- This is a decision of the Government of Spain which has the competence of the train and which has been made known by the Territorial Cohesion Advisor of the Government of Navarra, Bernardo Ciriza. He was pleased because, as he said, to make those 70 kilometres it will take 20 minutes instead of the current 48 minutes.
The works of the TAV in Navarre began in 2011 and, in fact, aim to connect the Cantabrian River with the Mediterranean at high speed, connecting it in the south with Zaragoza and in the north with the Basque Y.
The Navarre authorities have pointed out on several occasions that the TAV is going to be in place. On this occasion, however, you will have no connection either with the Zaragoza line or with the Y Vasca, as it has not yet been defined how to do both. For this reason, they will make a four-kilometre connection with the Bilbao-Casetas line (Zaragoza), which is currently free, and to do so they will build a viaduct on the Ebro.
Ciriza has announced that the issue of the station of Pamplona “has been stuck for the last 20 years, but in the end it will be in Etxabakoitz, and so Navarra will have its own sustainable station, both economically and environmentally. For the north, no high-speed connections with the Cantabrian area are planned for the moment.
The Counsellor has specified that this section will be supplemented by two sources of funding: The first, EUR 52 million that the central government is going to spend this year and the second, EUR 145.5 million from European funds. The latter have to be spent by 2026, so it has proved certain that by that date the railway section will be completed.