Summary sheet
The project will finance the modernisation and upgrade of the multi-modal railway station at Barcelona Sants, serving both high-speed and conventional services (regional and suburban lines). Sants serves as the primary rail terminal in the city, handling over 40 million passengers annually.
The aim is to improve the space available for rail passengers and optimise the mobility flows. Additionally, the project will expand the building passenger area of the terminal by 30% in order to better serve the growing passenger rail traffic and avoid overcrowding, queuing and loss of comfort. This will allow to better organise departure/arrival flows and improve the intermodally with other public transport modes as well as soft modes through new street-level access points. The project will not include any works on the rail systems that are located on the underground level. The inclusion of other small schemes for safety and accessibility across the network of suburban rail stations in the metropolitan area of Barcelona is under consideration.
The Project provides additional capacity for passengers in the main rail station of Barcelona, a critical urban node in the TEN-T. By expanding the available space in the passenger areas of the terminal and improving accessibility to other modes (metro, bus, taxi, soft modes), the Project is expected to avoid queuing and increase the confort, reliability and attractiveness of the rail services, thus catering for traffic growth in both high speed network and suburban services, and preventing modal shift from rail to road.
The Project is in line with EU's strategy outlined in the European Green Deal and in the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy. It contributes significantly to the EIB's policy objectives of sustainable cities and regions, climate action and environmental protection and is aligned with the EIB's Climate Bank Roadmap 2021-2025 and Transport Lending Policy. It will address sector specific market failures and will result in economic, social and environmental benefits.
The long tenor and grace period of the EIB loan will help to increase the average life of ADIF AV´s debt therefore reducing its refinancing risk. The flexibility of drawdowns will allow optimising ADIF's strategy to tap capital markets and raise additional funding sources that will co-finance the Project. Overall, EIB financing will contribute to improving the sustainability of ADIF AV´s debt and its capacity to undertake investments as needed.
Where and if applicable, and based on a risk-based approach as defined in the EIB Group Environmental and Social Policy, the requirements of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive 2011/92/EU (as amended by Directive 2014/52/EU), and Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC will be checked during appraisal.
The main contract for works has been awarded to a joint venture of two Spanish companies (Acciona and Copcisa). The Bank will require the promoter to ensure that contracts for implementation of the project have been tendered in accordance with the applicable EU procurement legislation, Directive 2014/24/EU as well as Directive 89/665/EEC as interpreted by the Court of Justice of the EU, with publication of tender notices in the EU Official Journal, as and where required.