One of the dimensions of the controversial expansion of the port of Valencia is the increase in its logistics capacity. And in this, the future intermodal station of Fuente San Luis will have a lot to do with it, a logistics node described as “strategic” that is integrated into the Mediterranean corridor network and whose capacities were presented yesterday in Valencia by representatives of Adif and the company Grupo Alonso, who will be in charge of its operation.
This intermodal terminal of 357,000 square meters will have the capacity to operate 150,000 Intermodal Transport Units (UTI) and will allow up to 2,600 freight trains to be maneuvered per year, eight trains per day. “It will compose a node with a formidable operational capacity that, without a doubt, means a before and after in the transport infrastructures of the Valencian Community,” said José Luis Soria, manager of Adif’s Eastern Logistics Services area. The latter and the Port Authority of Valencia will promote the station and will be the members of a new public company that will manage the logistics node.
In the first phase, an investment of 35 million euros is planned, financed with Next Generation funds. The works of the station began a few months ago, and according to Soria, they will be finished in February 2024. This, added to the six months until the pertinent authorizations are obtained, extends its entry into operation until after the summer of 2025. The station will have a dry and cold warehouse, a container and semi-trailer repair workshop, cold towers, an administration building, and access and exit will be automated, details explained by Jorge Alonso, president and CEO of Grupo Alonso, who highlighted which will be “an integrated hub, as it is planned with the vision of the logistics of the future”.
This new node, one of the seven strategic ones that the Ministry of Transport locates in Spanish territory, will have 5 different areas: one is the aforementioned intermodal terminal, others are the parking area for heavy vehicles, another area that can be exploited commercially , a second phase of the station or a real estate logistics area -where there will be warehouses and industrial buildings for rent- with warehouses for cargo treatment.
The latter was reported by Fátima Zayed, logistics services manager at VPI LogÃstica, who explained that the special plan for this area located next to the V-30 is expected to be approved in 2025, a logistics zone “with brutal potential,” he said. . Zayed showed yesterday a simulation of the project and explained that a modular building will be built whose loading docks will face the Turia riverbed, with an area reserved for offices in the western part and in which work is already underway even during concession times for the companies that are located there.
Its start-up is expected when the connection of the Mediterranean corridor between Valencia and the French border is completed. It will be located next to the port of Valencia, adjacent to Mercavalencia and will be linked to the development of the Logistics Activities Zone (ZAL). “The node is much more than a terminal, because it will provide complementary services with a real estate logistics development for cargo treatment, areas for new railway highways and an area for heavy vehicles,” José Luis Soria also explained.
The president of the Port Authority of Valencia, Joan Calabuig, also participated in the presentation, who pointed out that “the project is a clear example of institutional collaboration between local, regional and central administrations (Mitma, Puertos del Estado, Port Authority and Adif) and public-private management modelâ€.
Recently appointed, since he has only been in office for two months, Calabuig avoided assessing the electoral results of 28-M, but assured that “the fight for decarbonization is not a problem of the PSOE, the PP or CompromÃs, It is a European consensus, so I am sure it will continue.” The railway strategy of the Port of Valencia is endowed with 240 million euros and has already launched actions such as the Madrid-Valencia-Portugal Railway Highway.
