The Port will extend the South Wharf rail terminal with the construction of a third track.
Both entities hold a meeting to promote intermodality, efficiency and decarbonisation of land transport in the Atlantic Corridor.
The Port Authority of Huelva and Renfe Mercancías have signed today a general protocol of action to continue promoting rail-port intermodality in the port of Huelva, coordinating efforts to launch a rail motorway service between the Port of Huelva and the peninsular hinterland. To this end, the South Wharf rail terminal will be extended with a third track, as stated in the aforementioned protocol as investments in fixed infrastructures. This work, financed by the recovery and resilience funds, will guarantee the efficiency and effectiveness of this new project.
The president of the Port of Huelva, Pilar Miranda assured that “it is a great honour for the Port of Huelva to share common objectives with Renfe Mercancías for the development of this strategic project for Huelva and its surroundings, of great social and environmental interest, as the Huelva-Madrid-Zaragoza rail motorway will enable the hauliers in the Port’s hinterland to avoid congested traffic routes, extend transport beyond the time limit for driving and save costs, among other benefits”.
The signing ceremony was attended by the general manager of Renfe Mercancías, Joaquín del Moral, in what is already his second visit to the Port of Huelva, demonstrating the company’s commitment to continue to grow in rail traffic with the port of Huelva, where it is already the main rail operator with 48 weekly circulations, which will be increased to 58 from November onwards.
With the signing of this protocol, both entities are joining forces to set up a rail motorway service in the south of the Atlantic Corridor, connecting the Port of Huelva and its province with the northwest of the peninsula and from there with France and the rest of Europe. This will make it possible to transfer a significant percentage of heavy traffic that currently crosses Spain by road to rail, contributing in this way to reducing the environmental impact of the logistics chains that run along the southern section of the Atlantic Corridor. In the same way, it will contribute to the decarbonisation objectives of the European Union, in addition to increasing the competitiveness and sustainability of land transport, and in synchronisation with the current and future maritime-terrestrial chains of the Port of Huelva.
In addition to the investments in fixed infrastructures to be made by the APH, Renfe Mercancías will be responsible for carrying out the investment in rolling stock, that is to say, wagons, platforms and any other non-fixed element necessary to guarantee the optimum operation of the service.
In recent years, the Port of Huelva has experienced a significant increase in general cargo traffic of 52% in the last five years, with special emphasis on Ro-Ro, the main focus of the Autopistas Ferroviarias, which has experienced an increase of 178% in the last three years, which translates into 23,586 trucks operated in 2021 and an operating rate of nearly 2,000 trailers per month.
On the other hand, the province of Huelva is one of the main Spanish areas generating land-land road freight traffic with the rest of Europe, with major land transport companies specialising in temperature-controlled goods. As a result, in 2021, this province and its hinterland generated road traffic of 200,000 trucks with the rest of Europe, and nearly 400,000 trucks with the northern peninsular.
At the signing ceremony, led by the president of the Port of Huelva and the general manager of Renfe Mercancías, he was accompanied by Francisco Cañamero, commercial director, Julián Mata, manager of Intermodal, and Diego Martínez, head of Logistics and Service Provision in Huelva, and by the Port Authority of Huelva, its director, Ignacio Álvarez-Ossorio and its head of the Business Development and Commercial Department, Jaime Beltrán.
