Page 24 - Vía Libre Special - 25 Years of Spanish High Speed Rail

SPECIAL

years of Spanish high speed rail Maximum speeds

Avilés Gijón Santander Bilbao San Sebastián Irún
A Coruña Ferrol Oviedo Tolosa
Betanzos Mieres El Entrego Orduña Alsasua Canfranc
Portbou
Santiago Lugo León Vitoria Pamplona Pobla de Segur Puigcerdá Figueres
Ponferrada Astorga Miranda de Ebro Huesca
Lalín Sahagún Burgos Tudela Girona
Pontevedra Ourense Puebla Logroño
Vigo de Sanabria Palencia Castejón Lleida
A Gudiña Venta Soria Barcelona
de Baños Zaragoza Camp de Tarragona
Zamora Olmedo Calatayud Tarragona
Medina Segovia Segovia G.
Salamanca Teruel
Guadalajara
Ávila Madrid-Ch. Castellón
Madrid-Atocha Cuenca
Plasencia
Sagunto
Toledo Sagunto
Valencia Alcázar de
de Alcántara San Juan Valencia
Cáceres
Ciudad Real Manzanares Xátiva
Mérida Puertollano Albacete Gandía
Gandía
Badajoz Almorchón Chinchilla Alcoy
Jerez de los Zafra Alicante
Caballeros
Córdoba Linares-Baeza Murcia
Maximum design speeds (km/h)
Cartagena
Sevilla Jaén Águilas 500 km/h
Puente Genil
Utrera 350 km/h
Huelva Antequera Granada 300 km/h
Málaga Almería 250-270 km/h
Jerez Fuengirola 200 km/h
Cádiz
Conventional section upgraded for 200 km/h
Algeciras

Madrid–Castile La Mancha–Valencian

Community–Murcia Region line

On December 15, 2010 the Madrid–Cuenca–Alba- (955 km) of the line when completed are in servi-
cete section was inaugurated and three days la- ce. The total investment for the execution of the
ter the Madrid–Valencia connection was opened. infrastructure as a whole is 12,410 million euros, of
Both form part of the Madrid–Castile La Mancha– which 6,600 million correspond to the sections
Valencian Community–Murcia Region high speed inaugurated in 2010, Madrid–Albacete and Ma-
line which, when it is completed, will have a total drid–Valencia, and 1,920 to the Albacete–Alicante
length of 955 kilometres. section.
Its entry into service involved 408.5 new ki- Built to the most demanding standards in
lometres of high speed line (361.5 km on the Torre- terms of quality and safety, the entire line con-
jon de Velasco (Madrid)– Valencia route and 47 on sists of standard gauge double track designed
the Motilla del Palancar to Albacete branch line). In for maximum speeds of 350 km/h. It makes use of
June 2013 a further 165 kilometres were opened on state-of-the-art technologies for telecommuni-
the Albacete–Alicante route (enabling the distance cations (GSMR for mobile telephony), safety and
between Madrid and Alicante to be covered in a signalling (ETCS).
little over two hours), and in the near future the The route, which opened in December 2010,
line will be extended to reach as far as Murcia. runs through five provinces. The rugged terrain it
To date 599.7 kilometres of the total length passes through called for the construction of a

24 Vía Libre • Special 25th Anniversary of the AVE Edition