The Institutional Protocol Monitoring Committee for the arrival of High-Speed Rail in Bilbao has approved an addendum that will promote a provisional solution for high-speed rail to enter the city at surface level. This will lead to an acceleration of the anticipated deadlines for the commissioning of the new Abando station in Bilbao.
The proposed solution will allow high-speed trains to reach the center of Bilbao, and it is fully compatible with the future construction of the definitive underground station. All institutions represented on the Committee have stated that this option is the most technically viable and appropriate for high-speed rail to arrive in Bilbao sooner.
“"This option is the most technically viable and appropriate for high-speed rail to arrive in Bilbao sooner, and it is fully compatible with the objective of building a definitive underground station in the city."
Specifically, according to the addendum, after the new Bilbao maintenance base is relocated and built on the Lapatza railway public domain in Basauri, approximately 40,000 square meters of free space will become available in the Abando station area. This space will allow for the acceleration of the timeline for high-speed services to reach Bilbao's Abando station.
The text also states that the commissioning of the provisional station will be compatible with the execution of technical works already tendered. This will ensure that high-speed trains will access Bilbao's Abando station via an underground tunnel in the future. To strengthen operational coordination, two technical working groups are planned: one to address the development of the new Abando station in Bilbao, and another to analyze actions to be carried out in the Basauri area.
