Summer Maintenance Works on Andalusia’s High-Speed Railway Cause Travel Time Modifications

Los high-speed services in the corridor of Andalusia will increase their travel times somewhat this summer. The reason are the improvement actions that Adif is carrying out in the railway infrastructure of this routewhich will force you on some occasions, due to the dimension and volume of some of the works, to extend the maintenance bands, temporarily suspend traffic on one of the tracks, maintaining circulation on the other; either temporarily limit speed in certain sections.

The public company began on June 1st the waterproofing work on the deck of the nine viaducts that bypass Sierra Morena, which add up to three kilometers in length and follow one another in a stretch of 32 kilometres. These actions require lifting and reinstalling all the elements of the tracks (rail, sleepers and ballast), according to the administrator. The action, which will conclude at the end of September, represents a great technical and planning challenge, according to Adif. Despite its size, the works will be made compatible with the maintenance of the railway service, for which the bulk of the actions will be concentrated at night, when there is no commercial circulation. In addition, Adif acts on a single track alternatively so that there is always a track available for the circulation of trains. This has forced the administrator to work with the operators that are currently operating on the line, Renfe and iryo, during train circulation times (grooves) to adapt them to the section that will have a single track during the work, where for the safety of the workers the speed will be reduced to 120 kilometers per hourwhich will affect travel times.

Renfe already announced in March that it has rescheduled its offer and has modified the usual schedules of the AVE, Alvia and Intercity that link Seville, Málaga, Granada, Córdoba, Cádiz, Huelva and Algeciras with the rest of Spain, mainly with Madrid and Barcelona, ​​and that it has applied in the new scheduless “slight increases in travel times to adjust them to the marches established by Adif during the scheduled works”. In the case, for example, of the trips between Madrid and Seville, times have increased by about thirty minutes, while to Córdoba they have increased by a little more than fifteen.

In parallel to the action in Sierra Morena, between this month and next, Adif will reinforce the drainage of the high-speed line as it passes through Almodóvar del Río. This action is carried out at night, so it will also allow circulation to be maintained, which, for safety, limits speed to 30 kilometers per hour in this area.

Adif is undertaking the comprehensive renovation of the Madrid-Seville high-speed line, the oldest in the entire network, with the aim of maintaining the reliability and safety standards of the last thirty years. So far, the company has mobilized more than 98% of the planned investment: 668 million euros out of a total of 680 million. His actions, as he explained, are aimed at renewing the infrastructure and its different elements, the replacement of diversions, sleepers and ballast; the signaling of the line, including the installation of ERTMS; the updating of the electrification systems, telecommunications and energy installations of the line and LED type lighting in all its tunnels.