Gijón Railway Station, also known as Gijón Sanz Crespo, is the main

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

Gijón Gijón () or () is a city and municipality in north-western Spain. It is the largest city and municipality by population in the autonomous community of Asturias. It is located on the coast of the Cantabrian Sea in the Bay of Biscay, in the cent ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. Since 2011 it is located in Sanz Crespo street due to the works for the

Metrotrén Asturias Metrotrén Asturias is a project to enhance the Cercanías Asturias commuter rail in Spanish autonomous community of Asturias, primarily by way of an underground tunnel through the city of Gijón.Todotrenes: Metrotrén, la revolución en las cerca ...

project. It is the terminus for

Alvia Alvia is a high-speed train service in Spain used by Renfe Operadora for long-distance service with a top speed of . The trains have the ability to use both Iberian gauge and standard gauge, which allows them to travel on the recently constructed ...

services from

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...

, León,

Valladolid Valladolid () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province o ...

and

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, as well as

Intercity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...

and

Media Distancia Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

services from Madrid, Valladolid and León. It is also the last destination for four

Cercanías The commuter rail systems of Spain's major metropolitan areas are called ''Cercanías'' () in most of Spain, ''Rodalia'' () in the Valencian Community, ''Aldiriak'' () in the Basque Country and ''Rodalies'' () in Catalonia. There are twelve ''Ce ...

commuter railway lines. The station was built in 2009 in order to find an alternative for Gijón-Jovellanos / La Braña and Gijón-Cercanías that were planned to be demolished in order to free up the area for the construction of the Metrotrén, a project to extend the train line underground. As of 2021, Gijón Sanz Crespo remains as the only station serving Gijón downtown, and even though the tunnels have been dug, there is no clear plan on where the new station will be built or even if it will be built at all.

Infrastructure

The station consists of 3 platforms and 6 tracks, of which half are

Iberian gauge Iberian gauge ( es, ancho ibérico, trocha ibérica, pt, bitola ibérica) is a track gauge of , most extensively used by the railways of Spain and Portugal. This is the second-widest gauge in regular use anywhere in the world. The Indian gauge, , ...

and the other half are

metre gauge Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...

. Trains travelling on different gauges have different tickets, trains and controls. Metre-gauge railways were formally operated by

Ferrocarriles de Vía Estrecha Renfe Feve is a division of state-owned Spanish railway company Renfe Operadora. It operates most of Spain's of railway. This division of Renfe was previously a stand-alone company named FEVE (Ferrocarriles de Vía Estrecha,Law 11/1965 of ...

(FEVE), which was later absorbed by Renfe, that at the time ran trains on Iberian and international gauge. However, Renfe kept former FEVE services in a separated division called

Renfe Feve Renfe Feve is a division of state-owned Spanish railway company Renfe Operadora. It operates most of Spain's of railway. This division of Renfe was previously a stand-alone company named FEVE (Ferrocarriles de Vía Estrecha,Law 11/1965 of ...

, and as of 2021, fares, tickets and ticket barriers are different from the rest of Renfe trains. Therefore, at the Gijón station it is necessary to separate the tracks on the south side - of metric gauge - from the tracks on the north side - of Iberian gauge -. This situation causes the middle platform to be divided by the east-west axis. The station has information and tickets desks (again separated between gauges) and a small cafeteria. A car-renting company also operates in the station. Urban buses from EMTUSA, Gijón public transport company, stop in front of the station.

References

Railway stations in Spain Railway stations opened in 2011 Gijón Transport in Asturias {{Asturias-stub