated, it will be able to handle 44 weekly rail freight services between Teruel and Sagunto, which is 32 more than now.

Hub

Bilbao is a key Spanish Atlantic port, having short sea Shipping services with UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Zaragoza is also a logistics hub between the Spanish Atlantic and the Mediterranean coast, being an essential rail freight connection for car exports from Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen and General Motors (PSA Peugeot Citroen Group) factories in the regions of Basque Country, Navarre and Aragon in the Sagunto port area.