The Madrid–Barcelona high-speed rail line is a
standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
railway line
Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...
inaugurated on 20 February 2008. Designed for speeds of and compatibility with neighbouring countries' rail systems, it connects the cities of
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
and
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 c ...
in 2 hours 30 minutes. In Barcelona the line is connected with the
Perpignan–Barcelona high-speed rail line
The Perpignan–Barcelona high-speed line is an international high-speed rail line between France and Spain. The line consists of a railway, of which 24.6 km are in France and 150.8 km are in Spain. It crosses the French–Spanish bord ...
leading into France which connects it to the European high speed network.
Trains are operated by the national railway
Renfe under the
AVE
''Alta Velocidad Española'' (''AVE'') is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . As of December 2021, the Spanish high-speed rail network, on part of which the AVE s ...
and
Avlo
Avlo (, short for Alta Velocidad Low ''Cost'' literally ''"No Frills High Speed"'' ) is the name of the Spanish low-cost high-speed rail service, at the start between of the cities of Madrid, Zaragoza and Barcelona, by the national rail company ...
brands, and by private competitors
Ouigo España
Ouigo España is an open-access operator, that operates high-speed services between Madrid and Barcelona in Spain. It is a subsidiary of SNCF, the French national railway company, and uses its trademark Ouigo.
History
The company was founded ...
and
Iryo
Iryo is a brand of Intermodalidad de Levante S.A., a private high-speed rail operator in Spain. The company is jointly owned by Trenitalia, Air Nostrum, and the infrastructure investment fund Globalvia.
Trains began operating on the Madrid– ...
.
First stages
In 2003 construction of the first phase of a new standard gauge line from Madrid to the French border (Madrid–Zaragoza–Lleida) was completed and on 11 October of that year commercial service began. This service also stopped at Guadalajara–Yebes and
Calatayud
Calatayud (; 2014 pop. 20,658) is a municipality in the Province of Zaragoza, within Aragón, Spain, lying on the river Jalón, in the midst of the Sistema Ibérico mountain range. It is the second-largest town in the province after the capital ...
. The service began running at only . On 19 May 2006, after two years of operation, speed was increased to when the Spanish
ASFA signalling system was replaced with level 1 of the new European
ETCS/ERTMS system. On 16 October 2006 the trains on this line increased their operating speed to .
On 18 December 2006 the
AVE
''Alta Velocidad Española'' (''AVE'') is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . As of December 2021, the Spanish high-speed rail network, on part of which the AVE s ...
started operating to
Camp de Tarragona, and on 7 May 2007 the service increased its speed to the maximum allowable for the line, . This puts Tarragona at 30 minutes from Lleida. The extension to Barcelona was delayed various times due to technical problems; the Ministerio de Fomento having originally forecast the AVE's arrival in Barcelona by the end of 2007.
Complete operation
The complete line was opened February 2008. As of 2012, seventeen trains now run every day between the hours of 6 am and 9 pm, covering the distance between the two cities in just 2 hours 30 minutes for the direct trains, and in 3 hours and 10 minutes for those calling at all intermediate stations. Before the high-speed line was built, the journey between the two cities took more than six hours.
Speed
It was originally forecast that, after reaching Barcelona in 2004, the line would run at , the maximum capable speed of the new Siemens AVE trains which have replaced the Talgo Bombardier AVE S102, after the installation of level 2 of the
ETCS/ERTMS. But on the AVE's first day of operating at to Tarragona the Minister of Public Works, Magdalena Álvarez, stated that the maximum commercial operating speeds of the AVE on all lines would be .
Nevertheless, in October 2011 the speed was raised to 310 km/h on parts of the railway.
Usage
It was forecast that the AVE would substantially replace air traffic on the Barcelona – Madrid route (in the same way that the
Eurostar
Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service connecting the United Kingdom with France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Most Eurostar trains travel through the Channel Tunnel between the United Kingdom and France, owned and operated sep ...
has on the
London-Paris/London-Brussels routes and France's
TGV has on the
Paris-Lyon route). Indeed, by the end of 2017, the line had already taken 63% of the traffic, taking most of it from aircraft. A few years before the Madrid-Barcelona route was the
world's busiest passenger air route in 2007 with 971 scheduled flights per week (both directions). Similarly more than 80% of travellers between Madrid and Seville use the AVE, with fewer than 20% travelling by air.
Criticism
There was criticism during the construction of the Madrid-Barcelona line. A critical report by the consulting firm
KPMG
KPMG International Limited (or simply KPMG) is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations.
Headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands, although incorporated in London, England, KPMG is a netw ...
, commissioned by ADIF (''Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias'') at the behest of the Ministry for Public Works (') on 23 June 2004, pointed to a lack of in-depth studies and over-hasty execution of works as the most important reasons for the problems that dogged construction of the AVE line. For example, during the construction of the AVE tunnel near Barcelona, a number of nearby buildings suffered damage from a sinkhole that appeared near a commuter rail station, damaging one of its platforms. The construction committee of Barcelona's famed
Sagrada Familia Sagrada is a Spanish word meaning "sacred
Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. T ...
church lobbied for a re-routing of the tunnel – it passes within metres of the massive church's foundations. It also passes equally near the
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
-recognized
Casa Milà also designed by
Antoni Gaudí
Antoni Gaudí i Cornet (; ; 25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926) was a Catalan architect from Spain known as the greatest exponent of Catalan Modernism. Gaudí's works have a highly individualized, '' sui generis'' style. Most are located in Bar ...
.
Furthermore, until 2005 both
Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad.
The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', ' ...
and
Talgo
Talgo (officially Patentes Talgo, SAU) is a Spanish manufacturer of intercity, standard, and high-speed passenger trains.
Corporate history
TALGO, an abbreviation of Tren Articulado Ligero Goicoechea Oriol (English: ''Lightweight articulated tr ...
/
Bombardier train sets failed to meet scheduled speed targets, although in a test run during the homologation tests of the new S102 trains of
RENFE, a train-set
Talgo
Talgo (officially Patentes Talgo, SAU) is a Spanish manufacturer of intercity, standard, and high-speed passenger trains.
Corporate history
TALGO, an abbreviation of Tren Articulado Ligero Goicoechea Oriol (English: ''Lightweight articulated tr ...
350 (AVE S-102) reached a speed of on the night of the 25/26 June 2006, and in July 2006 a
Siemens Velaro train-set (AVE S-103) reached the highest top speed ever in Spain: . At this time, it was a record for railed vehicles in Spain and a
world record
A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizati ...
for ''unmodified'' commercial service trainsets, as the earlier
TGV and
ICE
Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opa ...
records were achieved with specially modified and shortened trainsets, and the 1996
Shinkansen
The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond ...
record of was using a test (non-commercial) trainset.
Extension to France
Barcelona to Figueres
Originally planned to open in 2009, the extension of some Madrid-Barcelona routes to
Figueres–Vilafant railway station via
Girona
Girona (officially and in Catalan , Spanish: ''Gerona'' ) is a city in northern Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 103,369 in 2020. Girona is the capit ...
, opened on 7 January 2013. This made possible upon the completion of the Barcelona-
Figueres
Figueres (, ; , es, Figueras, ) is the capital of the ''comarca'' of Alt Empordà, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
The town is the birthplace of artist Salvador Dalí, and houses the Teatre-Museu Gala Salvador Dalí, a large museu ...
section of the
Perpignan–Barcelona high-speed rail line
The Perpignan–Barcelona high-speed line is an international high-speed rail line between France and Spain. The line consists of a railway, of which 24.6 km are in France and 150.8 km are in Spain. It crosses the French–Spanish bord ...
that connected for the first time the Spanish
AVE
''Alta Velocidad Española'' (''AVE'') is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . As of December 2021, the Spanish high-speed rail network, on part of which the AVE s ...
high-speed network with the French
TGV high-speed network. There have been delays in building a four kilometre tunnel in
Girona
Girona (officially and in Catalan , Spanish: ''Gerona'' ) is a city in northern Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 103,369 in 2020. Girona is the capit ...
, the first phase of which was finished in September 2010, and controversy over the route between
Sants
Sants is a neighbourhood in the southern part of Barcelona. It belongs to the district of Sants-Montjuïc and is bordered by the districts of Eixample to the northeast, Les Corts to the northwest, and by the municipality of l'Hospitalet de Llobr ...
and
Sagrera stations in Barcelona. there are eight trains a day running from Madrid, connecting at Figueres Vilafant with two TGV services to Paris.
Figueres to Perpignan
This is an international
high speed rail section between France and Spain. The section connects two cities on opposite sides of the border,
Perpignan
Perpignan (, , ; ca, Perpinyà ; es, Perpiñán ; it, Perpignano ) is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the ...
in
Roussillon
Roussillon ( , , ; ca, Rosselló ; oc, Rosselhon ) is a historical province of France that largely corresponded to the County of Roussillon and part of the County of Cerdagne of the former Principality of Catalonia. It is part of th ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, and
Figueres
Figueres (, ; , es, Figueras, ) is the capital of the ''comarca'' of Alt Empordà, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
The town is the birthplace of artist Salvador Dalí, and houses the Teatre-Museu Gala Salvador Dalí, a large museu ...
in
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, ...
. It consists of a railway which crosses the
French–
Spanish border via the
Perthus Tunnel
The Perthus Tunnel is a twin-bore railway tunnel between France and Spain under the Eastern Pyrenees, built as part of the high-speed railway line Perpignan-Figueres. It has made possible the implementation of direct high-speed trains connecting ...
, an tunnel bored under the Perthus Pass.
The section is open to high speed trains and freight. Construction was completed in February 2009, although services did not run until a station was built on the line at Figueres. As of March 2015, a daily TGV service connects Paris to Barcelona Sants via Perpignan-Figueres with 2 pairs of trips, plus other connections involving Lyon, Marseille, and Toulouse.
See also
*
LGV Méditerranée
The LGV Méditerranée (French: ''Ligne à Grande Vitesse''; English: Mediterranean high-speed line) is a French high-speed rail line running between Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence, Drôme and Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, also featuring a connection ...
*
TER Languedoc-Roussillon
*
List of highest railways in Europe
References
Notes
Further reading
*
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Madrid-Barcelona High-Speed Rail Line
Railway lines opened in 2008
Railway lines in Catalonia
Standard gauge railways in Spain
Transport in Alt Empordà
Rail transport in Barcelona
Transport in Figueres
Transport in Girona
Transport in Lleida
Rail transport in Madrid
Transport in Tarragonès
2008 establishments in Spain