Green light for the final phase of the shuttle train works to the airport

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l The Government has authorized this Tuesday the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda to tender the second phase of the works for the new railway access to terminal 1 of El Prat Airport, which will consist of the construction of the superstructure of the future double track between the conventional gauge line Barcelona-Tarragona and the T1 and T2 stations, with connection to metro line L9.

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The works, with an estimated value of 73.77 million euros and an execution period of 24 months, represent a "definitive boost" for the commissioning of this infrastructure, which Renfe values as strategic in the future operating scheme of the Rodalies network in Barcelona. These works come after having drilled the main section of the new access with a tunnel boring machine, at a cost of 305 million euros.

The shuttle train will allow direct Rodalies services to be established with the two airport terminals from Manresa and Maçanet, via the R4 and R2, respectively, and, through them, it will be possible to connect with the rest of the Rodalies lines and the Barcelona metro. On the other hand, the travel time between Barcelona's Sants station and T1 will be less than 20 minutes, benefiting between seven and nine million annual trips, according to the Ministry.

One of the issues to be resolved for the future shuttle train will be who will manage it: Renfe or Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC). Today, Ferrocarrils has begun the procedures for the tender of 12 new trains to cover this service, thus positioning itself to keep it. This responds to the request made by the Government a year ago to take over this service, which Ferrocarrils wants to allow intermodal connection with the rest of the Rodalies network lines, FGC, Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) and TRAM. The company led by Ricard Font is betting on a new connection with El Prat like the Heathrow and Gatwick Express in London, the Narita Express in Tokyo or the City Airport Train in Vienna.