The Basque railway ‘Y’ project, which will link the Basque capitals through high speed and, from there, aims to connect with the rest of Europe and the Peninsula, has taken a significant step towards achieving at least this last objective . The central government has awarded the drafting of the construction project for the section that will connect Vitoria-Gasteiz with Burgos, the only part not yet built in the direction of Madrid.
This section is key to undertaking the Lisbon-Madrid-Vitoria-Dax-Paris Atlantic corridor, at least as regards the connections to Bidasoa. From the border, however, there are many more doubts and it is unknown what may happen in relation to the Irun-Bordeaux section.
In any case, the connection with the rest of Spain and Portugal would allow the Basque railway ‘Y’ project to be removed from railway isolation, at least in a southerly direction, which after innumerable delays has a completion date of 2027, despite the fact that then the underground arrivals to Bilbao and Vitoria-Gasteiz will still not be built.
The drafting of the construction project for this section is the prerequisite for bidding and execution of the works. The Burgos-Vitoria connection will require an outlay of around 1,500 million euros to complete a high-speed section of just over 100 kilometres.
This section will be one of the two links with the rest of the Basque ‘Y’ Peninsula, which has yet to define the connection with Pamplona and, to do so, opt for a connection through Vitoria-Gasteiz or, failing that, through the Gipuzkoan town of Ezkio-Itsaso. The connection option through the Álava capital is gaining integers, due to the complexity involved in the other alternative. The link with Pamplona will ultimately allow connection with the Mediterranean corridor.
The Vitoria-Burgos section will depart, in a north-south direction, from the underground station in the Álava capital towards Iruña de Oca, Miranda de Ebro, Ameyugo, Pancorbo and Piérnegas, from where it will connect with the Burgos capital.
The line will be structured in two sections: Vitoria-Pancorbo and Pancorbo-Burgos, with double track and 90 kilometers in length. In Miranda de Ebro, however, an 11-kilometre bypass will be built to favor circulation with or without stopping in this municipality. The drafting of the project for this section has been tendered for a budget of 21 million euros.
The connections of the Basque ‘Y’ with Europe and the Peninsula are one of the keys to this disputed project, which began to be built in 2006, although the first sketches go back much further back. Given that the connections beyond the Bidasoa are unknown, the central government’s impulse to link with the Meseta is one of the best news for the defenders of this project. Not surprisingly, France has just ratified that the Irun-Bordeaux section will not be built before 2042.
Meanwhile, as far as the continent is concerned, the Basque high speed will have to put the brakes on as soon as it crosses the border and will travel at reduced speed to Dax. From there, it will do so at medium speed until Bordeaux, where it will begin to circulate at high speed. At this moment, the French TGVs take longer to cover the distance between Irun and Bordeaux than to make the section from the Aquitaine capital to Paris, which is much longer. Beyond the timing, the main problem it entails is that it could cause saturation problems in the medium term.
