The Basque Government's Ministry of Sustainable Mobility has signed a protocol with the Spanish Central Government and Irun City Council to integrate the Euskal Trenbide Sarea and Adif railway tracks

- Connecting the Euskotren Topo lines to those managed by the Adif will involve creating a new station, refurbishing  the Belaskoenea one and rebuilding Irun Colón station 

This Monday, the Basque Minister for Sustainable Mobility, Susana García Chueca, the Secretary of State, José Antonio Santano, the Mayor of Irun City Council, Cristina Laborda, and the Adif Chairman, Pedro Marco, signed an inter-institutional protocol to connect the layout of the Euskal Trenbide Sarea (ETS) railway lines used by the Euskotren units in Irun to the Adif sidings.   

The agreement seeks to facilitate the coordination of the projects that will culminate with the transformation of the railway area and its urban integration in Irun. The protocol joins the list of previously ratified agreements between the institutions for urban integration and regeneration; they include the one signed for the new Irun station – whose works were visited this same morning along with the Gipuzkoa Provincial Councillor for Mobility, Azahara Domínguez – and the urban walkway that will help the intermodality with Euskotren and will connect the new infrastructure with the rest of the city. 

The new agreement lays the foundations for the partnership between ETS (Euskal Trenbide Sarea), Adif and Irun City Council.  The changes involve creating a new station alongside the new international station, together with refurbishing the Belaskoenea one, and rebuilding the Irun Colón station – on land close to its current location – as the old one is outside the new layout.

The Basque Minister for Sustainable Mobility, Susana García Chueca, stressed the inter-institutional coordination required to bring about a railway project such as the one for Irun; she went on to highlight the benefits for citizens, as new areas will be freed up for their use and enjoyment. García Chueca noted that "we will not only rearrange the rail facilities, but we will also improve the city's permeability by removing the current scar left by the railway".  

Accordingly, ETS will draw up the construction studies and projects for the Ventas-Ficoba track, on the metric-gauge Donostia/San Sebastián-Hendaye line, that are needed for the new layout. It will work with Adif to plan these actions, so that they are compatible with the works for the new Irun station, the future urban walkway and the new Paseo de Colón and Plaza de Txanaleta structures. It will also organise the freeing up of the railway land with the City Council. 

In turn, Adif will prepare the project to modify the sidings at Irun station in order to allow the ETS metric-gauge rails to run under the Paseo de Colón structure.  It will also draft and approve the project to demolish and rebuild the support structure, and, as applicable, the repositioning of Paseo de Colón and Plaza de Txanaleta in coordination with Irun Council. 

Another Adif commitment is to provide the Basque Government with the necessary land to carry out the layout set out in the Ventas-Ficoba Informative Study of the metric-gauge Donostia-Hendaye line.

Irun City Council, together with ETS, will draft and approve the planning changes required, and will agree with Adif and ETS all urban planning aspects for the project, along with transferring the land needed to build the new rail structures covered by the agreement. 

Different work teams and an oversight commission will be set up to implement the protocol, and they will work on the timeline and prioritising the actions to be undertaken.