Alta Velocidad Española (AVE)[a] is a high-speed rail service operated by Renfe, the Spanish State railway company.

The first AVE service was inaugurated in 1992, with the introduction of the first Spanish high-speed railway connecting the cities of Madrid, Córdoba and Seville.

[7] Alta Velocidad Española translates to "Spanish High Speed", but the initials are also a play on the word ave, meaning "bird".

[12][13] Currently, there are several series of high-speed trains that run the AVE service: The still-growing network transported a record 39.0 million passengers in 2024.

[14] Though the network length is extensive, it lags in ridership behind comparable high-speed rail systems in Japan, France, Germany, China, Taiwan, and Korea.