Construction and current development
The high-speed line connecting Madrid and Barcelona is in its final stage of construction between Camp de Tarragona and Barcelona. The initial section from Madrid to Lleida, via Zaragoza, opened on the 11 October 2003. On the 18th of December 2006 the AVE started operating to Camp de Tarragona. On the inauguration day of the Madrid-Tarragona line the Ministerio de Fomento reiterated its promise that the AVE would reach Barcelona by the end of 2007[1]. When completed, the Madrid-Barcelona line should be one of the world's fastest long-distance trains in commercial operation, with trains billed to reach a top speed of 350 km/h and covering the 600 km (373 miles) between the two cities in 2.5 hours. It previously took almost six hours.
The service began running at only 200 km/h (124 mph). After two years of operation on 19th May 2006 AVE trains on the Madrid-Lleida line began operating at 250 km/h (155 mph). On the 16th October the trains on this line increased their operating speed to 280 km/h (174 mph) after the replacement of the Spanish ASFA signalling system with level 1 of the new European ETCS/ERTMS system. Finally, with the track now extended to Camp de Tarragona, on the 7th May the service increased its speed to the maximum allowable for the line, 300 km/h (186 mph). This puts Tarragona at only 2 hours and 38 minutes from Madrid and 30 minutes from Lleida, down from the 4 hours and 20 minutes it took before the extension of the high speed line. Nine trains a day now run on this line in each direction. From the 9th May 2007 the trains will begin to run to Sant Joan Despí, at the edge of Barcelona, in order to carry out early line tests in preparation for the AVE's promised arrival in the Catalan capital by December 2007.
It was originally forecast that, after reaching Barcelona in 2004, the line would run at 350 km/h (218 mph), the maximum capable speed of the new Siemens AVE trains set to replace the Talgo Bombardier AVE S102, after the installation of level 2 of the ETCS/ERTMS, which, in theory, will be installed in 2008. But on the AVE's first day of operating at 300 km/h to Tarragona the Minister of Public Works, Magdalena Álvarez, stated that the maximum commercial operating speeds of the AVE on all lines would be 300 km/h (186 mph).[2]
In this context, one should note the highly critical report by the consulting firm KPMG. The report was commissioned by ADIF (Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias) at the behest of the Ministry for Public Works (Ministerio de Fomento) on June 23, 2004. KPMG's experts pointed to the lack of in-depth studies and over-hasty execution of works as the reasons underlying the major problems dogging construction of the AVE line.
Although until 2005 both Siemens and Talgo/Bombardier train sets consistently failed to meet scheduled speed targets, in a test run during the homologation tests of the new S102 trains of Renfe, a train-set Talgo 350 (AVE S-102) reached a speed of 365 km/h on the night of the 25th to the 26th of June, and on July 2006 a train-set Siemens Velaro (AVE S-103) reached the highest top speed ever in Spain: 403.7 km/h (251 mph). This is a Spanish record for railed vehicles and a world record for unmodified commercial service trainsets, as the earlier TGV and ICE records were achieved with specially modified and shortened trainsets, and the Shinkansen (443 km/h, 1996) record was for a test (non-commercial) trainset.
It is forecast that the AVE will substantially replace air traffic on the Barcelona - Madrid route (in the same way that the Eurostar has on the London-Paris/London-Brussels routes and France's TGV has on the Paris-Lyon route). In fact, more than 80% of travellers between Madrid and Seville use the AVE, and only less than 20% the airplane.
Construction of a segment to Valladolid, extension of the Seville line to Málaga, as well as similar extensions of the system to Valencia and Alicante are also underway. The AVE will connect with the French standard-gauge network in 2009 with the opening of the LGV Perpignan-Figueres, allowing services to go to French destinations such as Marseille and Avignon. Another connection to the TGV is also planned, at either La Jonquera in Catalonia or Irun in the Basque Country. Further expansions to Galicia, the Basque Country (including the so-called Basque "Y" connecting the capitals of the three Basque provinces).The AVE Madrid-Lisbon line is currently being constructed, and it will include a significant international station in the border near the Spanish city of Badajoz
Also, new lines are being debated; for example, the line Soria-Calatayud; it would connect Soria with line Madrid-Barcelona in Calatayud.
