What the TEN-T is and where these data come from

The TEN-T (Trans-European Transport Network) is the infrastructure network the European Union considers strategic for the internal market: ports, airports, terminals, rail lines, roads and inland waterways. It is governed by Regulation (EU) 2024/1679, which replaced the 2013 regulation in 2024 and sets technical requirements (gauge, electrification, ERTMS, 740 m trains, onshore power supply in ports) and deadlines.

Three levels, three deadlines. The core network must meet the requirements by 2030; the extended core network by 2040; the comprehensive network by 2050. A core network port is one the EU considers essential for international traffic; a comprehensive network port is relevant at regional level.

The European Transport Corridors are the nine multimodal axes where coordination and funding are concentrated. Spain is on two of them: the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, which share sections (Algeciras–Bobadilla, Madrid–Zaragoza). An element labelled “Atlantic and Mediterranean” belongs to both.

Dual-use nodes. The 2024 regulation identifies infrastructure with civilian and military use (military mobility); these are tagged “dual-use” here.

Sections carry the status declared by the Spanish Ministry of Transport in HERMES: in service, under construction, under study or planned, plus the planned measure (none, upgrade, new construction). It is a regulatory snapshot: “planned” means the network requires it to exist, not that the work has been tendered or budgeted. To see what is actually being contracted, cross-check with the Tender Radar (in Spanish).

Kilometres are those declared by the source for each section (the Ministry’s length field). The same line may appear in the freight and passenger networks at different levels; this section uses the freight classification.

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is the programme through which the EU co-funds TEN-T works and studies. Each project has a beneficiary, status (ongoing, completed, terminated, in preparation), corridor, mode, investment and grant. Figures refer to the Spanish share of each action: a cross-border project may have a larger budget in other countries. Funding awarded is not investment executed.

ERTMS is the European signalling system that the core network must have deployed. The forecast layers (level 1 and level 2) show the year in which the Ministry expects each section according to the national deployment plan.

Operational source: HERMES, the geographic viewer of the Spanish Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility (mapas.fomento.gob.es), which publishes via ArcGIS REST the 2024 TEN-T network, CEF projects and planned works. Regulatory source: TENtec (DG MOVE, European Commission) and EUR-Lex. Attribution: Spanish Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility; TEN-T information: European Commission, DG MOVE / TENtec. The data are reused citing the source and the date, without distorting them.

EED Data synchronises the layers every day, compares each element with what is stored and records what changes (additions, removals, changes of status or alignment). The Ministry updates the network only a few times a year: on most days nothing changes. When it does, the newsroom is alerted that day. Geometries are kept as published and also simplified for the web map (one point every ~300 m instead of every ~25 m): the figures do not depend on the drawing.