high-speed rail?
mark the beginning of a new phase in high-speed rail development in Spain. In January, Renfe launched commercial services on the 131km Barcelona - Figueres high-speed line, the first standard-gauge link between Spain and the rest of Europe, which eliminated the most significant barrier to cross-border operation and ended the isolation of the Iberian rail network. Last month the network grew again with the inauguration on June 17 of the ƒ1.9bn Albacete - Alicante line. Nine AVE services operate in each direction, cutting
the Madrid - Alicante journey time by 50 minutes to 2h 20min, with trains calling at Cuenca, Albacete and Villena, where a new station has been constructed. Renfe is using class 100 and 112 trains, which have increased capacity over conventional services by 40% or 6300 seats per day, and the price for a full-fare tourist class ticket is ƒ64.90.
An unusual feature of the 165km line is that it involved upgrading 65km of conventional line originally constructed between 1988 and 2006. This means the maximum commercial speed is limited to 300km/h instead of 350km/h,
which is the standard for most ERTMS- equipped high-speed lines in Spain. Despite Spain’s economic difficulties, the country’s romance with high-speed rail is far from complete - or so it appears. Although Spain already boasts 30% of Europe’s total high-speed route mileage, Adif says that an additional 1244km are currently under construction, while 525km are still in the design phase and a studies are underway on a further 251km. To understand the future of the high- speed network, it is necessary to look at how the system has evolved since the early 1990s. A glimpse at the railway map quickly reveals that the high-speed system echoes the conventional network constructed during the 19th and 20th centuries, largely duplicating the old system and its principal features - a radial design with Madrid at its heart, and a progression of
Photo: David Gubler
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