From , the orbital railway line now reappears as one of the key pieces to unravel the Catalan Budgets. Conceived during the first tripartite of Pasqual Maragall to connect the main cities of the second metropolitan ring without passing through Barcelona, the project returns to the center of the political debate as a capital piece of the budget negotiations between PSC and ERC.
For weeks now, socialists and republicans have been finalizing an agreement to definitively unravel the Accounts. After the failure of the March proposal due to the Government’s refusal to give up part of the personal income tax collection, the Executive turned towards the infrastructure portfolio as the main way to rebuild the negotiation with ERC. Waiting to convert the , now PSC and Republicans place mobility and trains at the center of the agreement, with the orbital line as one of the big bets to combat the permanent Rodalies crisis. The infrastructure portfolio already contributed to unraveling the 2023 budgets, when the Government of Pere Aragonès took over the B-40, the highway known as the Fourth Belt, at the demands of Illa, then in the opposition.
The Orbital proposes to link Vilanova i la Geltrú and Mataró through a route that would cross Vilafranca del Penedès, Martorell, Terrassa, Sabadell and Granollers. The project foresees some 39 stations and combines existing sections with about 68 kilometers of new construction. The initial plans of the Generalitat, published on its website, estimate an investment of around 4,000 million euros and places the line as one of the great bets of the Railway Strategy of Catalonia 2025-2050. The latest forecast, however, (4.8 billion in infrastructure and 400 in trains), according to ERC calculations, which foresees its completion in 2040.
The design of the line foresees an infrastructure entirely of double track and Iberian gauge, prepared for speeds of about 120 kilometers per hour. The complete route between Vilanova i la Geltrú and Mataró would last approximately two hours and would allow direct connection of territories that currently lack competitive transversal rail links. The Generalitat estimates that the infrastructure could serve an area of influence close to 870,000 inhabitants.
“The Orbital is not a new railway line, it is a new country model,” said ERC spokesperson Isaac Albert on Monday, who linked the infrastructure to the need to simultaneously combat the mobility crisis and the territorial imbalance to move from “a radial and centralized mobility model in Barcelona” to a “networked” Catalonia.
The orbital line chaired by Pasqual Maragall as part of a strategy to redefine the Catalan railway map. The project already intended to break with the radial model centered on Barcelona and connect the main cities of the second metropolitan ring by train. The Generalitat itself now defends the project as “the birth of a new territorial model.”
During the first years of the project, the Generalitat developed territorial and technical studies to define the layout and analyze the urban and environmental impact of the infrastructure. Between 2005 and 2006, consultations began with town councils and regional councils affected by the future line, while the Government incorporated the Orbital into the Catalan strategic railway planning along with other large infrastructures such as the Transversal Railway Axis.
However, the project never made it past the planning phase. The economic crisis of 2008 stopped a good part of the large investments planned by the Generalitat and shifted the political priority towards actions considered more urgent or viable in the short term. The technical complexity of some sections, the high economic cost and the dependence on coordination with the State and Adif ended up leaving the orbital line on the back burner for two decades.
Since then, the project has survived in planning documents. In 2023, the ERC Government took the first steps to rescue the project, now located at the center of the debate. Tomorrow, the Secretary of Mobility and Infrastructure of the Generalitat, Manel Nadal, will explain the project to the press in Sant Sadurní d’Anoia.
The Orbital is not the first railway project that the Illa Government resurrects. In December 2024, Councilor Silvia Paneque and Mayor Jaume Collboni announced that they were dusting off – 15 years later – the project to extend line 2 with stops on Montjuïc mountain, serving the Marina del Prat Vermell neighborhood and reaching . There is no date for construction and everything is in the study phase.
