Government shelved Ourense AVE variant

Spain’s government decided in 2021 not to complete the final stretch of Ourense’s outer high-speed rail variant, leaving trains to enter the city on the current alignment. (laregion.es) The detail that triggered the latest backlash is a parliamentary response cited by Galician media in April 2026. It says the last section was set aside because it “does not provide travel-time savings” and was conceived for reasons “outside railway operations.” (lavozdegalicia.es) That missing section is the most sensitive part of the project: about 7.5 kilometers of double track on the approach to Ourense, including a new bridge over the Miño. Without it, the line still narrows on the way into the station. (lavozdegalicia.es) The bottleneck sits between Taboadela and Ourense, where regional officials say high-speed passenger trains and freight would still depend on a constrained entry. The Xunta de Galicia says the issue is capacity and reliability, not just a few minutes on the timetable. (lavozdegalicia.es) The broader project has been broken into five sub-sections over roughly 17 kilometers. A 2023 report in La Región said Adif had estimated in 2018 that completing the full outer variant would cost about €475 million. (laregion.es) Construction did move ahead on the first pieces. Spain’s official gazette published the tender for the Taboadela–Túnel de Rante works on July 22, 2021, confirming that at least the opening segment entered procurement. (boe.es) Those early works have also slipped. In January 2025, the government said the Taboadela–Túnel de Rante section, awarded for €83.44 million, had been pushed to January 28, 2026 after a 13-month extension and a budget increase of €11.46 million. (laregion.es) A separate 2026 report said the second phase toward Ourense remains “in planning” while Adif updates designs from 2019 and 2020 to current rules and prices. The government also said it is prioritizing the earlier phase because it sees no journey-time gain in the remaining stretch. (laregion.es) Even so, the state has kept processing pieces of the project it is still building. Spain’s official gazette published a June 24, 2024 expropriation notice for the Taboadela–Túnel de Rante works after the modified project was approved on February 22, 2024. (boe.es) The result is a split-screen project in Ourense: earthworks and paperwork continue on the front end, while the final access that would fully replace the old approach remains shelved. (laregion.es) (lavozdegalicia.es)