The construction of the passenger building of the new Irun railway station will begin in 2023

Euskaraz irakurri: 2023an hasiko dira egiten Irungo tren geltoki berriko bidaiarientzako eraikina

The Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda of the Government of Spain, Raquel Sánchezhas announced this Friday in Irun that the construction of the new passenger building of the new international railway station of the Gipuzkoan city, which was tendered for €70 millionwill start in 2023. During his visit to the current Irun railway station, Sánchez also announced that the works of the new station, which will have a new pedestrian walkway, will be awarded in the coming weeks, before the end of 2022.

Accompanied on her visit by the delegate of the Government of Spain in the BAC, Denis Itxaso, the mayor of Irun, José Antonio Santano, and the Minister of Territorial Planning, Housing and Transport of the Basque Government, Iñaki Arriola, Sánchez announced that Adif will award construction of the new passenger building at the international station before the end of the year. It is a work that “will respond to the agreed railway and urban requirements, and that will allow integration with the future technology park in the area of ​​the old customs to be developed by the City Council.”

In the context of this railway integration project, Adif has signed an agreement with the Basque Government and the Irun City Council to deploy a new urban and pedestrian footbridge, which will connect the station and the city, favoring mobility and the use of public transport . The construction of the footbridge will require an investment of more than eight million euros, and will connect the adjacent neighborhoods with the railway station in an accessible way. Thus, the infrastructure will cross the rail yard attached to the new terminal on the north side along its entire length, and in the Vía Irun area, to link up with Sebastián Errazu street.

Adif will assume the drafting of the project and the execution and direction of the works and, in addition, will finance the actions by 33.33%. The Irun City Council will finance 44.45% of the operations, and, once the construction of the footbridge is finished, it will assume its upkeep and maintenance. The Basque Government, for its part, undertakes to finance 22.22% of its cost.

“The complex made up of a station and a walkway will contribute to consolidate Irun as a benchmark for sustainable and multimodal mobility and its urban regeneration, with the railway as a benchmark and pole of development”, highlighted the Spanish Minister of Transport.

The new railway station is configured as a piece in the form of a bridge, which will fly over 10 tracks and which, at its western end, connects with the city through a new square, which will include services for sustainable mobility.

The action, included in the agreement signed between Adif, the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council, the Irun City Council and Euskal Trenbide Sarea (ETS), also contemplates the reorganization of the track yard to widen platforms and expand its capacity to accommodate long-distance trains. distance and international, as well as commuter and conventional medium distance.

In addition, the large roof of the station will have a solar energy collection system made up of 180 photovoltaic panels, and the car park, with 150 spaces, will also be redesigned for electric vehicles.

“This is a milestone,” says the mayor, José Antonio Santano

The mayor of Irun, José Antonio Santano, has pointed out that for the city “this is a milestone”, because “We move from projects, from words, to deeds”. Thus, he recalled that 11 years ago, “more or less”, he signed with the then Minister of Public Works, José Blanco, and also with the counselor Arriola, a protocol that “defined all this that really was a dream, an impulse for transformation of the city that we wanted to see carried out”.

“Today, as the minister has announced, we find that Adif is going to award before the end of the year the works of what will be the most important public investment in the history of this city. There are more than 70 million euros, and a lever for change and transformation, together with the development of Vía Irun and the city centre”, he highlighted.

Finally, he has stated that he is “looking forward to seeing the crane”. “I think that day I will end up emotional, a few tears will fall, because things are very difficult, they are imagined, they are dreamed, but then the really difficult thing is to turn them into a reality and this is the step we are taking now”, he concluded. .