To improve the quality, maintainability and operational safety of Metro de Madrid’s operating network, an Action Plan has been established for the technological renovation of obsolescent signaling systems that contain contaminating substances, replacing them with state-of-the-art electronic interlockings.

As part of this plan, METRO has planned the execution of the comprehensive renovation works of the signaling system on line 7A, between the Estadio Metropolitano and Pitis stations, to provide the line with a high-performance, high-availability Target Distance signaling system that will make it possible to remove obsolescent equipment. The actions affect 20 kilometers of tunnel and 27 stations.

Inse Rail will supervise the execution of the installations works that will be carried out at night without interrupting service, and five periods of service interruption of approximately 92 hours each planned during 2024/2025. This means that the coordination of the works, both during the periods with service and during the planned closings, will be critical for the execution of the work.

Source: Inse Rail

The works will adapt these facilities to the new road configuration associated with the Access Channel.

This contract includes the adaptation of the management system for the Valencia-Joaquín Sorolla traffic and the Regulation and Control Center for the high-speed line, among other facilities; as well as the procedure for trains to enter and exit on the connection between Joaquín Sorolla and Valencia-Nord.

New signaling and other field elements of the safety and communications equipment will also be installed, including track circuits, axle counters, balises and fallen-object detectors, in addition to technical verifications and testing.

The Valencia Access Channel project and the remodeling of the Valencia-Joaquín Sorolla station are key operations to integrate the railway into Valencia.

The tunneling of the access roads to the two stations in Valencia will free up land for city development. The Joaquín Sorolla station will also be transformed – including the expansion of its parking – to handle the increased demand as a result of the from the deregulation of rail services and the development of the Mediterranean Corridor. 

Source: Inse Rail

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

The contract awarded to Inse Rail, as part of a joint venture with Ayesa, covers the outfitting, modification and overhaul of the safety and communications installations to migrate the L050 high-speed line that is currently in service to the new route that runs through the future Sagrera station on its second railway level. The contract also includes the commissioning and integration into the systems managed from Madrid, Zaragoza and Barcelona (CRC, PRO, CTC, BSC, …) and its impact on the Barcelona-Sants and Bifurcación Mollet stations, and connections with other lines.

The upgrading of existing facilities and the installation of new is part of a large-scale change reported to the AESF. It includes contracts for the infrastructure, energy, control, command and signaling subsystems, ERTMS train protection systems and fixed telecommunications, with the different works executed interdependently and in parallel.

The La Sagrera station is the largest infrastructure currently under construction in Catalonia and one of the most ambitious and complex projects in recent years in Spain. The project is being carried out in Barcelona’s large multimodal transport hub, which will host high-speed and long-distance, medium-distance and commuter services -Rodalies-, metro and urban and intercity buses.

Source: Inse Rail

Adif is moving forward with the project to eliminate telephone blocking on the Bobadilla-Ronda section -70.5 km between the provinces of Málaga and Cádiz- of the Bobadilla-Algeciras line, which will be replaced with an advanced signaling and telecommunications system, an Automatic Single-Track Blocking (BAU), which will work with Centralized Traffic Control (CTC). 

The project, with an investment of 27.9 million euros, will improve the reliability of the facilities and the quality of the service. With this project, the system will be implemented along the full length of the railway line, because it is already installed between Ronda and Algeciras (105.5 km).

The works, which involve modifications to the signaling, energy and telecommunications facilities and the installation of new state-of-the-art electronic interlockings, will be supervised by the Inse Rail-Meta Engineering joint venture, with a completion time of 26 months.

The main actions to be carried out are the following:

• Replacement of the electrical interlocking in Bobadilla and the Bouré interlockings in Campillos, Almargen/Cañete La Real and Setenil, with new electronic interlockings.
• Installation of Automatic Single-Track Blocking (BAU) throughout the section.
• Integration of new electronic interlockings in the CTCs in Ronda and Córdoba.
• New technical buildings for signaling and telecommunications facilities in the Bobadilla, Campillos, Almargen/Cañete La Real and Setenil stations, as well as at the intermediate posts in Teba, Atalaya and Parchite.
• In Bobadilla, Campillos and Almargen/Cañete La Real stations, traffic offices will also be built.

Source: Inse Rail