[11][12] José Blanco, Spain's Minister of Development at the time, assured that the high-speed line to Figueres, including this railway tunnel, would be inaugurated by the end of 2012.

[20] On 19 December 2010, the Perpignan-Figueres high-speed line was inaugurated,[21] and the date of entry into operation of the railway tunnel was delayed until 2013 due to the economic crisis that began in 2008,[22] which led to a cut in public investment in Spain of 6,045 million euros.

The forecast officially maintained by the Ministry of Development is that high-speed trains would start running without interruption from Barcelona to Paris and vice versa in April 2013.

[3][4] The inauguration ceremony was attended by the Prince of Asturias and the presidents of the Spanish Government, Mariano Rajoy, and of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Artur Mas, among other authorities.

[5] On 12 February 2013 a train of the French operator SNCF ran through the tunnel for the first time, specifically branch 736 of the TGV Dasye [es] series.

The railway tunnel sparked significant controversy among part of Barcelona's population due to its route, which affects several of the city's landmarks.

[15]On February 8, 2010, UNESCO technicians Rolf Katzenbach and Wolfram Jägertal met in Barcelona with the temple's board of trustees and some neighborhood associations to assess the impacts of the tunnel's construction near the Sagrada Familia and to hear their objections to the route.

[48] The Sagrada Família Board of Trustees requested five times that the Audiencia Nacional halt the tunnel's construction through Mallorca Street due to safety risks to the Glory Façade and the central nave of the temple.

Since April 2013, trains operated by the French company Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF) and Renfe Operadora have connected Spain and France without requiring transfers at the Figueres-Vilafant station.