High-speed rail in Spain
The project was named NAFA (Nuevo Acceso Ferroviario a Andalucía, New Rail Link to Andalusia) and was meant to help revitalise the stagnant southern Spanish economy.
In October 1992 Renfe began the AVE Lanzadera (Shuttle), a high-speed medium distance service between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Puertollano, using spare class 100 trains.
[2][3] Seville's hosting of the 1992 World's Fair prompted the choice of that city for the inaugural of the first high-speed line, with its being the home town of then Spanish prime minister Felipe González also playing some role.
In November 2003 a new AVE Lanzadera medium distance service began between Seville and Córdoba using new class 104 trains,[5] reducing journey times between the two cities to 40 minutes.
The construction of a 21-kilometre (13 mi) stretch of high-speed line from Madrid to Toledo allowed the inauguration of a medium distance service in November 2005.
The last segment of the Madrid–Málaga high-speed rail line was completed on 24 December 2007 when the new high speed railway section between the cities of Córdoba and Málaga was inaugurated.
In October 2015 an extension of the Madrid-Seville high-speed rail line to Cádiz was completed after 14 years of works and put in service by Alvia trains for speeds up to 200 km/h.
In March 2012, railway equipment was installed, with a special elastic isolation of the rails in order to dampen vibrations at the sections passing close to Gaudí's architectural works, using the Edilon system.
[17] On 29 November 2023 the section Leon-La Robla-Pola de Lena was inaugurated after 20 years of works[18][19] On 21 May 2024 Renfe replaced the Madrid–Gijón and Castellón/Vinaros–Gijón Alvia services by AVE services on the first AVE gauge-changing Class 106 trains, able to operate at max speed 330 km/h or 205 mph with reduced journey times by 12 minutes between Madrid and Oviedo and by 10 minutes between Madrid and Gijón.
[21] On 21 July 2022 a new 86.5 km section between Venta de Baños and Burgos was inaugurated after 13 years of works at an investment cost of 759 million euros and introduced a new AVE Madrid-Burgos service that cuts the journey time between the two cities down to just over an hour and a half.
[22] In the north-west of Spain the Madrid–Galicia high-speed rail line completed on 21 December 2021 after 20 years of works when the Olmedo–Zamora–Santiago de Compostela section was finished.
When fully operational the Madrid–Levante network will total 955 km of high-speed rail connecting Madrid, Cuenca, Albacete, Valencia, Alicante, Elche, Castellón, Murcia and Cartagena.
[47] The French government, on the other hand, recently announced indefinite delays to the Montpellier-Perpignan high speed section that was originally planned for 2020.
The Atlantic Axis high-speed railway line is connecting the two main cities of Vigo and A Coruña (Corunna) via Santiago de Compostela in the northwestern Spanish region of Galicia.
The line is partially served by S-121 (max speed 250 km/h (155 mph)) trainsets for the medium distance Avant services on the route A Coruña–Ourense via Santiago de Compostela.
The line has a length of 621 km and a travel time of two and a half hours for the direct trains using the route avoiding entering Zaragoza (Saragossa) and Lleida (Lérida).
Alvia services are using parts of the Madrid–Barcelona line connecting Madrid with Pamplona and Logroño via Calatayud and Barcelona with Bilbao, San Sebastian, Salamanca, Vigo and A Coruña via Zaragoza.
[87] It is part of the Madrid–Levante HSR network and is serviced by AVE S-112 (Pato, max speed 330 km/h or 205 mph) trains that cover the distance in up to 2 hours and 12 minutes.
[73] Finally medium distance Avant services connect Murcia to Alicante making intermediate stops in Beniel, Orihuela, Callosa Cox and Elche.
The line is also used by the daily Alvia service Madrid-Almeria on S-730 trains[64] Only some sections along the Spanish Mediterranean Sea coast have high-speed railway standards.
[119] The first section Antequera–Granada was put in service on 26 June 2019 connecting the city of Granada to the rest of the high speed network via a branch from the Madrid–Málaga high-speed rail line.
The railway linking Tarragona to Almería via Valencia and Murcia is expected to be completed by 2026 when the currently under construction 184 km Murcia–Almería high-speed rail line will be finished.
[105] Its first 46,5 km new built cut-off part in Iberian-gauge track between Camp de Tarragona and Vandellòs started commercial services on 13 January 2020.
[125] The section between Vandellòs and Castellón is an upgraded line of the old Iberian-gauge Valencia−Sant Vicenç de Calders railway currently used by the Euromed service in speeds up to 220 km/h that covers distance of 400 km between the cities of Barcelona and Valencia in 2 hours and 35 minutes.
Finally, the Madrid–Barcelona line currently terminates in Barcelona's Estació de Sants, but a new station is under construction at La Sagrera on the northern edge of the city.
In May 2021 the Spanish Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda announced its plans to connect Madrid's Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport with the high-speed network.
[146] The 430 km high-speed line will connect Ferrol in Galicia with Bilbao in the Basque Country passing through the regions of Asturias and Cantabria along the Cantabrian Sea coast in the north Spain.
The line will include two connections between the region of Aragon and the Basque Country, one via Pamplona in Navarre towards the French border and one via Logroño in La Rioja towards Bilbao.
[143] A new high-capacity rail connecting Spain with France on international standard gauge track is considered via a 40 km tunnel through the central Pyrenees mountains.
[153] Though the network length is extensive, it lags in ridership behind comparable high-speed rail systems in Japan, France, Germany, China, Taiwan, and Korea.
