Spain and France reaffirm their commitment to the Pau-Canfranc railway connection within the framework of the 25th Spain-France Summit

At the plenary session, the Minister for Public Works also informed the Heads of Government of Spain and France of the commitments and progress made on reopening the line.

In regard to this issue, France confirmed that, with the backing of the Regional Council of Aquitaine, which has financed all of the works undertaken, the 25-km stretch between Oloron-Sainte-Marie and Bedous had been reopened to trains on 26 June 2016.

For its part, in Spain, where trains have not stopped running to Canfranc, actions have been undertaken to gradually modernise the line.

France and Spain also welcome, following the joint request from the four-party working group made up by the two ministerial departments, the Regional Council of Aquitaine and the Regional Government of Aragon, for European funds within the framework of the 2016 call for proposals of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) to finance a project to study the reopening of the line.

This request calls for studies to develop the railway line to enable the re-establishment of international goods and passenger trains between Pau and Zaragoza.

During the meeting, they tackled the actions subject to the financial aid, such as carrying out studies on traffic and interoperability, a functional study on railway operations, actions to refurbish the line from Huesca to Canfranc, as well as intervention in the logistics hub of Huesca.