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Passengers travelling between Andalucía and Catalonia could soon skip Madrid altogether thanks to plans for a new high-speed railway station in Parla that will allow trains to bypass the capital's congested Atocha and Chamartín terminals.

 

The Ministry of Transport and its railway infrastructure manager, Adif, confirmed this week that the new facility will form a key part of a massive overhaul of Spain's rail network, which aims to break the long-standing pattern of forcing nearly every long-distance journey through Madrid.

 

For travellers from Sevilla, Málaga or Córdoba heading to Barcelona, it means no more getting off at Atocha, navigating the city or changing trains. Instead, services will stop briefly at Parla before continuing directly northeast towards Catalonia.

 

Minister of Transport Óscar Puente announced the plans this week as part of a wider package of upgrades to the Madrid-Barcelona high-speed line, which will see trains running at 350 kilometres per hour and covering the distance in under two hours, possibly by 2027 or 2028.

 

For decades now, the rail network has been designed with Madrid as its unavoidable hub, meaning that even journeys between towns on opposite sides of the country have required a detour through the Spanish capital. The new infrastructure projects are intended to change that by creating horizontal and vertical routes that no longer treat Madrid as the beginning and end of every line.

 

Another element of the plan involves using the future high-speed connection to Barajas Airport as an alternative route for trains heading to or from Valencia, Alicante and Murcia. Currently, those services pass through Chamartín, but the airport link could provide a bypass that keeps them out of central Madrid entirely.

 

 

The Ministry is also considering an intermediate station that would connect the northern rail junction with the Madrid-Sevilla and Madrid-Levante lines, effectively closing a triangle around the capital without actually going through it.

 

For Andalucía, the most important project on the horizon is the Mediterranean Corridor, a coastal route that will eventually link Almería with the French border without venturing anywhere near Madrid.

 

Mr Puente has promised that within three years, passengers will be able to board a train in Almería and travel all the way to France without changing services.

 

Cities like Almería, Málaga and Sevilla have long been tethered to Madrid for access to the rest of Spain and Europe, but the combination of the Parla bypass and the Mediterranean Corridor could open up entirely new routes.

 

Images: Archive/Ministry of Transport