Page 82 - Vía Libre Special - 25 Years of Spanish High Speed Rail

SPECIAL

years of Spanish high speed rail

LUNA-ARCHIVO VÍA LIBRE

High speed rail;

wealth creator

T was a resounding success. Then strategies were de-

veloped to ensure technological transfer to Spanish
companies. Today, the railway multinationals which
The launch of the first high speed line in Spain 25
first arrived are integrated into the Spanish railway
years ago was the culmination of much more than
a railway project. Since the moment it was planned
centres of excellence and innovation right here in
it would mean the restructuring of the rolling stock industry. They develop their technology here with
manufacturing sector and all its associated indus- Spain, which export products and knowhow.
tries, a quantitative and qualitative boost to civil Alongside these multinationals, hundreds of
works construction companies, a redesign of the Spanish companies, either pre-existing or newly es-
implementation map of multinationals in Spain, the tablished, are innovating and transferring technolo-
start-up of practically new business lines, and the be- gy and knowhow wherever they sell their products.
ginnings of the modernization of the entire business Many of them have, in turn, become global compa-
fabric related to the railway industry. nies operating in worldwide markets.
For a quarter of a century high speed rail has The railway market is practically a single
fuelled industrial activity and exports in Spain, even worldwide market. The products developed and ma-
during the toughest years of the crisis. Today it has nufactured in Spain, the engineering and consultan-
become one of the most highly recognized calling cy work, the operators and, working with all of them,
cards of ‘Brand Spain’, and a creator of wealth and Spanish railway professionals, all play a vital role in
employment. that market in which the part played by the develop-
That first project was conceived in the spirit of ment of high speed rail has been paramount.
improving the railway industry and its services and it The twenty-fifth anniversary of high speed

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