Atocha and Santa Justa stations now adapted to high speed and liberalisation for improved customer’s services
Madrid, 14th January 2021. - Thales has started on the construction project by removing the gauge changeover in Atocha and starting the extension in Atocha and Seville Santa Justa stations for Adif Alta Velocidad (Adif AV).
Since the commissioning of the Atocha railway junction in 1992, Thales España has been continuously adapting the installations to the new ADIF requirements for the commuter lines, including the successive track extensions and the integration of ERTMS technology. Thales rail experts in Spain have been also working on high-speed lines, in particular because of the changes in track topology caused by the withdrawal of Atocha Long Distance and the entry into service of the new high-speed lines departing from Madrid Puerta de Atocha station.
On occasion of the new high-speed connections between Atocha and Chamartín stations, Thales will adapt the installations to the new requirements due to the increase in new traffic and operators. This connection made it possible to terminate the gauge changer that links high-speed traffic with variable gauge to the Chamartín station circulating through the current Iberian gauge tunnel.
In order to meet the project’s objectives, the current signalling elements in Madrid Puerta de Atocha-AVE High-Speed and Atocha Commuter Station are being modified, as well as the LZB train protection systems on the High-Speed Line and ERTMS on the commuter line together with the Atocha AVE and Suburban command posts.
In the case of Santa Justa station, and for the same reason, Adif has envisaged an extension of buffer stop. These stationing extensions will be accompanied by the corresponding signalling equipment associated at Seville Santa Justa.
The term being considered for the execution of the works is twelve months, of which three months will be taken up by the drafting of the construction project. Once this project has been approved, the nine months allocated for executing the works will start counting.
