Corridor description
The Atlantic Corridor railway, included in the Core Network Corridor (ATL CNC), is over 8,200 Km long and crosses 4 countries: Spain, Portugal, France and Germany.
The ATL CNC links the Western part of the Iberian Peninsula to France and Germany, with high-speed rail lines and parallel conventional ones, providing for the continuity of the networks between Lisbon, Madrid, Paris and Strasbourg/ Mannheim.
The ATL CNC includes the following sections:
- Algeciras – Bobadilla – Madrid
- Sines / Lisboa – Madrid – Valladolid
- Lisboa – Aveiro – Leixões/Porto
- Aveiro – Valladolid – Vitoria – Bergara – Bilbao/Bordeaux – Paris – Le Havre/Metz – Mannheim/Strasbourg
ERTMS deployment on the corridor
There are 8,214.23 km in the ATL where ERTMS is expected to be deployed by 2030, with 12% already in operation with ETCS, 45% in operation with GSM-R, ETCS under construction in 16% of the length and GSM-R in 9%. The GSM-R deployment rate is the lowest among all CNCs.
Defining the short term deployment as the length to be deployed by 2023 according to the EDP (1.750,31 km), 59% is in operation, while 31% is still under construction. The ATL has the highest rate of short-term deployment among the CNCs, but the percentage of the total length of the corridor planned to be deployed by 2023 is one of the lowest (21%).
With regard to the Member States where the ATL corridor runs, no section is planned to be deployed in Portugal by 2023. In contrast, all German sections within the ATL are planned to be deployed by 2023 (Ludwigshafen - FR/DE Border) but, at present, they are still under construction. The highest number of km should be put into operation in France, where the rate of km to be commissioned by 2023 is also the highest (83%). Spain is the second country with the highest ETCS deployment to be fulfilled by 2023. There is already a delay in the Basque Country sections that should have been operational by 2019 due to other national priorities, but the latest information indicates that they will not be operational until 2023.