The Atlantic Axis high-speed rail line, also called Atlantic Corridor high-speed rail line, is a

high-speed railway line This article provides a list of operated high-speed rail networks, listed by country or region. The International Union of Railways defines high-speed rail as public transport by rail at speeds of at least for upgraded tracks and or faster f ...

that links

A Coruña A Coruña (; es, La Coruña ; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. A Coruña is the most populated city in Galicia and the second most populated municipality in the autonomous community and s ...

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of St ...

Pontevedra Pontevedra (, ) is a Spanish city in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. It is the capital of both the ''Comarca'' (County) and Province of Pontevedra, and of the Rías Baixas in Galicia. It is also the capital of its own municipality whi ...

and

Vigo Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Penins ...

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 ...

. The Atlantic Axis was inaugurated in April 2015.

History

Construction started in 2001 and the first section between A Coruña and

opened in 2009 and was electrified in 2011. The extension from Santiago de Compostela to

and Vigo completed in March 2015 and the entire line was inaugurated on 18 April 2015. The total investment of the project exceeded €3 bn. The line was planned to be extended to the south towards the border between Spain and Portugal and with a further connection to the city of

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

as the

Porto–Vigo high-speed rail line The Porto–Vigo high-speed rail line is a proposed high-speed rail line in Portugal, linking its second largest city Porto with the Spanish city of Vigo, Galicia. Background Porto and Vigo are currently served by the ''Celta'' service, taking ...

, including the longest railway bridge on the Iberian Peninsula for the 4.5 km crossing of the

Minho River The Minho ( , ) or Miño ( , , ; cel-x-proto, Miniu) is the longest river in Galicia, sharing the border with Portugal, with a length of . By discharge, it is the fourth river of the Iberian peninsula, after the Douro, Ebro, and Tagus. The Min ...

. It was also planned to be extended to the north from A Coruña to Ferrol. However, these plans were shelved in 2011. The plans were reactivated by the Portuguese government in 2020.

Features

The line has a length of 155.6 km of

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, , ...

track of , which is due to be converted to

Standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

once the Madrid-Ourense-Santiago de Compostela high speed line is fully operational. It is an upgrade of the former 241 km non electrified single railway line between the town of Ferrol and the Portuguese border into a double electrified high-speed line for the part between A Coruña and Vigo. The new rebuilt railway permits mixed use traffic with a maximum design speed of 250 km/h for passenger trains. The new line has 37 tunnels totalling 59.2 km, 38% of the total length and the longest is the 8.25 km tunnel beneath Vigo which connects the line with the new Vigo-Urzaiz station. It also has 32 major bridges, including a 2.4 km viaduct across the valley of the River Sar. The new line shortens the distance between A Coruña and Vigo by 22 km, from 178 km to 156 km, and cut the travel time from around 3 hours on the old railway down to 1 hour and 20 minutes on the new one. The line is linked to the

Madrid–Galicia high-speed rail line The Madrid–Galicia high-speed rail line is a high-speed railway line in Spain that links the city of Madrid with the region of Galicia via the cities of Olmedo, Zamora, Ourense and Santiago de Compostela. The line also connects the Atlant ...

in Santiago de Compostela. Since 2015, the maximum speed between A Coruña and Vigo is 200 km/h, with the fastest journey between the two cities taking 80 minutes (with three stops).El Eje Atlántico cumple 7 años al alza en viajeros pero sin mejorar tiempos
Faro de Vigo, 21 Abril 2022. When the ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System) railway signaling will be put in service, instead of the ASFA signaling, it will be possible to raise the maximum speed up to 250 km/h and the travel time should be reduced to only 70 minutes (or 64 minutes for an express service with an only stop in Santiago). As of April 2022, the ERMTS is still not yet in service.

Ridership

Within two months of opening in June 2015, the line had carried 400,000 passengers. By January 2017 total cumulative ridership was 5.1 million.

References

{{High-speed railway lines High-speed railway lines in Spain Railway lines opened in 2009