Roads

The Basque Country has a modern road, rail and air communications infrastructure, facilitating comfortable and dynamic connections with the Spanish State and with Europe through France. It is located on the international Lisbon-Stockholm axis and communicates with the rest of Europe by means of the E-5, E-70 (A-8) and E-80 (A-68). There are also over 4,250 km of motorways, dual carriageways, main roads and secondary roads, together with up-dated functional access to the cities and towns. The main motorways and dual carriageways of the Country the Bilbao-Behobia (A8) and the Bilbao- Zaragoza (A68) motorways; the Cantabrian and the Leizaran dual carriageways and the N-1. [move up]

Railways

The Basque Country is directly connected with the European high speed rail network, apart from being linked by RENFE (Spanish Rail Network) to all most important Spanish cities. There is a regular daily service to cities such as Lisbon, Porto and Paris and to the major French and European Cities via Irún – Hendaya in connection with the French railway system. The major Basque cities and towns have railway stations. At a more local level, the FEVE railways (narrow gauge system) connects the northern coast and EuskoTren – the railway network transferred to the Basque government – provides the relevant suburban and short-distance services between the main Basque cities.
The Basque railway infrastructure is 600 kilometres long. It is worth mentioning the underground of Bilbao, which is one of the most modern underground systems in the world, permitting the high quality travel of citizens in the metropolitan area of Bilbao.
On the other hand, the Basque Country is currently involved in the most significant railway project to date, the so-called “Y” system; a high-speed corridor that will connect the three major Basque cities in approximately half an hour, using state-of-the-art trains that will also connect with international long-distance lines. These include the present connection at the border town of Irun with the French TGV, which will enable passengers to travel from the Basque Country to Paris in just over five hours and then connect with other European cities. [move up]

Seaports

Bilbao and Pasajes are the two biggest Basque commercial seaports. They have been important entry and exit centres for oil products, general merchandise, vehicles and iron and steel goods. Nowadays, they are facing the XXIst century with deep transformations, both of a physical and managerial nature. The seaports of Bilbao and Pasajes, with a traffic volume that all together accounts for about 44 million tonnes per year, are the centre of most import and export activities and they occupy the first positions among the seaports of the Spanish State. The port of Bilbao offers docking facilities for ships of almost all sizes at its oil terminal, with water depths of up to 32 metres. In the case of container ships, the container terminal offers depths of 21 metres and the general goods docks offer a depth of 14m. The Port Authority, thanks to the extension work performed over the last 15 years, offers a total of 3,390,000 m2 of docks and 17,000 linear metres for berthing lines. The port maritime sector in Bilbao offers maritime connections from Bilbao to over 300 destinations worldwide, transporting all kinds of merchandise, offering all types of complementary logistics services. By land there are daily departures/arrivals of goods by rail to numerous destinations in the Iberian Peninsula and the access for road transport to the port is directly from the motorway. There are another seventeen minor ports which, depending on their size, develop activities with the maritime transport, fishing and sports sectors. Most of them have been enlarged, adapting to the present needs of commercial and leisure traffic. www.uniportbilbao.es

There are also another seventeen minor ports which, based on their size, offer maritime transport, fishing and leisure activities. Most of them have been extended, offering larger port areas and docking, adapting to present commercial and leisure requirements.[move up]

Airports

The Basque Country has one of the most complete airport infrastructures in Spanish State. Each of the three capitals of the autonomous region has an airport: Loiu in Bilbao, Foronda in Vitoria-Gasteiz and Hondarribia in Donostia-San Sebastián; the three airports offer complementary services. They registered in the year 2006 total traffic figures of 4,417,679 passengers and 82,997 aircraft. The three airports regularly operate with the following airlines: Aer Lingus, Air Berlin, Air Europa, Air France, Alitalia, Brussels Airlines, Clickair, Easyjet, Iberia Lufthansa, Portugalia Airlines, Spanair, Happag Lloyd Express and Vueling Airlines.

The progressive growth registered in air traffic and the previsions established for the future have determined the development of an important investment programme on expansion and improvement. Bilbao-Loiu airport offers international and domestic passenger flights, and has the highest volume of passengers in the Cantabrian area. Its new terminal was designed by the well-known architect Santiago Calatrava. Foronda airport in Vitoria-Gasteiz, classified as "first special", offers charter and inter-regional flights and has the second best perishable goods terminal in Europe after Frankfurt. This airport is the consolidation centre for DHL air freight for the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. In 2006, the volume handled totalled 30,300 tonnes. [move up]

Logistics Centres

Every day around 400,000 tonnes of goods are transported in and around the Basque Country, 67% of which move by road, 30% by sea and the rest by rail or air. A privileged geographical situation combined with a highly industrialised economy, means that the autonomous region has one of the highest traffic levels in Spanish State. In this context, the goods transportation and distribution centres help to concentrate all the activities in the Spanish and international commercial logistic chain. The Basque Country has three goods interchange centres: Vitoria Transport Centre CTV, Zaisa and Aparcavisa. The three of them provide integrated distribution management combined with optimum administration of storage operations. The recently-built installations provide storage space and load break-up and consolidation services, as well as internal coordination and transport interchange. They also function as goods reception, information and distribution centres. Since January 2006, we must add the ARASUR logistics platform, located in Alava (Rivabellosa) next to the Miranda de Ebro road junction, where the A-68, A-1 and the Madrid-Bilbao Railway Line converge. These four Basque centres are part of the European Group of Transport Platforms, "Europlatforms". To complement the above mentioned logistics centres, the airport of Vitoria, with its facilities for loading, unloading and its perishable goods terminal, offers ideal conditions for the transport and distribution of merchandise, consolidating the Basque Country as a key point for the connection among the European, African, American and Asian markets.
We can stress that the Aquitaine-Euskadi Logistics platform, whose main objective is to promote the logistics fabric of both regions, which over the centuries has become the natural passage to Europe, will also serve to implement joint projects in the fields of research, technology, tourism and successful sectors in the current European socio-economic environment such as the aerospace sector. Built in 2004, the PLAE groups 15 companies directly connected with the Basque-Aquitaine logistics and transport scenario. Amont the main actions to be implemented, we can stress the creation of the so-called Atlantic Railway Motorway, which will aim at reducing lorry transport by providing special trains. This alternative will relieve the Irun – Biriatu border road network that supports around 10,000 heavy vehicles a day. Another Railway commitment of the PLAE is to promote the Basque high-speed network, the “Y”. The first line will connect Vitoria and the French cities of Tours and Orleans. But the greatest project is the Short Sea Shipping (SSS) systems. As in the case of railways, the SSS will help alleviate the Basque – Aquitaine border by combining land and sea transport. This strategic project, presently under study, will connect Bilbao and Dunkerque by sea.
The significance of the PLAE in the strategic planning aimed at achieving a sustainable and high-quality transport system can be compared with the importance of the active presence of the ports of Bilbao and Pasajes in the Basque Country and of Bayonne and Bordeaux in Aquitaine. The four intermodal transport centres in the Basque Country are also present in the project, together with the five French centres (Bordeaux-Fret Centre, the Irun-Hendaya railway complex and the Bordeaux, Hourcado and Bayonne-Mouguerre intermodal centres). Finally, Uniport Bilbao and the companies that promote the Bilbao and Vitoria Airports (Bilbaoair and VIA) complete this platform that is open to the participation of new members. [move up]

Industrial Infrastructure

The Basque Economy has seen how its prospects for growth have been going up in the last five years; the figures are above the Spanish and European average. Consequently, new businesses have been set up and employment has increased. In order to respond to this potential development, the Basque Country offers a significant extension of industrial land available in strategic zones of the region, suitable for all kinds of companies. Through its Lurrak programme, Basque public industrial promotion company SPRILUR offers a range of attractive conditions to acquire land, while simplifying redtape for the entrepreneur. All services industrial estate users will need are available on site. [move up]