Page 26 - Vía Libre Special - 25 Years of Spanish High Speed Rail

SPECIAL

years of Spanish high speed rail The arrival of high speed rail to Alicante required the
construction of a new station at Villena and
an in-depth refurbishment of the station at Alicante.

GONZALO RUBIO

large number of singular solutions, many of which
are veritable feats of railway engineering. Key features of the
In its first 27 km the route uses the Ma- infrastructure
drid-Seville high speed line, which is in the pro-
cess of being quadruplicated in order to increase - Total length: 955 km.
its capacity and so safely and reliably absorb the - Length sections in service: 599.7 km.
increased traffic expected to enter into service - Gauge: Standard.
along this section.
The newly built line (totalling 391 km in len- - Maximum speed: 350 km/h. Maximum
gth) starts at the Torrejón de Velasco junction, commercial speed: 300 km/h.
from where it heads towards Cuenca (where a new - Electrification: 25 kV/AC.
station has been built, called Fernando Zóbel) and
then on to Motilla del Palancar, where it splits into - Signalling: ASFA and ERTMS Levels 1 and 2. In
two branch lines. One heads eastwards to the new the section Albacete–Alicante, ERTMS Level 2.
stations of Requena-Utiel and Valencia Joaquín - Telecommunications: Meshed ring topology.
Sorolla, and the other southwards to Albacete IP and SDH mesh networks. Radiotelephony:
(where it already continues on to Alicante and the
near future will also reach Murcia). GSM–R.
Its entry into service cut the journey time - Infrastructures Madrid–Albacete–Valencia
between Madrid and Valencia to 1 hour 35 minutes, sections: 79 viaducts and 50 tunnels.
less than half the previous journey time. The other - Infrastructures Albacete–Alicante section: 27
destinations on the Madrid–Castile La Mancha–
Valencian Community– Murcia Region high speed viaducts and 4 tunnels.
line, representing a broad hinterland accounting - Stations in service in 2010: Madrid–Puerta de
for approximately 26% of the Spanish population, Atocha, Cuenca Fernando Zóbel, Requena–
also benefited from significant time savings. Utiel, Vialia Albacete los Llanos and Valencia
The second major section of the line is the Joaquín Sorolla.
one running between Albacete and Alicante, in
service since June 2013. Twenty-seven viaducts and - Stations in service in 2013: Villena and Alicante.
four tunnels were built over its length of 165 kilo- - Gauge changers: Two, at Albacete and Valencia.
metres.
The layout has two branch junctions: one at
La Encina, which connects with the Mediterranean required the construction of a new station at Vi-
Corridor and Valencia, Barcelona and France, and llena, and an in-depth refurbishment of the sta-
one at Monforte del Cid, where the branch line to tion at Alicante in order to prepare it for heavier
Murcia begins. traffic and to increase its offer of facilities and
The arrival of high speed rail to Alicante services.

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