Renfe, officially Renfe-Operadora, is Spain's national state-owned railway company.
Rail transport in Spain operates on four rail gauges and services are operated by a variety of private and public operators. The total route length in 2012 was 16,026 km.
Alta Velocidad Española (AVE) is a high-speed rail service operated by Renfe, the Spanish State railway company.
Altaria is the brand name of a group of fast long-distance passenger railway services operated by Spanish national railway company Renfe Operadora and connecting Madrid to Algeciras, Alicante, Barcelona, Cádiz, Cartagena, Granada, Irún, Logroño, Murcia, Pamplona, and San Sebastián.
High-speed railways in Spain are 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.
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 Madrid–Sevilla high-speed line is a 472-kilometer-long (293 mi) Spanish railway line for high-speed traffic between Madrid and Seville. The first Spanish high-speed rail connection has been in use since 21 April 1992 at speeds up to 300 km/h (186 mph). Travel time between the two end points was reduced by over half.
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.
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 LAV Madrid-Toledo is a Spanish high-speed rail line that connects the cities of Madrid and Toledo, a distance of approximately 74 kilometres (46 mi).
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.
Trams in Spain go back to an animal-drawn Madrid tramway network, which opened in 1871. Steam tramway traction started in Spain in 1879, and electric trams first operated in 1899.
The Madrid–Galicia high-speed rail line is a high-speed railway line in Spain that links the city of Madrid with the region of Galicia via the cities of Olmedo, Zamora, Ourense and Santiago de Compostela. The line also connects the Atlantic Axis high-speed rail line to the rest of the Spanish AVE high-speed network. The Madrid–Galicia high-speed rail line is constructed as double electrified line and is designed for trains running at speeds up to 350 kilometres per hour (220 mph).
The Atlantic Axis high-speed rail line, also called Atlantic Corridor high-speed rail line, is a high-speed railway line that links A Coruña, Santiago de Compostela, Pontevedra and Vigo in Spain. The Atlantic Axis was inaugurated in April 2015.
In Spain there is an extensive 1,250 km (780 mi) system of 1,000 mmmetre gauge railways. The majority of these railways was historically operated by FEVE,. Created in 1965 FEVE started absorbing numerous private-owned narrow-gauge railways. From 1978 onwards, with the introduction of regionalisation devolution under the new Spanish constitution, FEVE began transferring responsibility for a number of its operations to the new regional governments. On 31 December 2012 the company disappeared due to the merger of the narrow-gauge network FEVE and the broad-gauge network RENFE.
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.
Huesca railway station serves the city of Huesca in the province of the same name, Aragon, Spain. The station is a terminus with four platforms faces and six tracks. It was opened in 2001, replacing an earlier station that had opened in 1864 along with the Zaragoza to Huesca railway. The old station was demolished not long after the opening of the new one.
Antequera-Santa Ana railway station is a railway station at a railway junction near the Spanish town of Antequera, Málaga in Andalusia. It is located 17 kilometres (11 mi) from the town centre. It was created principally to serve passengers on the developing AVE high-speed rail system. However, the station has access to Iberian gauge lines for conventional services.
Valencia-Joaquín Sorolla railway station is a railway station in Valencia, Spain, opened in 2010. Along with Estació del Nord, it is a city centre terminus station, primarily serving AVE high-speed rail services, with Estació del Nord serving all other passenger rail traffic.
Ciudad Real railway station is the main railway station of the Spanish city of Ciudad Real, Castilla–La Mancha. Located on the AVE high-speed rail line from Madrid Atocha to Seville-Santa Justa and Málaga María Zambrano, travel to Madrid can be achieved in under an hour.
