The Catalan Government has initiated the process to study the first phase of the Railway Transversal Axis, a project aimed at connecting Lleida and Girona by train without needing to pass through Barcelona. The initiative foresees the construction of a high-speed station in Vallès, which would serve as an interchange point with the Rodalies and Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) lines. This new infrastructure would allow high-speed trains (AVE) from Madrid to access Barcelona via La Sagrera instead of Sants.
The municipality where the Vallès station will be precisely located is not yet defined, but the technical conditions point towards a location that is an interchange and runs parallel to the current line 8 of Rodalies. This requirement favors, in principle, municipalities like Sant Cugat, where two interchanges between FGC and Rodalies are planned but not yet built.
The planning for the first section, which will connect Lleida with Martorell passing through Igualada, and the access to Barcelona via La Sagrera, has an estimated cost of one and a half million euros. The drafting study will take two years and four months. The Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, has highlighted that the project will "reinforce" the existing railway network in terms of "capacity, efficiency, and balance".
Since 2010, there has been a land reservation for the entire planned route. The current study must delve into the available routes, incorporating new needs and regulatory conditions that have emerged in recent years to implement this first phase. The Government anticipates that high-speed trains will stop at a minimum of one station per affected county.
The tender specifications, managed by Ifercat, specify that the route must be "substantially parallel" to the R8 Rodalies line between the Rubí tunnel and Mollet-Sant Fost, an axis that passes through municipalities such as Rubí, Sant Cugat, Barberà, and Mollet, rather than the historical Vallès capitals like Sabadell or Terrassa.
This condition could better position Sant Cugat to host the high-speed station, even though Sabadell Nord and Terrassa also have interchanges. The projects for the Sant Cugat interchanges, which would connect the R8 with the S1 and S2 FGC lines, were recently unblocked. The railway administrator will be responsible for the preliminary studies, while the Government will draft the construction projects and execute the works, with an estimated investment of 36 million euros.
For Sabadell, the project could have a special impact, either with its own station or with a direct connection between the new station and the S2 FGC line. The Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning, Adrián Hernández, has announced a meeting in September with the minister and the mayors of the area to explain the details of the work.
The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, already proposed last November the access of high-speed rail to Barcelona via La Sagrera, an option now included in the tender. Puente announced the feasibility study for a "direct" variant of the AVE between Lleida and Barcelona-Sagrera, which could save time and decongest the section passing through the Camp de Tarragona.
