The Spanish government has received €600M (£530M) from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to complete a high speed rail line linking three cities in the Basque region.
The loan will allow completion of a project to build 160km of new high-speed rail line between Vitoria, Bilbao and San Sebastián along with related conversion and connection works.
The agreement was signed in Madrid by EIB vice-president Román Escolano and Juan Bravo, chairman of Ministry of Development offshoot Adif Alta Velocidad.
It represents the first slice of £890M of financing approved by the bank last month, after earlier loans in 2012 and 2013 worth £1.25bn.
The new line has been designed for speeds of up to 250km/h, eventually halving the travel time from Madrid to Bilbao to around two and a half hours.
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