The Spanish Ministry of Transport (MITMA) allocated 36,2 million euros to upgrade the sidings in seven stations to accommodate 750-metre freight trains between Zaragoza and Tarragona, in the northeast. According to them, this initiative will boost international gauge rail freight traffic along the Madrid-Barcelona axis, a key section of the TEN-T Mediterranean Corridor.

The seven stations will be Selgua, Marcén-Poleñino and Almudévar (Huesca), Fuentes de Ebro (Zaragoza), La Puebla de Híjar (Teruel), and Juneda and Raimat (Lleida). These investments are added to the 11,1 million euros that MITMA allocated for a similar project in three other stations: Chiprana and Nonaspe (Zaragoza), and Flix (Tarragona).

These developments are part of a plan to boost rail freight to and from the Spanish ports of Barcelona and Tarragona. To further increase the presence of rail at the port of Barcelona, MITMA recently put out a tender for the project of the southern rail entrance. New railway infrastructure will be developed to connect the Can Tunis terminal and the L’Hospitalet-Can Tunis section.

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