MITMA Group companies, including Ineco, have joined the STEAM Alliance for female talent. On 9 February, the signing ceremony of the protocol took place with the Ministers of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda and Education and Vocational Training, Raquel Sánchez and Pilar Alegría, respectively, and the presidents of Adif, Renfe, ENAIRE, Aena, Puertos del Estado and Ineco, Sergio Vázquez (third from the left). 

Under the slogan ‘Girls in Science’, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training is promoting this initiative in the public and private sectors to “encourage the interest of girls and young women in disciplines related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics” (STEAM).

Supporting the STEAM vocations of girls and women in education is a priority issue not only for the United Nations, which includes it in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, but also for the European Union and the government of Spain, which has included it in the Digital Spain 2025 Agenda. Meanwhile, Ineco has made equality one of the pillars of its strategic business plan.

Ineco is collaborating with Renfe on the Commuter Stations Plan 2019 to 2024, which includes various works to increase the capacity and performance of the network and increase comfort and accessibility to trains and stations. Among other works, the company has carried out projects and works management for the Cerdanyola-Universidad and Santa Perpetua de Mogoda stations in Barcelona. At Cerdanyola-Universidad station, which has five tracks and three platforms, access for people with reduced mobility has been improved thanks to the installation of three lifts serving the subway. At the new Santa Perpetua de Mogoda station, the main works have consisted of the construction of a main building, a subway to connect the platforms, the installation of lifts, new shelters and the development of the accesses.

Adif has also commissioned Ineco to draw up the construction project for the new Parets del Vallès railway station, which forms part of the conventional gauge line linking Barcelona, Vic and Puigcerdà. The project includes a new passenger building with lifts, a car park and an urban pedestrian connection footbridge.

Since early 2020, a team of more than 40 Ineco employees has worked on the improvement and modernisation of the 71-kilometre section between Monforte and Lugo, which is to receive 25 kV electrification, and the 36-kilometre section between Monforte and Ourense, which will switch from 3 kV to 25 kV.

Working on behalf of Adif, Ineco is providing site management services and monitoring and supervising the works, which include the construction of a new tunnel at Oural, track renewal, structural improvements (bridges, tunnels, levelling, etc.), signalling and telecommunication installations, platforms and routes, and removal of level crossings.

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are extremely useful in many different sectors, including transport. Europe declared the initial services of its own GNSS, Galileo, in 2016. It represented an enormous step forward in terms of performance, quality and diversity of service, as well as offering independence and autonomy to its users.

Unlike the United States’ GPS, Russia’s GLONASS and China’s BeiDou (with which, on the other hand, it is interoperable), Galileo is the world’s first GNSS that is designed specifically for civil use and with different user groups and services (e.g. open, high-precision, authenticated, governmental, emergency/search and rescue, etc.) in mind. It also offers unprecedented levels of accuracy and signal quality.

European projects such as RAILGAP, in which Ineco is taking part alongside Adif and CEDEX, build on previous research into the use of GNSS positioning. / PHOTO_MITMA

In the railway sector, GNSS-based applications can be used to optimise logistics, improve the management of rolling stock, and offer information services to passengers. At the same time, they also offer an inexpensive means of improving safety and supervision, by making it possible to replace physical ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System) balises with virtual equivalents. Using satellite positioning in conjunction with ERTMS will lower the cost of rolling out a system that the European Commission is currently deploying along the Continent’s main rail corridors –a task being coordinated by Ineco (see ITRANSPORTE 70)–, particularly with regard to regional lines and those with less traffic.

From physical balises to virtual ones

Along with Adif (Spanish Rail Infrastructure Manager), CEDEX (the Centre for Study and Experimentation in Public Works, which is part of MITMA, the Spanish Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda) and a number of other international partners, in recent years Ineco has taken part in several European innovation projects designed to test and define the use of satellite technology in the railway sector.

To date, the tests that use trains in a real-world setting (such as the tests for the ERSAT GGC project in 2019; see ITRANSPORTE 68) have shown that Galileo is more suitable than the other systems. However, the technology still presents a number of technical hurdles that need to be overcome before commercial solutions can be brought to market. The geography of certain sections of line and the presence of elements such as tunnels, overpasses, natural obstacles and urban areas create so-called ‘shadow areas’ in the transmission of the GNSS signal, which in turn limits the operation of the virtual balises. There are also other problems derived from intentional interference, such as jamming or spoofing. However, the use of other technologies and navigation systems may help to resolve these issues.

The use of GNSS for railway operations depends to a large extent on the nature of the environment. For this reason, it is necessary to classify and identify the factors that contribute to operation under degraded conditions

The RAILGAP (RAILway Ground truth and digital mAP) project, which began in early 2021 and will continue until 2023, is a continuation of earlier research in this field. Part of the Horizon 2020 Programme and managed by the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), RAILGAP is led by the Italian railway infrastructure manager Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) and boasts numerous participants, including Radiolabs, Hitachi Rail STS, RINA, Trenitalia, ASSTRA, Adif, CEDEX, Ineco, DLR, Université Gustave Eiffel and Unife.

The project’s aim is to develop innovative, high-precision solutions that make it possible to obtain so-called ‘ground truth’ data and digital maps of the railway lines, which are essential in order to determine the trains’ positions efficiently and reliably. ‘Ground truth’ data will provide time-based geographical coordinates for the trains, along with dynamic variables such as speed and acceleration. To achieve this, it will be necessary to gather enormous amounts of train-related data, collected from various types of sensors, which will be used to improve mapping accuracy in ‘shadow areas’ such as urban areas, areas with lots of vegetation or trenches, etc.

The solutions proposed are based on the use of other sensors such as cameras, LIDAR and inertial measurements units, along with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, to improve the positioning capacity provided by GNSS in ‘shadow areas’. Inertial sensors are used to detect the forces acting on the train, which makes it possible to estimate its movement over time; while optical sensors (cameras and LIDAR), combined with AI systems, make it possible to calculate the train’s position relative to key elements located along the track. In turn, this enables the train to be positioned with pinpoint accuracy, under optimal conditions.

The 30 satellites (24 operational and six spares) that will make up the Galileo system once its full operational capability is reached (initial services began in 2016) will be able to locate receivers with a margin of error of less than one metre. Additionally, Galileo is interoperable with the United States’ GPS, Russia’s GLONASS and China’s BeiDou systems.

RAILGAP will help to make the ERTMS –as well as the monitoring and control systems for the modernisation of regional and local lines– more sustainable, thereby reducing energy consumption.

Ineco is taking part in all of the project’s eight work packages and will lead the process of calculating ‘ground truth’ based on a solution involving the hybridisation of sensors. It also plays a major role in identifying and characterising the optical sensors required by the project, particularly cameras and LIDAR sensors. The activities that comprise work package 7, which focuses on the implementation of the digital map, will also draw on Ineco’s experience in applying AI to images in order to identify key elements, as it has done in other projects for Adif.

To this end, Ineco will develop the algorithms that make it possible to use the images captured by optical and stereoscopic cameras to recognise relevant elements on the track and position them using advanced image processing techniques and AI.

For its part, Adif is also working on all of the work packages, as well as operating a test vehicle (as it did previously for the ERSAT GGC project). The Railway Interoperability Laboratory from CEDEX (which is a world leader in ERTMS; see IT32 and 53) will focus on the architecture of the equipment inside the train and on the data collection phase, as well as the integration of the data in the laboratory.

RAILGAP proposes the use of cameras, LIDAR sensors or inertial measurement units, along with AI technology, to improve GNSS positioning in ‘shadow areas’.

Previous projects

Ineco, Adif and CEDEX have previously taken part in other research and innovation projects with a focus on GNSS applications in railways, such as ERSAT GGC (2017-2019), which also formed part of the Horizon 2020 programme (see ITRANSPORTE 69), and GATE4RAIL (2018-2021), part of Shift2Rail, a sector-specific programme developed by the European Commission to promote innovation in the railway industry.

The aim of the ERSAT GGC project, which involved 14 companies from five European countries, was to study the implementation of satellite technology in the ERTMS using virtual balises. To achieve this, a methodology was defined and several software tools were developed in order to classify a railway line with a view to implementing virtual balises along the length of the track.
The project also included some trials spread across three countries (France, Italy and Spain), where input data was gathered and later fed into the classification tool.

Additionally, 2018 saw the launch of GATE4RAIL, which aimed to improve the virtualisation of ERTMS tests based on satellite positioning. Ineco formed part of the consortium that carried out the project, which was led by Radiolabs (Italy) and also included RFI (Italy), Ifsttar (France), M3Systems (Belgium), Unife (Belgium), CEDEX (Spain), Bureau Veritas Italia (Italy) and Guide (France). Together, the consortium members developed a platform comprised of three blocks: GNSS, train and track. The challenge was to perform a simulation with modules from each block, located in different countries. In this project, which came to an end in 2021, Ineco’s role focused on system architecture and defining scenarios, in addition to providing data on obstacles via the GNSS4RAIL tool.

Challenges facing the use of GNSS in the railway sector

THE TRAIN OF THE FUTURE? A driverless train transporting minerals for the multinational corporation Rio Tinto in Pilbara, Western Australia. / PHOTO_RIO TINTO

For the railway sector, the use of GNSS presents a number of challenges of both a technical and cross-cutting nature. Cross-cutting challenges include those related to protection, cyber-security, legislation and regulation, standardisation, and speed of implementation; while the technical challenges include issues such as dealing with interference, the multipath effect, the integrity of the satellite signal, the overcoming of communication ‘shadow areas’ such as tunnels and mountains, highly complex lines that incorporate forks and junctions, and more precise recognition of parallel lines and stations.

With regard to the future of GNSS in the railway sector, a number of short, medium and long-term milestones have been identified. The most immediate goal is to be able to locate trains with optimum precision, as this will make it possible to increase track capacity. Another milestone is the development of virtual balises based on the continuous transmission of PVT data, which will reduce costs. Forthcoming developments also include detection of movement of rolling stock while the on-board ETCS is disconnected (this is known as cold movement detection, or CMD).

Medium-term goals include the development of ERTMS Level 3, whose defining characteristic is moving-block signalling. This technology will greatly increase the current ability to manage line capacity.

Long-term milestones include driverless trains, although a number of initiatives in this area –such as the Rio Tinto Driverless Cargo Line in Australia– already exist. This driverless line, known as the ‘robot train’, incorporates 1,700 kilometres of track and 220 monitored locomotives. It records 12 GB of data traffic per day and uses automatic train detection logic based on ERTMS Level 2. Using this architecture, the multinational mining corporation Rio Tinto has developed predictive models that can detect potential failures in upcoming operations and recommend maintenance activities. As one would expect, final approval of these activities lies with the technical personnel.

The entry into force of the new regulations on Operational Safety and Railway Interoperability (Royal Decree 929/2020, of 27 October) has entailed a comprehensive review of all railway regulations and has improved and completed those implemented in 2001. With the development of these regulations, the Spanish State Agency of Rail Safety has taken an important step forward to ensure the safety of the network and, in particular, of those elements that have the greatest impact on people.

As of 1 January 2021, Spain’s Railway Infrastructure Administrator (Adif) has in its inventory and manages 3,114 level crossings located on the General Interest Railway Network, of which 1,123 have one of the types of active protection established in the aforementioned new R.D. 929/2020. In this regulation, the criteria for the application of protection classes have changed in relation to the previous legislation, which means that the number of level crossings that must have active protection will be increased, prioritising those with passive protection that lack sufficient visibility and present a significant accident rate.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES. These include the incorporation of artificial vision systems that provide real-time information on any incident occurring on the road next to the crossing. / PHOTO_ADIF

Artificial vision in real time

In recent years, Adif has been installing new technologies at level crossings, achieving higher levels of safety and reliability. One of the major technological innovations is the incorporation of artificial vision systems that inform in real time about any incident or obstruction on the track next to the crossing. The cameras discriminate and detect the occupation of the space by any type of vehicle that could be the cause of an accident. Installation is quick, low-cost and requires little maintenance.

Both electromagnetic detection systems (coils) and artificial vision systems trigger the necessary warnings for the protection of the intersection, activate the corresponding signalling on the track and warn the driver of the obstacle.

New technologies based on solar energy

New protection systems based on solar energy contribute to sustainable development by reducing energy consumption by up to 75%. Furthermore, their installation does not require the construction of trenches with long cables running to the elements installed in the field, which significantly reduces their environmental impact and eliminates the risk of accidents, as there are no people working in the vicinity of the track.

The electronic technology is designed to be programmable and is compatible with all current systems, including the European signalling system (ERTMS-ETCS).

Diagram showing the application of photovoltaic panels.

Recorders acting as a black box

The recorders store, memorise and retain all information, events and movements at the level crossing. With the centralisation of the recorders at each level crossing, information is available in real time in a control centre located at stations or workplaces where the user terminal is installed, and which can be expanded as more level crossings are protected.

The implementation of these systems throughout the Adif network will enable real-time control of all connected intersections. The new developments envisage more secure versions against possible cyber-attacks, which also serve as a legal record and are adapted to the new data protection law.

SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE. Example of the communication between level crossings and the Adif central server.

The concentration of recorders helps and facilitates the search for the cause of an incidence at a level crossing, either in its functionality or due to an incident. These systems consequently help in the preventive and predictive maintenance of the facilities, being able to anticipate the origin of an accident. They function as a black box, since, once a possible cause has been detected, all movements occurring at the facilities can be monitored. Even if communication is lost, the data is stored at the level crossing itself and can be retrieved once the connection has been re-established. This structure provides access to each of the recorders from a terminal and enables the records to be downloaded remotely. The system collects the information, stores it for later use and analyses it to detect possible incidents.

30 years of collaboration between Ineco and Adif

Ineco has been collaborating with Adif since the late 1990s in the development of new level crossing protection systems. The company has more than 30 years of experience in Spain and abroad, collaborating with Adif’s Level Crossings Department since 1998 in the drafting of projects, provision of technical assistance and project management.

In 2009, Adif commissioned Ineco to provide technical assistance for the concentration of recorders and safety supervision at 263 crossings located on different lines of the railway network. The company then took charge of the layout work, controlled the installation of equipment and was responsible for testing and commissioning.

Abroad, major work was carried out in 2013 and 2014 on the signalling of more than five hundred crossings on the two main sections of the Ecuadorian railway network.

Ineco experts still continue to participate and collaborate in the drafting of projects, project management for the installation of new protection devices, and innovation and development of new equipment together with Adif.

Alfonso Escalera Alonso (Adif)

The Spanish protection system: an international reference that complies with the SDGs

Por Alfonso Escalera Alonso, Industrial Electronics Engineer and Head of Level Crossing Protection in Adif

The publication and approval of Annex VII of Royal Decree 929/2020 enabled new criteria for level crossing protection to be defined, one of the most important referring to visibility. This new concept has been a decisive step forward, improving and completing the AxT concept (the moment of traffic is equivalent to the product of cars per train on an average day of the year), which was used in the old legislation.

The new regulation therefore opens the door to the use of adaptations and developments such as artificial vision cameras. These additions contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which include promoting reliable, sustainable and quality infrastructures, as well as modernising them so that they are compatible with clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes.

Adif’s involvement in the development and protection of level crossings dates back to the 1970s. Since the introduction of semi-automatic barriers at level crossings in 1987, Adif has gradually begun to install a local system for monitoring operation known as the event recorder. Similar to aircraft black boxes, this permanently recorded everything that occurred at the level crossing. The equipment, installed in the level crossing hut, had three recording levels, but only allowed data to be collected at the level crossing itself, downloading it to a computer using a specific software programme. The need to consult the records on site created a problem for the maintenance staff, as it was impossible for them to detect the fault in advance. Therefore, the idea arose of accessing the information remotely by terminal and in real time to facilitate maintenance and even carry out the repair with the necessary spare parts already known in advance, which meant increased cost-cutting in manpower and safety.

Spanish regulations have become a reference for railway safety in many other countries. Adif’s long experience has consolidated its international presence and recognition and its participation in prestigious forums both in the EU and abroad, providing collaboration, knowledge and certification of equipment compatible with its facilities to those countries that request collaboration. In order to be at the forefront, the Level Crossings Department works closely with Spanish industry in the development of these systems. Companies approved with Spanish technology for level crossings work in five continents, installing equipment in Australia, Croatia, Denmark, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, Egypt, Morocco, Uruguay and Turkey. The equipment is adjusted to the special conditions and circumstances imposed by each country, making it highly versatile and adaptable to different conditions.

At the end of the European Year of Rail, it is important to mention the close cooperation between industry and public administrations in providing the necessary legal, economic and technical means to improve communications, reduce risks and maximise safety at level crossings.

Ineco’s president, Carmen Librero, has announced the launch of the Carlos III University of Madrid’s Specialist in Railway Operational Safety degree, promoted by the company, which will provide four of its professionals as lecturers, together with Adif, Adif Alta Velocidad, Renfe and the State Agency for Railway Safety. The programme offers comprehensive training in railway safety and is aimed at bachelor’s or master’s degree graduates.

The new degree was presented during the Ineco Forum session ‘The Future of the Rail’, on 22 June, as part of Rail Week held on the occasion of the European Year of Rail. The event was opened by Casimiro Iglesias, General Director of Planning and Evaluation of the Railway Network of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, and was attended by the main players in the sector.

On 24 March 2021, Adif unveiled the new Geographic Information System (GIS) of the Mediterranean Corridor to celebrate the European Year of Railway. The need to develop a GIS arose in response to requests received by the Commissioner’s Office from institutional, economic and social actors: an official, accessible and user friendly, but at the same time technically and graphically detailed means of consultation.

There are interesting and pioneering examples of GIS applications to trans-European corridors, such as the European Commission’s TENtec interactive map of the 9 trans-European corridors or the CIS (Corridor Information System) of the Rhine-Alpine Corridor. However, neither case manages to combine the precision and quantity of information, the speed of consultation and the ease of use that today’s information society demands. For this reason, Adif has emphasised that the Mediterranean Corridor GIS should set four fundamental objectives: providing up-to-date information on its development; displaying its complexity, identifying all the connection nodes; showing its cross-border and European scope; and visualising the work of the Office and the monitoring of the works. The materialisation of these objectives in the form of this interactive portal has attracted attention in the EU, where the tool has been received with interest. Its excellent reception, which exceeded 10,000 visits in the first month, has prompted Adif to plan the development of a GIS for the Atlantic Corridor as well.

Future scheme of Mediterranean Corridor (Map Viewer).

In order to achieve the aforementioned objectives, a specific working methodology has been developed and articulated in several phases under the direction of the Office of the Mediterranean Corridor. Firstly, it has been necessary to design ad hoc databases to catalogue and process the information related to the Mediterranean Corridor: the technical, socio-economic and geographical aspects of the railway infrastructure, urban nodes, ports and terminals, among others, have been structured and codified in an integrated and coherent manner. This has been very important in order to achieve a geospatial architecture that is both flexible, i.e. allowing periodic reviews, and at the same time rigid, in the sense that no structural modifications are needed and that it is well adapted to other European corridors or other transport networks.

Secondly, all the necessary data and cartographic bases have been collected. This step has relied upon the collaboration of many institutions and companies. Adif’s role in providing geospatial information and very specific data on the railway infrastructure and freight operations, and Ineco’s role in numerous works, studies and projects of the Mediterranean Corridor, both stand out. SNCF Réseau and the Occitania Region were involved in the profiling of the cross-border sector and the French sections. Much data has also been collected from the websites of port authorities, intermodal terminals and private companies websites.

The viewer has a base map to consult all the planned sections under construction and in service and a statistical map with dynamic graphs that summarise the most relevant technical and socio-economic aspects

Thirdly, mapping has been carried out to provide the databases with spatial information. The real challenge has been to harmonise the sectioning of the railway network and the nodes in order to make the sections implemented in the Geographic Information Systems of Adif (IdeADIF) and the European Commission (TENtec) compatible and at the same time coherent with the planning of the works and ongoing studies.

As a result, the network is made up of almost 700 sections between the Network of General Interest and the accesses to terminals and ports, represented in four situations: sections currently in service; in execution; in the study and construction project phase; and, finally, future sections, i.e., when all the actions in progress have been completed.

Nodes, on the other hand, total more than 270 elements. Overall, more than 1,000 elements have been processed, each with its associated geometries and information, with a total of 45,000 attributes. The amount of information to be processed is considerable and continuous revisions (last phase) have been necessary in order to achieve a very high level of accuracy and detail.

In order to show how the Corridor fits in at local and regional level, the layers of the metropolitan and suburban lines of the main urban centres have been incorporated, as well as the major transport networks at ‘Euro-Mediterranean’ level: the route of the European Mediterranean Corridor (to the north), the Trans-Maghreb Corridor (to the south), the maritime connection between Palma de Mallorca and Barcelona/Valencia (to the east) and lastly, Adif’s railway network (to the west).

Finally, a set of socio-economic and environmental indicators have been incorporated in order to understand the Mediterranean Corridor as an axis of territorial structuring, a lever for a more sustainable, resilient and better connected territory. This data will be updated on a regular basis, in line with the progress of the works and ongoing studies. After the data had been validated by Adif, a map viewer was developed in Esri environment that is highly innovative in terms of its structure, content and visualisation. It is available in two different modes: a base map that allows users to consult the information mentioned above, and a statistical map with dynamic graphics that summarise the most relevant technical and socio-economic aspects.

The viewer is hosted on the Hub-GIS of the Office of the Spanish Government Commissioner for the Mediterranean Corridor, where it is possible to consult additional documentation on the Office (reports, annual reports, photos of works in progress, infographics, etc.) and links to related websites. The Hub-GIS is accessible to the public from Adif’s main website and the following link. A searchable user guide has been produced to make it easier to consult and use the viewer.

Using a practical example, it is possible to consult the current status of the mixed-use line between the French border and Barcelona, the type of electrification (25kv), the maximum axle load permitted (22.5t), the gradients in the north and south directions, the total length of the section, etc. We could also visualise the works in progress on the Castellbisbal-Martorell section (mixed gauge installation), known as the ‘Gateway to Europe’ due to its strategic importance for the entire Mediterranean Corridor. The viewer also allows us to visualise the accesses now under construction to the SEAT-Martorell factory, or the remodelling of the Ford factory in Valencia, the new access branches to the ports of Castellón and Sagunto, as well as the dozens of freight terminals and intermodal centres.

The future situation shows what the Mediterranean Corridor will look like once completed and fully interoperable

After reviewing the number of trains handled at a specific terminal (e.g. San Roque freight, on the Algeciras-Bobadilla section), a web link redirects to the functional diagram in Adif’s catalogue of logistics facilities. If, on the other hand, we are interested in knowing where the planned route for the new Murcia-Almería line runs, the corresponding layer would be activated, informing us that the Los Arejos-Vera section has a finished platform, while works are already underway on the adjacent sections. The satellite base map shows the exact location of the project. Finally, the future situation shows how the corridor will look once it is finished, fully interoperable and with passenger stations, freight terminals and urban nodes connected in an intermodal system. In order to understand the Corridor in terms of a territorial project, it is possible to activate some of the economic indicators included in the viewer, such as population per municipality, income per capita at municipal level, tonnes of goods unloaded per province or the level of PM10 and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂) pollution.

Ineco has been implementing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for years to respond to the needs of ever more demanding clients in the field of virtual technologies, BIM, Big Data, etc. However, due to its complexity and novelty, this project marks a milestone for the company and for the Office of the Spanish Government Commissioner for the Mediterranean Corridor, which is coordinated by Prof. Josep Vicent Boira.

The collaboration between Ineco and Adif personnel working at the Office is also noteworthy in terms of compiling and reviewing a large volume of data, as well as providing the advice and technical knowledge of their respective railway experts. Meanwhile, UTE TAG-Esteyco has been responsible for the first phase of the processing of technical and cartographic information.

José Luis Ábalos, the Minister of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, opened Adif’s new Rail Operating Centre (ROC) in León on 10 December. The new ROC joins the 22 that are already in operation across Spain and represents the country’s first multi-network centre, as it incorporates Centralised Traffic Control (CTC) systems for three different rail networks (conventional, high-speed and meter-gauge, which in León comprise a total of 1,200 kilometres of track) into a single operating centre.

Ineco developed the construction plan for the ROC building itself, which was opened in 2013. It was designed to centralise all of León’s rail operating facilities in a single location, although at first it was only used for the conventional lines.

Ineco directed the construction work and provided technical assistance to monitor and supervise the improvements that Adif is making to the section of track between Castellbisbal and Martorell in Barcelona Province. In the Martorell tunnel, which is 1,065 metres long, the structure was lowered, renovated and reconditioned in order to install the third rail and adapt it to the standard gauge (1,435 mm).

On 26 October, the Minister for Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda officially opened the high-speed line in Galicia between Zamora and Pedralba de la Pradería, leaving only one leg to complete the line. The new railway, 110 kilometres long and with 14 viaducts and 9 tunnels, is outfitted with level 2 ERTMS and has been built for speeds of 300 km/h.

Ineco has been heavily involved in work on the line. It is currently the works and environmental manager for several sites on the last unfinished section, between Pedralba and Ourense (see IT67). At 101 kilometres long, and with 32 viaducts and 31 tunnels, Transport Minister Abalos declared that “this is one of the most complicated stretches of high-speed railway in Spain and Europe”.

The official opening was also attended by the Minister of Work and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, and the Presidents of Adif and Renfe, Isabel Pardo de Vera and Isaías Táboas, along with other leading figures.