The Spanish infrastructure manager Adif will construct a complementary rail track at the railway siding of Osorno, in the northern province of Palencia. It will handle 750-metre length trains in the railway service from Palencia to Torrelavega, in the northern region of Cantabria and connected with the Port of Santander on the Spanish Atlantic coast.

This project has a budget of 61,000 Euros and will be developed by the company Peyco, complementing several railway sidings in Mataporquera (Cantabria) and Venta de Baños (Palencia), in order to handle 750-metre length trains instead of 500-metre length trains.

This update has been a demand of the car manufacturers in Valladolid and Burgos, to decline their export costs through the Port of Santander. This rail freight service has only one rail track, and thence these updated railway sidings are essential for a smooth railway traffic every day.

Rail freight service

The Spanish government wants to extend the operation of 750-metre length trains after allowing passage from Barcelona to France and from Madrid to Valencia. The following milestone is the upgrade work in the station of Monzon, in Huesca to enable passage of these trains between Madrid and Barcelona.

Palencia is an unpopulated Spanish province but a key logistics hub between Madrid and the Atlantic coast due to its relevant cereal crop and its proximity to Valladolid and Burgos provinces, two important hinterlands for the automotive industry. Renault, Nissan and Antolin group, one of the largest European automotive component manufacturers will be some of the companies that will profit from the long freight trains.