Rail transport in Spain operates on four rail gauges and services are operated by a variety of private and public operators. Total railway length in 2020 was 15,489 km (9,953 km electrified).[2] The Spanish high-speed rail network is the longest HSR network in Europe with 3,966 km (2,464 mi) and the second longest in the world, after China's.[3][4]
It is proposed and planned to build or convert more lines to standard gauge,[5] including some dual gauging of broad-gauge lines, especially where these lines link to France, including platforms to be raised.
The first railway line in the Iberian Peninsula was built in 1848 between Barcelona and Mataró.[6] In 1851 the Madrid-Aranjuez line was opened. In 1852 the first narrow gauge line was built; in 1863 a line reached the Portuguese border. By 1864 the Madrid-Irún line had been opened, and the French border reached.[6] In 1900 the first line to be electrified was La Poveda-Madrid.[7]
After the Spanish Civil War, the Spanish railway system was in a state of disrepair due to the damage caused by the conflict. In 1941 RENFE was created by nationalizing the private companies that had built and until then operated the network, leading to a state-owned rail network.[6][8]
By the 1950s, the Spanish rail network reached its historical maximum of almost 19,000 kilometers.[9] However, from the mid-1950s onward, the network began to shrink due to the exponential increase in private vehicle ownership in Spain. During the Spanish economic miracle of the 1950s and 1960s, the number of private vehicles in Spain increased more than 14 times from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s.[10] This led to a decline in demand for rail transport and the closure of some rail lines that were no longer profitable. By 1993, almost 8,000 km of rail lines were dismantled.[11]
The last steam locomotive was withdrawn in 1975, and in 1986 the maximum speed on the railways was raised to 160km/h, and in 1992 the Madrid-Seville high-speed line opened,[6] beginning the process of building a nationwide high-speed network known as AVE (Alta Velocidad España).
The current plans of the Spanish government are to finish the standard-gauge high-speed network by building new sections of track and upgrading and converting to standard gauge the existing line along the Mediterranean coast connecting the ports of Barcelona, Tarragona, Valencia, Cartagena and Almería, to link Madrid with Vigo, Santiago and A Coruña in Galicia, to extend the Madrid-Valladolid line to Burgos and the Basque cities of Bilbao and San Sebastián, and to Hendaye on the French border, as well as to link Madrid with Lisbon and the port of Sines through Badajoz. Former plans by the Popular Party government under Prime Minister Aznar to link all provincial capitals with high-speed rail have been shelved as unrealistic, unaffordable, and contrary to all economic logic as no European funding would be made available for such projects.
Following the opening of the AVE network, the classic Iberian gauge railways have lost importance in inter-city travel, for example, the Madrid–Barcelona railway takes over nine hours to travel between the two cities stopping at every station. With the Madrid–Barcelona high-speed rail line, the longest possible journey is just three hours.[12] This has allowed the conventional lines to increase focus on regional and commuter traffic, along with freight. Some lines, including the Córdoba-Bobadilla section of the classic Córdoba–Málaga railway, have lost passenger traffic completely due to the opening of AVE serving the same destinations.
Starting in Franco's regime and continuing into the 1980s, multiple lines of the Spanish rail network were closed. Campaigns for reopening former lines exist, including a reopening the branch to the aforementioned Torrevieja from the Alicante–Murcia main line;[13] the former line from Guadix to Lorca via Baza[14] (which would provide a direct rail link from Murcia to Granada); Plasencia to Salamanca[15] and Gandía to Dénia.[16]
Since 2007 the operation of freight lines was liberalised and has been open to private operators. Renfe was split in two companies (Renfe, a public company that operates freight and passenger lines, and ADIF, a public company that manages the infrastructure for all public and private operators).
In 2020, long-distance passenger lines were likewise opened to private operators. Ouigo España began service on the Madrid–Barcelona route in 2021, joined by Iryo in 2022.
From 1 September to 31 December 2022 Spain has made free train tickets available under certain conditions. A €10 to €20 deposit must be placed and the scheme is only available on multi-trip tickets or season tickets, rather than singles. 16 or more train journeys must be made between the aforementioned dates in order to receive a full refund.[17] The full refund is available on commuter journeys and medium-distance journeys of under 300km (186 miles).[8] The initiative is being funded through a windfall tax on banks and energy companies that have made profits from interest rates and energy prices. The tax will be introduced in 2023 and is estimated to raise up to €7billion in two years. Money raised from the tax will also be used to build 12,000 new homes and fund youth scholarship programmes.[17]
High speed rail was first proposed in Spain in the 1980s, joining the Meseta Central and Andalusia. The first line, joining Madrid and Seville, was opened in 1992, in time for the Seville Expo '92. The line was built on standard gauge, and reused segments of the existing Madrid-Ciudad Real line. After that, connections with Barcelona, Valencia, Málaga and Galicia were subsequently opened. The current network is 3,966 km in length,[18] the longest in Europe and the second longest in the world, after China.
The network sees a multitude of services, operated by three companies under a multitude of brands. Renfe operates services under the AVE brand for high speed long distance services, AVANT for high-speed mid distance, and ALVIA and Euromed for services that change gauges. The French operator SNCF runs international services under the inOui brand and national services under the Ouigo low-cost brand. Iryo operates several high speed services.
The current network is divided into many lines, which mostly branch out of Madrid:
Atlantic Corridor, which connects Madrid Chamartín station with most of the northeastern part of the peninsula. The first lines in this corridor were opened in 2011. This corridor includes lines to Galicia, Asturias and Castile and Leon. It's currently undergoing extensions to Cantabria through Palencia and to the Basque country through Burgos, both expected to open by 2027.
Northeast corridor, which includes the Madrid–Barcelona–French border line and the Zaragoza–Huesca branch. The Madrid-Zaragoza-Lleida segment opened in 2003, and the rest of the line was opened in stages from 2006 to 2013, when it reached the border.
East corridor, connecting Madrid with Valencia and Alicante through Cuenca and Albacete. First opened in 2010, with the last segment opening in 2013.
Mediterranean corridor, mostly under construction. It's part of the larger TEN-T Mediterranean corridor, and it runs mostly parallel to the Mediterranean coast from the port of Algeciras to the French border at Figueres. Currently, only two stretches are opened: Castelló de la Plana to Valencia in a mixed gauge configuration and Alicante to Murcia. The rest of the line is planned to open in several stages from 2025 onwards.
Cantabrian-Mediterranean corridor. Roughly parallel to the Ebro river, it will eventually join the Basque Country and Cantabria with the Mediterranean coast, joining the Madrid–Barcelona line at Zaragoza.
South corridor, which includes all lines connecting Madrid with Andalusia. This includes the Madrid–Seville line, the Córdoba–Antequera–Málaga line, the Antequera–Granada, the Seville-Cadiz line and the future Antequera–Seville line, which will connect Malaga and Granada with Seville. It also includes a spur line to Toledo.
The Southwest corridor, still mostly under construction, which will eventually move passengers between Madrid, Lisbon and cities in between, and which will take over the spur from Toledo as the starting point of the mainline.
Except for the Mediterranean and Cantabrian-Mediterranean corridors, all lines start from the two Madrid terminals, Atocha and Chamartin, which are connected by a crosstown tunnel.
The high speed network not only sees purely high-speed trains, as Alvia and Euromed services use gauge-changing rolling stock to be able to reach destinations not in the high speed network. As such, cities like San Sebastian and Bilbao in the Basque country, Gijón and Oviedo in Asturias or Pamplona in Navarre see services running on the high speed network for some stretches.
Operators
Renfe is a state-owned company which operates freight and passenger trains on the 1,668mm (5ft5+21⁄32in) "Iberian gauge", 1,435mm (4ft8+1⁄2in)standard gauge and 1,000mm (3ft3+3⁄8in) metre gauge rail networks of the Spanish nationalized infrastructure company ADIF (Spanish: Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias). Both were formed from the break-up of the former national carrier Renfe (Spanish: Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Españoles, "Spanish National Railway Network") and subsequently of FEVE (Spanish: Ferrocarriles Españoles de Vía Estrecha, "Narrow-Gauge Spanish Railways").
Zamora station
Toledo station
Atocha station, Madrid
Estació del Nord, Valencia
Lleida-Pirineus station
Ouigo España is a subsidiary of the French company SNCF that operates long-range passenger trains on high-speed lines.
Iryo is the brand of ILSA, a Spanish-Italian company formed by Air Nostrum and Trenitalia that also operates long-range passenger trains on high-speed lines. Renfe, OUIGO and Iryo have all competed on several high-speed lines owned by ADIF after the liberalization of long-range passenger rail transport.
Euskotren (Basque: Eusko Trenbideak, Spanish: Ferrocarriles Vascos, "Basque Railways") operates trains on part of the narrow-gauge railway network in the Basque Country.
FGV (Valencian: Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valenciana, "Valencian Government Railways") operates several metre-gauge lines in the Valencian Community.
FS (Catalan: Ferrocarril de Sóller, "Sóller Railways") operates an electrified914mm (3ft) narrow-gauge railway on the Spanish island of Majorca between the towns of Palma and Sóller.
SFM (Catalan: Serveis Ferroviaris de Mallorca, "Majorcan Railway Servicies") operates the 1,000mm (3ft3+3⁄8in) metre-gauge railway network on the Spanish island of Majorca.
Andorra has no rail system (the closest station to Andorra is the French station of Andorre-L'Hospitalet station). The British overseas territory of Gibraltar also lacks a rail system.
Spain has railway connections with France and Portugal. Neither Andorra nor the British Overseas territory of Gibraltar have rail systems, though a link to Andorra has been proposed.[19] The Moroccan rail network is neither connected to the Iberian Peninsula (although an undersea tunnel has been proposed) nor to the Spanish autonomous cities of Melilla and Ceuta (respectively closest to the Moroccan stations of Beni Ansar and Tangier-Med).
The Irún–Hendaye crossing is at the western end of the Pyrenees, and has two rail lines crossing the Bidasoa River. On the mainline, trains can cross the border but have to change gauge or transfer their freight or passengers to other trains. The narrow-gauge Lezama to Hendaye line, operated by Euskotren, does cross the border, though it only has one stop on the French side next to the Hendaye mainline railway station. A high-speed rail crossing is under construction from both the Spanish and French sides, which will also allow for freight rail without changing gauge, as part of the Basque Y.[20]
The Portbou–Cerbère crossing lies on the eastern end of the border, on the Mediterranean coast. Trains also require a transfer at either the Portbou or Cerbère stations, which are separated by a short tunnel. Both SCNF TER services and Renfe Regional and MD services cross the border.
The Perthus tunnel is the only current border crossing that doesn't break gauge. It connects the Spanish and French high speed networks, as both operate on standard gauge. It sees both passenger and cargo transit. Both SNCF and RENFE AVE trains cross the tunnel, connecting Madrid and Barcelona with Marseille, Lyon, Paris and destinations in between. With the future opening of the Montpellier to Perpignan high speed line, trains will be able to run the whole route on high speed tracks.
There used to be a third crossing at the Canfranc International railway station. The line connected Zaragoza with Pau, though it was closed in 1970 after a bridge collapse on the French side of the border.[21] The Canfranc station currently sees two trains a day, but there are ongoing studies to reopen the line.[22]
Portugal
As both the Portuguese and Spanish networks run on Iberian gauge, trains do not need to change gauge to cross the border. There are currently three crossings in operation, though only one train serves multiple destinations on both sides of the border.
The crossings are:
Tuy–Valença, over the Minho river. It sees two passenger trains a day as part of the Tren Celta route, and two regional trains between Vigo and Valença. The Tren Celta runs between Vigo and Porto, and is operated by the Portuguese national carrier CP.
Fuentes de Oñoro–Vilar Formoso, currently in operation but without passenger service. The Surexpreso train, which joined Paris with Hendaye and Madrid through this crossing, was suspended in March 2020.
Valencia de Alcántara–Beira Alta, which saw the Trenhotel Lusitania up until the closure of the Portuguese section in 2012.[23]
Badajoz–Elvas, currently in operation. It currently only sees two regional trains a day, that start their service at the Portuguese station of Entroncamento and end at Badajoz.
Two new crossings for high speed trains are in different stages of development: a new Vigo-Porto crossing, which will join the Spanish Atlantic Axis with the Lisbon–Porto high-speed line and the new Lisbon-Madrid high speed rail line.
There have been proposals to build a new southern crossing over the Guadiana river, between the cities of Ayamonte and Vila Real de Santo António. Trains used to reach the river on both sides, though there was no river crossing. The Spanish line from Gibraleón to Ayamonte was closed in 1987.
Subsidies
In 2004, the Spanish government adopted a new strategic plan for transportation through 2020 called the PEIT (Strategic Plan for Infrastructures and Transport). This detailed rail subsidies of around €9.3billion annually on average from 2005-2020. In 2010, it rolled out a two-year plan to invest an extra €11billion each year for two years, as a part of a financial stimulus in response to the global downturn.[24] In 2015, the federal budget for the railways was €5.1billion.[25]
Transport in Spain is characterised by a network of roads, railways, trams, air routes, and ports. Its geographic location makes it an important link between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Major forms of transit generally radiate from the capital, Madrid, located in the centre of the country, to link with the capitals of the autonomous communities.
Renfe, officially Renfe-Operadora, is Spain's national state-owned railway company.
Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Españoles (RENFE) was a Spanish state-owned company that operated the national Iberian-gauge railway network between 1941 and 2005. For more than six decades and as a monopoly, it was exclusively responsible for the transport of passengers and goods on its lines, as well as for the management of its infrastructure.
Alta Velocidad Española (AVE) is a high-speed rail service operated by Renfe, the Spanish State railway company.
The Perpignan–Barcelona high-speed line is an international high-speed rail line between Perpignan in Roussillon, France and Barcelona, Spain. The line consists of a 175.5-kilometre (109.1 mi) railway, of which 24.6 km (15.3 mi) are in France and 150.8 km (93.7 mi) are in Spain. The line is sometimes referenced as an extension of the Madrid–Barcelona high-speed rail line. The Perpignan–Barcelona line is a part of the Mediterranean Corridor.
High-speed railways in Spain have been in operation since 1992 when the first line was opened connecting the cities of Madrid, Córdoba and Seville. Unlike the rest of the Iberian broad gauge network, the Spanish High-speed network mainly uses standard gauge. This permits direct connections to outside Spain through the link to the French network at the Perthus Tunnel. High-speed trains run on a network of high-speed rail track owned and managed by ADIF, where the dominant service is AVE while other high speed services such as Avant, Alvia, Avlo, Euromed, Ouigo España and Iryo, as well as mid-speed (Altaria) services also operate.
Euromed is a high-speed rail service operated by Renfe along the Spanish Mediterranean coast.
The history of rail transport in Spain begins in the 19th century. In 1848, a railway line between Barcelona and Mataró was inaugurated, although a line in Cuba connecting Havana and Bejucal had already opened in 1837. In 1852 the first narrow gauge line was built, in 1863 a line reached the Portuguese border. By 1864 the Madrid-Irun line had been opened, and the French border reached.
The Renfe Class 100 is a high-speed train used for AVE services by the Renfe Operadora, in Spain. It was the first high-speed train put into service in Spain, in 1992.
Arco is a commercial, locomotive-hauled passenger train service operated in Spain by Renfe on the Levante and Basque Country-Galicia lines.
Rail transport in Catalonia operates on three rail gauges and services are operated by a variety of public operators:
Alvia is a high-speed train service in Spain offered by Renfe Operadora on long-distance routes with a top speed of 250 km/h (160 mph). The trains have the ability to use both Iberian gauge and standard gauge, which allows them to travel on the recently constructed high-speed lines for part of the journey before switching to the "classic" Iberian gauge network to complete it. Trains that run exclusively on high-speed tracks are branded AVE or Avant.
The Madrid–Málaga high-speed rail line is a standard gauge High-speed rail line of 512 km (318 mi) in length that links the city of Madrid with the city of Málaga in Spain. The line was inaugurated on 24 December 2007. At the time the service opened, Renfe Operadora was running 22 trains daily between Madrid and Málaga.
The Renfe Class 120 are electric multiple units used on Alvia high-speed rail services in Spain.
ADIF is a Spanish state-owned railway infrastructure manager. This state owned company reports to the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility. ADIF is charged with the management of most of Spain's railway infrastructure, that is the track, signaling and stations. It was formed in 2005 in response to European Union requirements to separate the natural monopoly of infrastructure management from the competitive operations of running train services. It is the legal successor of Renfe, Feve, and GIF.
The Madrid–Levante high-speed network is a network of high-speed rail lines that connects Madrid with the Mediterranean coast of the Levante Region, specifically with Castilla-La Mancha, the Valencian Community and the Murcia Region autonomous communities.
Traditionally, the gauge of the national railway in Spain, now managed by Adif, is 1,668 mm, known as Iberian gauge. This gauge was decided upon by a Parliamentary committee, after a report known as the Informe Subercase in 1844. Spain has 11,791 km of track with this gauge.
Avlo is a low-cost high-speed rail service operated by Spanish national rail company Renfe, offering services connecting major Spanish cities such as Madrid, Zaragoza, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante and others on specific high-speed lines.
Iryo is the brand of Intermodalidad de Levante S.A. (ILSA), a private high-speed rail operator in Spain. The company is jointly owned by the Italian state-owned railway company Trenitalia (45%), the Spanish regional airline Air Nostrum (31%), and the Spanish infrastructure investment fund Globalvia (24%).
Avant is a high-speed, medium-distance passenger transport rail service, operated in Spain by the Spanish public company Renfe. Avant services circulate at a maximum speed of 250 km/h (160 mph), compared to the 300 km/h (190 mph) maximum speed of the AVE service. Their routes usually cover different provinces within the same autonomous community or between neighboring ones. Regional services at conventional speed are called Renfe Media Distancia.
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654 million (2023) [1] 
