The Alcázar de San Juan–Cádiz railway is an important Iberian-gauge railway line in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It branches from the

Madrid–Valencia railway The Madrid–Valencia railway is the conventional railway line linking the Spanish capital Madrid with the country's third largest city of Valencia in the Valencian Community. It now primarily serves local commuter rail services and regional tr ...

at Alcázar de San Juan and terminates in Cádiz. It was once the only line linking

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

, but now primarily serves local

commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

services and regional traffic since the opening of the

Madrid–Seville high-speed rail line The Madrid–Sevilla high-speed line (NAFA or ''Nuevo Acceso Ferroviario a Andalucía'') is a Spanish railway line for high-speed traffic between Madrid and Seville. The first Spanish high-speed rail connection has been in use since 21 April 1 ...

in 1992.

Route

The line serves major Spanish cities including

Córdoba Córdoba most commonly refers to: * Córdoba, Spain, a major city in southern Spain and formerly the imperial capital of Islamic Spain * Córdoba, Argentina, the second largest city in Argentina and the capital of Córdoba Province Córdoba or Cord ...

Jerez de la Frontera Jerez de la Frontera () or simply Jerez, also cited in old English-language sources as , is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality in the province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Sp ...

and

Cádiz Cádiz ( , , ) is a city in Spain and the capital of the Province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula off the Atlantic Ocean separated fr ...

; along with a small branch to Jaén at Linares-Baeza, and a second after Linares to

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of Almería, province of the same name. It lies in southeastern Iberian Peninsula, Iberia on the Mediterranean S ...

of around . The line also branches off at Córdoba as the Córdoba–Málaga railway. In October 2015 the section of the line between Seville and to Cádiz was upgraded to high-speed standard after 14 years of works and put in service by

Alvia Alvia is a High-speed rail, high-speed train service in Spain offered by Renfe Operadora on long-distance routes with a top speed of . The trains have the ability to use both Iberian gauge and standard gauge, which allows them to travel on the rece ...

trains for speeds up to 200 km/h.

Services

The line is used by

Cercanías Madrid Cercanías Madrid is the commuter rail service that serves Madrid, the capital of Spain, and its metropolitan area. It is operated by Cercanías Renfe, the commuter rail division of Renfe, the former monopoly of rail services in Spain. Its tot ...

's C-3 service, the C-1 and C-4 of

Cercanías Sevilla Cercanias Sevilla is a commuter rail system operating in and around the Seville metropolitan area. Currently, it contains 5 separate lines, 251 kilometres of railway and 37 stations. Lines and stations The network consists of five lines and thirty ...

and the C-1 of

Cercanías Cádiz ''Cercanías Cádiz'' is the commuter rail service in the cities of Cádiz and Jerez de la Frontera in Andalucia, Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in Nor ...

; along with numerous regional services along various stretches of the line. A Larga Distancia service runs the full distance between Madrid and Seville (although not all the way to Cádiz), taking 7 hours and 41 minutes; since the opening of the

AVE is a Latin word, used by the Roman Empire, Romans as a salutation (greeting), salutation and greeting, meaning 'wikt:hail, hail'. It is the singular imperative mood, imperative form of the verb , which meant 'Well-being, to be well'; thus on ...

high-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail transport network utilising trains that run significantly faster than those of traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated railway track, tracks. While there is ...

line travel has been reduced to 2 hours and 21 minutes non-stop, freeing up the older slower line for other traffic.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alcazar de San Juan-Cadiz railway Railway lines in Spain Iberian-gauge railways