Inse Rail, in a joint venture with the company Grusamar, will supervise the works promoted by Adif to reorganize the tracks of the Atocha Cercanías station with the implementation of a new arrangement (4+4+2) that will improve the management of the railway traffic of the station.
The action is part of the Madrid Cercanías Plan and will increase the capacity of the C-3 and C-4 lines that run through the Sol tunnel. It will also expand platform 5 that serves passengers on line C-5.
New 4+4+2 track arrangement
The changing of the tracks to a 4+4+2 arrangement in the northern header station will assign tracks 1 to 4 to the Recoletos tunnel, tracks 5 to 8 to the Sol tunnel and tracks 9 and 10 to the Embajadores tunnel. It will also allow track 8 to be used as a siding track for line C-5 in the event of an incident.
Likewise, platform 5, which serves tracks 9 and 10, will be extended and widened to increase its capacity and use it for passengers to get on and off line C-5 in both traffic directions.
The Atocha Cercanías station currently has ten tracks with platforms in a 4+3+3 configuration, so this remodeling represents a significant change that will improve the movement of the most heavily used lines.
The Cercanías commuter trains are the ones that travel through Atocha the most, but the movement of Medium and Long Distance trains may also be affected in the future.
Source: Inse Rail