LGV Perpignan-Figueres

LGV / LAV Perpignan-Figueres
Route length:	44.4 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	25 kV, 50 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	12  ‰
Top speed:	350 km / h
Legend New Montpellier – Perpignan line Perpignan – Villefranche-de-Conflent line 0.00 Beginning of the concession line TP Ferro Viaduc sur le Réart 8.4 A 9 12.9 Change left (F) and right-hand traffic (E) 14.3 Elne – Arles-sur-Tech railway line 15.6 Tech 17.1 Perthus Tunnel (8300 m) 24.5 France - Spain border 25.5 Viaducte del Llobregat d'Empordà No. 1 Viaducte del Llobregat d'Empordà No. 2 Viaducts del Gou Viaducts del Bosquerós Viaducts del Ricardell Viaducts de la Muga 44.38 End of the concession line TP Ferro Figueres tunnel (1750 m) Figueres -Vilafant Old line to Barcelona High-speed line to Barcelona / Madrid

The LGV / LAV Perpignan-Figueres ( French : Ligne à grande vitesse Perpignan-Figueras , Spanish : Línea de alta velocidad Perpignan-Figueres , Catalan : Línia d'alta velocitat Perpinyà-Figueres ) is an international high-speed route . It connects the cities of Perpignan / Perpinyà in France and Figueres in Spain . The high-speed line Madrid – Barcelona connects to its southern end .

Traffic started after several delays in 2010. On January 7, 2013, the extension to Barcelona went into operation. Transfer-free connections between France and Barcelona have been in operation since December 15, 2013, after the trains were approved for the other country.

course

The high-speed lines in Catalonia

The purpose of this route is to create a more direct connection between the two cities, without the winding detour along the coast via Portbou . The route is 44.4 kilometers long. Of these, 24.6 km are on French and 19.8 km on Spanish soil. The centerpiece is an 8.3 kilometer long tunnel under the Col du Perthus . The first tunnel tube was pierced on October 1, 2007, the second on November 23, 2007.

In addition, four bridges with a total length of 983 meters were built in France and seven bridges with a total length of 2228 meters in Spain. The longest viaduct, at 392 meters, is the crossing of the Tech River . A special structural feature is the flyover , which enables a change between left-hand drive, as is common in France, and right-hand drive, which is common in Catalonia, without driving over branching turnouts and without route exclusions that impede operation.

The route is designed in the standard gauge . The maximum slope is twelve per thousand. Passenger and freight trains have been using the route since it opened. The southern connection, the Madrid-Barcelona-Figueres high-speed line , was opened in 2013. The connection to the French high-speed network, which currently extends to Montpellier , is currently in the planning stage. Due to budget problems in France, there was no longer a reliable implementation date from July 2013 onwards. At the end of 2013, however, the project was "put back on track" and the route is to be determined by the end of 2015. This means that the gap between the Iberian and Central European high-speed network could go into operation in the early 2020s. Once the work has been completed, travel times of 5:35 hours for Paris – Barcelona and 3:50 hours for Perpignan – Madrid are planned.

history

planning

In mid-July 2001, Transport Ministers Jean-Claude Gayssot (France) and Francisco Álvarez Cascos agreed to finance the 45.5 km long route. Accordingly, both countries should bear the costs of 710 million euros in equal parts. The tender was scheduled for October 1, 2001, the commissioning for 2005. The route should be used by both passenger and freight trains (also Rolling Landstrasse ). The Spanish government expected a passenger volume of 3.5 million travelers and a freight volume of 4.2 million tons in the first twelve months after opening.

The route has been privately financed and operated privately. The concession to build the route was awarded on February 17, 2004 to the consortium TP Ferro (TP Ferro Concesionaria, SA, founded in 2003 and based in Spain - TP stands for Trans Pyrenees ), 50:50 consisting of the construction groups Eiffage (from France) and Grupo ACS (Spain). The consortium was to build the route for 1.1 billion euros and then operate it for 50 years. It received a subsidy of 540 million euros, which is paid out by the European Union , France and Spain. Construction work began on November 15, 2004. At the end of 2009, Spain granted the consortium compensation of 108 million euros for the train path charges lost because of the delay in completing the continuation on the Spanish side and extended the term of the concession from 50 to 53 years.

construction

Viaduct on the route over the Muga river

The shell work was completed by February 2008. The consortium announced the handover of the completed route on February 14, 2009.

A preliminary operation was initially planned from summer 2010.

Despite the timely completion of the route, it could not be put into operation because the connecting route via Figueres and Girona to Barcelona was not yet completed. The end of the route is in a lonely, undeveloped area.

With the construction of the facility in 2010, the new Figueres-Vilafant station outside Figueres was also built. This was connected to the Spanish broad gauge network via a three-rail link to Viamalla station on the Barcelona – Cerbère railway line . Due to the delays in the construction of the high-speed line with the tunnel station in Girona, the existing line for freight traffic on the standard lane was also given a three-rail track with several crossing options. For the connection to Barcelona for tourist traffic, platform track 5 in Figueras-Vilafant was provided with re-gauged sleepers and initially used as a wide-gauge butt track. Continuous traffic (on to Barcelona) with high-speed trains was supposed to start in April 2013, but due to licensing problems this was delayed until December 15, 2013.

Bankruptcy operating company

In September 2015, the operating company TP Ferro voluntarily applied for insolvency proceedings to be initiated because no agreement could be reached with the banks involved on the restructuring of the debt.

In September 2016, the infrastructure companies SNCF Réseau and ADIF announced that they would jointly operate the route.

Installation

Change between a Renfe class 449 multiple unit and a TGV Duplex at Figueres-Vilafant station.

On the fringes of a Spanish-French summit in Saragossa , the state railways RENFE and SNCF announced the establishment of a joint subsidiary in June 2008, which will be responsible for the operation and marketing of international connections with high-speed trains.

In June 2010, the SNCF began testing on the French side of the route. On December 19, 2010, the line went into operation on schedule. Since then, the SNCF has been using TGV duplex units . Until January 2013, passengers to / from Barcelona had to change trains from the RENFE series 449 , which operated under the brand name Enlace Internacional and only stopped in Girona en route . According to information from the Spanish government, 14,503 passengers used the route in the first month after commissioning, of which 2,628 were on the Barcelona – Paris route.

Renfe multiple unit with powered end car 9 100 121 in Perpignan station

On January 7, 2013, the missing section between Barcelona and Figueres was put into operation. Since then, passengers have changed trains in Figueres-Vilafant until the vehicles of the Renfe 100 series and the TGV Duplex were mutually adapted and approved. The previously broad-gauge platform track 5 was then changed to the standard gauge and connected on both sides. The connection to the existing Barcelona – Cerbère line can only be used on a regular lane, but without scheduled operation.

On February 12th, a TGV duplex traveled the new line to Barcelona for the first time. Connections free of charge have been offered since December 15, 2013. Since December 15, 2013, two pairs of trains have been running daily from Barcelona to Paris. TGV duplex trains are used. There is also a daily pair of trains from Barcelona to Toulouse and Lyon and from Madrid to Marseille . For this purpose, Renfe uses the 100 series units derived from the TGV Atlantique. These international trains operate under the name Renfe-SNCF en cooperación / en coopération . The operator is the Elipsos joint venture  between Renfe and SNCF.

Web links

Commons : LGV Perpignan – Figueres  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• LGV Perpignan-Figueres. In: Structurae
• Aerial photos
• LAV mixta internacional Figueres – Perpignan on the Ferropedia website (Spanish)
• Video of the construction on the website of the client (French)
• French side over the northern connection Ligne Nouvelle Montpellier Perpignan
• Side of the concessionaire

Individual evidence

1. ^ Vitesse maximal nominal sur les lignes du Réseau Ferré National ressources.data.sncf.com. Accessed April 30, 2020 (fr)
2. ↑ ^{a b c} TGV France Espagne: premier train direct entre Barcelone et Perpignan , languedoc-roussillon.france3.fr, December 15, 2013, updated July 30, 2015, last accessed July 13, 2016.
3. ↑ ^{a b} France / Spain: TGV tickets Paris - Barcelona available on eurailpress.de, November 29, 2013, accessed November 30, 2013.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Spain / France: From January 7th, opening Barcelona - Figueres. eurailpress.de, January 7, 2013, accessed on July 13, 2013 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Railtext . In: Railvolution . No. 2 , 2013, p. 68 .
6. ↑ ^{a b} Report extension of the TGV Méditerranée. In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 10/2001, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 442.
7. ↑ lemoniteur-expert.com Article: Perpignan-Figueras: percement du premier tube du tunnel lemoniteur.fr, October 1, 2007, last accessed July 13, 2016 - (French)
8. ↑ Fin du percement du tunnel TGV transpyrénéen dans les Pyrénées-Orientales Report in Midilibre ( Memento of November 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) November 23, 2007
9. ^ Richard Malins: Spain - a New Railway Mania? In: Modern Railways. Vol. 66, No. 726, 2009, ISSN  0026-8356 , pp. 58-63.
10. ↑ L'Espagne remboursera la société TP Ferro pour le retard de la ligne TGV '' la-clau.net, November 7th of 2009.
11. ↑ La ligne TGV Perpignan-Figueres livrée dans 10 jours pour rien . la-clau.net, February 4, 2009, last accessed July 13, 2016.
12. ↑ ^{a b} Un demi-TGV fonctionnera entre Perpignan et Barcelone dès 2010 , la-clau.net, January 9, 2009.
13. ↑ Schematic representation in the newspaper El Periódico  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
14. ^ Paris - Barcelona TGV to launch in April railjournal.com
15. ^ High speed line concessionaire TP Ferro in administration. railwaygazette.com, July 22, 2015, accessed September 26, 2016 . 
16. ^ State takes over Perpignan - Figueres. railwaygazette.com, September 26, 2016, accessed September 26, 2016 . 
17. ↑ daily-bourse.fr  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Article: SNCF et RENFE: coentreprise pour exploiter la grande vitesse France-Espagne (French)  
18. ↑ Perpignan-Figueras en TGV pour Noël ( Memento of the original from June 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Announcement on lindependant.com from June 16, 2010. 
19. ↑ `` Perpignan - Figueres link inaugurated '' from the Railway Gazette International from January 27, 2011.
20. ^ First TGV in Barcelona . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . No. 4 , 2013, p. 193 .
21. ↑ High-speed line Barcelona - Perpignan in operation . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . No. 3 , 2013, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 120 .
22. ↑ Paris-Barcelona TGVs set for December 15 launch on railjournal.com, November 28, 2013, accessed November 30, 2013.