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Passengers travelling to Barcelona on either of the two daily trains in each direction that connect the Region of Murcia with Spain’s second city will take 20 to 25 minutes longer to reach their destination as of this Saturday September 9.

 

This is due to work that is being carried out by Spanish railway infrastructure management company Adif between the junction of La Encina and the Valencian town of Xàtiva, work that is necessary in order to complete the route of the high-speed AVE line to the border with France.

 

While this work is taking place, the trains will be diverted along a 45-kilometre single-line track where all rail traffic between Alicante, Valencia and Catalonia will converge. For that reason, long delays are to be expected, and it estimated that these works may take up to two years to complete.

 

The delays caused by the concentration of trains running in both directions on the section from Xàtiva to La Encina will also affect trains connecting Murcia with Valencia.

 

Sources from rail operator Renfe have explained that the company has not considered modifying the train timetables, and that it is not known exactly how long the journey will take on each route.

 

When the work is finished, the AVE journey time from Murcia to Valencia will be reduced to one and a half hours, while it will be possible to reach Barcelona in about three and a half hours.

 

This section is on the border between the provinces of Alicante and Valencia, where there are still some 40 kilometres of Iberian gauge track, which cannot accommodate the AVE, which requires European gauge.

 

Adif is building an international gauge bypass parallel to the current route.

 

As reported last August, as of this Saturday it will put into service an Iberian gauge section between Xàtiva and the Nudo de la Encina which “will absorb all the traffic while the works to adapt the current double-track route to international gauge (the second phase) are being carried out, which will enable the southeast of the peninsula to be connected to Europe by high-speed rail through the Mediterranean Corridor”.

 

Image: ADIF