On 29th November 2023, the Variante de Pajares railway line was officially inaugurated in northern Spain. The 49.7 km line runs from La Robla near León in Castile to Lena in Asturias and is part of the Madrid – Asturias high-speed rail (HSR) line. The new infrastructure includes the Pajares tunnel with a total length of 24.6 km. The project was strongly supported by the EU's cohesion funds. Due to the difficult geological conditions in the region, construction took almost 20 years.
