The Spanish infrastructure manager Adif has completed the upgrade works of the railway track between Torrelavega and Santander, in the northern region of Cantabria, Spain. 

The railway track has a length of 30 kilometres. The project was carried out at a total budget of 49.3 million Euros. The upgrade work was part of a bigger project, seeing the upgrade of  the entire railway line between Palencia (region of Castile and Leon) and Santander port, essential to the export of Renault cars manufactured in Palencia.

Rail project

This project started ten years ago, resulting in the electrification of  217 kilometres of rail track. The stations on this line were expanded to be able to handle 750-metre rail freight trains. The complete budget totals 223.4 million Euros: 118.3 million Euros for the section between Palencia and Reynosa; 55.8 million Euros for the one between Reynosa and Torrelavega; and 49.3 million Euros for the remaining part.

In addition, the central station of Santander has been modified to improve its connection with the port, in order to reduce lead times and increase the service frequency. Once the project is completed, Adif will start to develop a second rail track between Santander and Torrelavega, at a total budget of 191 million Euros. The new rail track will enable an increase in the number of trains and services. Currently,  freight trains must stop on a special track when a passenger service is using the route between Santander and Torrelavega.