The Perthus Tunnel is a twin-bore railway tunnel between Perpignan, France and Figueres, Spain built as part of the high-speed railway line between Barcelona and Montpellier under the Eastern Pyrenees. The tunnel took five years to build and was completed on February 17, 2009. The tunnel was built by a private sector consortium TP Ferro under a fifty-year concession and has been designed to allow for freight as well as passenger traffic. It is 8.9-kilometre (5.5 mi) long.[1]
The tunnel was opened for traffic on December 19, 2010.[2] As of 2011, the line ends in Figueres. The section between Barcelona and Figueres is now expected to open no earlier than 2012 as opposed to the original forecast of December 2008. As of now, the rail line ends in an open field.[1] To compensate for this delay, TP Ferro's concession was extended by three years.[3]
In France, the tunnel connects to the Perpignan-Villefranche line.[1] Formal design studies for a high-speed Perpignan-Montpellier line to connect to the tunnel were launched in November 2009 by Réseau Ferré de France.[4]