Mitma  (Ministerio de Transportes, Movilidad y Agenda Urbana) and Nueva Aquitania signed an agreement  for the contracting and execution of a study to look at the re-opening of the Somport railway tunnel.  

The international Somport tunnel is 7,871 m long and crosses the Pyrenees from Los Arañones in Canfranc (Huesca province) to Les Forges d´Abel (French part of the Atlantic Pyrenees): the  Spanish section is 4,714 m  and the French section is 3,157 m.  

The purpose of this agreement is to establish a joint mechanism to publish a single tender for the rehabilitation of the Somport railway tunnel, on both the Spanish and French sides , and to allow the reopening of international traffic for passengers and freight on the Zaragoza-Canfranc-Pau cross-border  line whose traffic was stopped in 1970. 

The signing of the agreement will allow the tendering of the corresponding service contract. The studies will cover an environmental report, an overview of the civil works in the tunnel and surrounding infrastructure, the governance of the tunnel and the refurbishment work needed to reopen it. 

For further information please visit https://www.mitma.es/el-ministerio/sala-de-prensa/noticias/vie-09102020-1202. 42/20.