Ministry of Public Works opens A Coruña-Santiago de Compostela-Ourense High-Speed Railway Line

The new high-speed railway line will enable increased maximum speeds, greater safety and reliability in the management of railway traffic and, therefore, a general reduction in travel times and increased quality of the railway service.
The benefits brought by this new infrastructure also include increased safety through the use of cutting-edge automatic train operation systems and the absence of level crossings along the route.
The entry into service on Sunday of the Ourense-Santiago-A Coruña High-Speed Railway Line has brought forward the initially expected date for an Ourense-A Coruña connection, which had previously been set for 2012. The Ministry of Public Works has thus complied with its commitment to open the first high-speed line in Galicia in 2011.
The newly-built high-speed railway line between Ourense and Santiago has required an investment of 2,547 million euros and reduces the journey distance between the two regional capitals by 38.9 kilometres from 126 km to 87.1 km.
The route required some highly complex construction solutions due to the complicated orography of the terrain. It was necessary to construct 31 tunnels (a total of 29.3 km underground) and 38 viaducts (a total of 20.4 km in length). More than 57% of the route runs through tunnels or over viaducts.
Comprehensive improvement work was carried out on the previously existing line between Santiago and A Coruña. The work included track doubling and by-passes on the previous route, and the complete electrification of the 52 kilometres of track between the two cities.
Following this improvement work, the journey distance between the two cities has been reduced by almost 13 kilometres. The line now has 17 tunnels (20.2 kilometres in total) and 10 viaducts (2.8 kilometres in total length). The tunnels and viaducts account for 37.4% of the total route. The length of the Nemenzo (3,177 metres), Meirama (3,468 metres) and Bregua (2,993 metres) tunnels, as well as the Valiñas viaduct (744 metres), make them particularly noteworthy achievements.
The new high-speed railway line consists of double electrified track with high-speed parameters and has been designed for a maximum speed of 350 km/h. Bringing the high-speed railway network to Galicia also required improvement works to be carried out on the stations in A Coruña, Santiago de Compostela and Ourense.

The Madrid-Galicia High-Speed Railway Line is being co-financed in the 2007-2013 period by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the 2007-2013 Operational Programme of Galicia with estimated aid amounting to 201.2 million euros.
The European Investment Bank is also involved in the financing of new high-speed railway lines in Spain.

The Medium Distance Rail Service using the old conventional line between Ourense and Santiago will continue to serve the towns of Lalín and O Carballiño with six trains per day (three in each direction), and will maintain its connections to other trains on the Medium Distance network in Galicia and the Talgo service, which links this region to Madrid.

The implementation of the Avant service in Galicia brings a new feature to this Medium Distance service: the new Abono 10 card, which joins the 20 and 50 journey Abono Tarjeta Plus cards that already exist for this high-speed service. This new 10 journey card will provide a saving of 15% at a price of 8.93 euros per journey between A Coruña and Santiago, 11.48 euros between Santiago and Ourense, and 19.13 euros when travelling the complete distance.
In order to cater for those passengers who frequently use RENFE services, various types of discount are available based on the number of journeys. A 20 journey Abono Tarjeta Plus card provides a saving of up to 31%, while the 40 journey Abono Tarjeta Plus card saves 53% and a 50 journey Abono Tarjeta Plus card provides a saving of up to 57%.
One-way tickets will be sold at a price of 13.50 euros between Santiago and Ourense, 10.50 euros between A Coruña and Santiago, and 22.50 euros when travelling between A Coruña and Ourense.

Besides quality and speed, the Avant service guarantees that its passengers will arrive at their destination on time thanks to the RENFE punctuality commitment. If your train arrives more than 15 minutes late, RENFE will refund you 50% of the ticket price. A full refund will be given to anyone whose train arrives more than 30 minutes late.

The Avant service in Galicia will be provided on the latest generation of rolling stock; the Class 121 trains manufactured by CAF-Alstom. These are variable gauge trains and have been especially designed to cover the Medium Distance services on UIC and conventional gauge lines.
This train has a total number of 280 seats (economy class only configuration), plus two additional places for persons with reduced mobility, and provides greater comfort and quality to passengers. The Class 121 train also has plug sockets on all seats and a vending machine area selling drinks and snacks.
Furthermore, the three stations served by the new Avant service will have ground service staff to receive passengers at the access control gates and an 'Atendo' service for those passengers who require special attention when travelling, as well as self-service ticket machines. RENFE has installed a new Information and Customer Service Point at the station in Santiago to coincide with the launch of the Avant service.
The Avant service from RENFE is supported by its passengers, who have scored it 7.5 out of 10 in previous customer surveys. Customer satisfaction with this service stands at 93.5%, with punctuality of approximately 96%. Furthermore, 94% of all passengers recommend using the Avant service.

Through ADIF, the Ministry of Public Works promoted the construction of the new Madrid-Galicia High-Speed Railway Line by issuing tenders (on 29 April) for the Public-Private Partnership contracts for drafting the designs and carrying out the track and railway installation assembly works, as well as their maintenance and financing from investors, for the new connection between Olmedo (Valladolid) and Santiago de Compostela.
These contracts have a total budget of 2,332.5 million euros. The Council of Ministers implemented the necessary investment process for opening the Madrid-Galicia High-Speed Railway Line by the end of 2015 by authorising a tender for the track assembly and maintenance contract between Olmedo and Santiago for a total of 647.3 million euros.
In turn, the Board of Directors of ADIF issued a joint tender for both this contract and the railway installations contract (including their maintenance) between Olmedo and Ourense for a value of 1,685.2 million euros.
Furthermore, ADIF is currently in the process of awarding a tender (through the conventional public tender procedure) for the platform works that remain outstanding on the Madrid-Galicia High-Speed Railway Line on the section between Requejo (Zamora) and Ourense.
Therefore, between May and November, the Ministry of Public Works (through ADIF) has promoted the tender of 11 platform sections and the award of three more on the high-speed railway connection between Madrid and Galicia, as well as awarding the works for the station in Zamora.
As it passes through Castile and Leon, the Madrid-Galicia High-Speed Railway Line already has more than 200 kilometres of line under construction between Olmedo (Valladolid) and Pedralba de la Pradería (Zamora), as well as four additional sub-sections under construction in the province of Ourense (a total of 22.2 kilometres).
This work demonstrates the firm commitment by the Ministry of Public Works (through ADIF) to both the development of the projects and the tender process for the various sections of the Madrid-Galicia High-Speed Railway Line, which are bringing forward the originally planned completion dates.