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Spain speeds up: government announces plan for high-speed trains to reach 350 km/h, matching China
Spain is preparing for a historic leap in its rail network. Transport and Sustainable Mobility Minister Óscar Puente has announced an ambitious plan to raise the maximum speed of AVE trains to 350 kilometres per hour, a figure that would put the country on a par with China’s high-speed network, the world’s most advanced.
The project will begin with the Madrid–Barcelona line, the passenger corridor with the highest traffic in all of Spain. Technological and infrastructure renewal works will begin there shortly to allow speeds to be increased. As a result, the journey between the two cities will be reduced to under two hours, compared with the current two hours and 30 minutes, thanks to the introduction of new aerodynamic sleepers.
These sleepers, as the minister explained during his speech at Europa Press’s Los Desayunos Informativos, reduce by 21% the aerodynamic load generated by trains, preventing ballast (the stones on the track) from striking the underside at high speed. ‘They allow a speed 12% higher with the same aerodynamic load,’ said Puente, who stressed that a speed of 330 km/h using these new technologies is equivalent, under current conditions, to an actual 370 km/h.
The announcement is part of an unprecedented €60 billion investment that the Ministry plans to carry out over the next four years, intended to modernise trains, roads, ports and airports.
In addition, the plan includes a direct connection between Madrid Chamartín and Barcelona without passing through Atocha, as well as the creation of a new high-speed station in Parla, which will make it possible to connect Andalusia with Catalonia without having to enter the capital.
Puente described this project as ‘a new starting point for Spanish transport’, with the aim of consolidating Spain as a European leader in sustainable mobility and rail speed. If everything progresses as planned, the country will not only remain a reference point in high-speed rail, but will enter fully into the world elite of railway engineering.