The train now arriving has been almost 20 years in waiting

The first high-speed line in Asturias will be inaugurated this Wednesday with the presence of King Felipe VI and the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, on a first route that will run between Madrid and Oviedo, after 19 years of works and after an investment that reaches 4 billion euros.

The infrastructure that will allow this new milestone in the country’s railway history will be the new Pajares Bypass, a 50-kilometre-long section, of which 80% runs in tunnels, and in which up to 4,000 people have worked during the lengthy construction time.

Work began in 2004 and, despite its opening scheduled for 2010, the geological and morphological complexity of the mountain massif it crosses has caused a delay of up to 13 years. In fact, one of the 12 tunnels it has will be 25 kilometres long, making it the seventh longest in the world.

The depth at which this tunnel runs, which is longer than the island of Manhattan, reaches 1 kilometre, which is equivalent to the height of the Four Towers of Madrid, one on top of the other, or the Burj Khalifa skyscraper.

The original infrastructure was inaugurated on August 15, 1884, by Kings Alfonso XII and María Cristina and, although it has become obsolete, it was still used. The new variant will cut travel time between the capital and the region with current trains by more than an hour.

Specifically, Renfe will begin the first commercial operations on this route on Thursday with at least three daily circulations, a fourth from Monday to Saturday and an additional one on Fridays in the Madrid-Gijón direction. In the opposite direction there will be a sixth service, all with Alvia and Intercity trains (in no case will they be AVE since they have to change track gauge).

The high-speed train will run from Madrid to Pola de Lena (the first stop already in Asturian territory), with stops in Segovia, Valladolid, Palencia and León. Beyond Pola de Lena it will stop in Mieres, Oviedo and finally in Gijón, although at that point it will no longer be high speed, but will share the track with the Cercanías trains.

Therefore, in the first phase, from Madrid to Oviedo it will take between 3 hours 39 minutes and 3 hours 58 minutes, depending on the number of stops. However, when Renfe finally receives the new Avril trains from Talgo, it will be cut to 2 hours 43 minutes, compared to the 4 hours 28 minutes that this route currently takes.

The country’s main construction companies have participated in the construction of this work, such as Acciona, ACS, FCC, Ferrovial, Sacyr or San José, or in addition to others such as Azvi, Copcisa, Asch, Comsa and Sando.

In addition to the King and Pedro Sánchez, the new Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, will also travel on the inaugural trip; and the presidents of Asturias and Castilla y León, Adrián Barbón and Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, respectively.

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