Renfe Mercancias, Renfe’s rail freight branch, has deployed the first of its new locomotives in collaboration with steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal. As Renfe claimed, the locomotives are fully electric and powered by energy produced only from renewable sources.

For its first journey, the locomotive led a convoy of 20 wagons loaded with a total of 1,440 tons of hot rolled coil. The train left ArcelorMittal’s factory in Tarsona, in northern Spain on Friday 17 February. It is not clear yet what the end destination of the train will be.

New locomotives to cross the Pajares Base Tunnel

The locomotives were manufactured by Swiss company Stadler Rail in Albuixech, north of Valencia. This initiative was announced in February 2022 and, according to Renfe, the investment revolves around 64,7 million euros. As, Renfe highlighted, the full deal includes “12 new high-power locomotives with greater traction and load capacity”. All these locomotives will be running services specifically for ArcelorMittal.

The locomotives were developed to be able to circulate the Pajares Base Tunnel. This 24-kiloemtre-long tunnel, located between Leon and Gijon, is expected to open this year and boost rail freight due to the fact that will be equipped with a dual gauge. It was in fact decided that this tunnel could have trains running on both the European standard gauge as well as the Iberian one. These locomotives will also decrease noise pollution.

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