Euromed is a high-speed rail service operated by Renfe along the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

coast.

Service

Euromed entered commercial service on June 16, 1997, along a Mediterranean corridor, between the cities of

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Tarragona Tarragona (, ; Phoenician: ''Tarqon''; la, Tarraco) is a port city located in northeast Spain on the Costa Daurada by the Mediterranean Sea. Founded before the fifth century BC, it is the capital of the Province of Tarragona, and part of Tar ...

Castellón de la Plana Castellón de la Plana (officially in ca-valencia, Castelló de la Plana), or simply Castellón ( ca-valencia, Castelló, link=no) is the capital city of the province of Castellón, in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is located in the east ...

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

and

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...

. As of January 2020 the Euromed service connects the city of Barcelona to the city of Valencia in 2 hours and 35 minutes and Barcelona to Alicante in 4 hours and 20 minutes. Madrid-EMTLinea-inicio

Barcelona Sants railway station
Madrid-EMTLinea

Camp de Tarragona railway station Camp de Tarragona is a railway station, opened on 19 December 2006, on the Madrid-Barcelona high-speed rail line between Madrid and Barcelona. Located between the municipalities of La Secuita and Perafort, Castellón de la Plana railway station
Madrid-EMTLinea

Valencia-Joaquín Sorolla railway station Valencia-Joaquín Sorolla railway station is a railway station in Valencia, Spain, opened in 2010. Along with Estació del Nord, it is a city centre terminus station, primarily serving AVE high-speed rail services, with Estació del Nord serving ...

Alicante railway station Alicante Terminal ( ca-valencia, Alacant Terminal) is the central railway station of Alicante, Spain. Commonly referred locally as the RENFE station, the station is part of Adif system, and is a terminal station. The station accommodates RENFE l ...

The line uses parts of the

Madrid–Levante high-speed rail network The Madrid–Levante high-speed network is a network of high-speed rail lines that connects Madrid with the Mediterranean coast of the Levante Region, specifically with Castilla-La Mancha, the Valencian Community and the Murcia Region autonomo ...

, further construction works between Valencia and Alicante for the increase of speed and connectivity are ongoing as of 2021 as not all sections are capable for 200 km/h and above.

Rolling stock

The service started using series 101

EMU The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus ''Dromaius''. The emu' ...

rolling stock with

bogies A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transp ...

adapted for use on the

Iberian gauge Iberian gauge ( es, ancho ibérico, trocha ibérica, pt, bitola ibérica) is a track gauge of , most extensively used by the railways of Spain and Portugal. This is the second-widest gauge in regular use anywhere in the world. The Indian gauge, , ...

track.

Traction current A railway electrification system supplies electric power to railway trains and trams without an on-board prime mover or local fuel supply. Electric railways use either electric locomotives (hauling passengers or freight in separate cars), ele ...

is supplied by

overhead lines An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipmen ...

, at either 3,000 volts

direct current Direct current (DC) is one-directional flow of electric charge. An electrochemical cell is a prime example of DC power. Direct current may flow through a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through semiconductors, insulators, or even ...

, or 25,000 volts

alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current which periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time in contrast to direct current (DC) which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in whic ...

at 50 Hz. In normal commercial service these trains traveled at and had a top speed of , although was reached during testing. The fleet of six units was built by the French multinational

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...

. In 2009 all the TGV based rolling stock was converted to standard gauge and replaced by the new RENFE Class 130.

Accidents and incidents

* On 30 March 2002 a Euromed train traveling across points at collided with a local train in

that had just left

Torredembarra Torredembarra (), normally called La Torre by its inhabitants, is a town in the ''comarca'' of the Tarragonès, in the province of Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain. It is located on the Costa Daurada, it faces Altafulla to the west, La Pobla de Monto ...

station. The impact caused both trains to derail, two fatalities, and 90 injured.

References

External links

Euromed at official RENFE website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Euromed (Train) Renfe high-speed trains High-speed rail in Spain