The Nation That Mastered High Speed Rail | Spain High Speed Rail
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- Опубліковано 21 тра 2024
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Spain has a massive high speed railway system, and it has some of the most unique features of any railway in the world. So come along with us and learn all about this marvel of engineering!
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Ever wondered why your city's transit just doesn't seem quite up to snuff? RMTransit is here to answer that, and help you open your eyes to all of the different public transportation systems around the world!
Reece (the RM in RMTransit) is an urbanist and public transport critic residing in Toronto, Canada, with the goal of helping the world become more connected through metros, trams, buses, high-speed trains, and all other transport modes.
As a spaniard myself, I'm having a great time watching how other transit fans all over the world look at our high speed solutions. Conventional railway is currently suffering a crisis, specially in Madrid and Barcelona with train delays becoming more and more common, and general disapointment in ticket prices, but it's a matter of time both high speed and conventional railways come together to satisfy the population's needs
Completely agree, in the UK you've got people saying HS2 is the only option and people saying that we should upgrade existing lines instead. The reality it's about making best use of what we have already and investing appropriately in both new and existing lines. You need a joined up and holistic approach.
As for the cost of train travel, I recently visited Cadiz and was considering a trip to Seville. I couldn't believe how expensive it was going to be for such a relatively short journey, and found that the fastest journeys used high speed lines but a very indirect route. A lot more work to do.
as an italian, i gotta say iryo is veryyyyy familiar
(iryo is basically frecciarossa btw)
I heard of similar issues in France where high-speed rail functions extremely well while conventional lags behind
@Zaydan Alfariz As someone from Switzerland who travelled on both spanish and german trains, DB is so much better than renfe. Germany has the problem that there isn't enough money flowing to the rail infrastructure leading to bottlenecks leading to delays, while Spain has great infrastructure (at least for intercity trains), but I had some experiences in spain where I had to ask myself how anyone even sees trains as a good option against the car (But I have to say the worst ones where in the border crossings to France).
@@EuroDC1990 totally agree with you on this. So many more people depend on commuter and regional rail systems more than they would on high speed rail - at least from what I see in North America. Amtraks Cascades is regarded as a great example of how upgrading conventional tracks can allow for consistent speeds, reduced travel times and increase ridership
The largest and most technically advanced high speed train network and infrastructure in Europe. We'll done Spain 🇪🇸
As a talgo worker as engineer, it feels great that international community likes our gauge changing system!! Nice video!!
I’m an engineering student in the USA considering a move to Spain. Is it possible to email or dm you to ask a few questions?
Random question, I’m fascinated with Talgo trains. Has your company been ever considered designed light rail trains or tram trains that could take advantage of your bogie design to allow low floor trains but without the trouble of cramped cabin space.
@@DDELE7yes, there have been prototypes and studies, but Talgo is now developing market on HST and VHST and not working on them.
In the past, even freight wagons with width - change bogies had been developed.
14:00 Fun fact: Kazakhstan's railways use Talgo's high speed trains and locally produce them in Astana 🇰🇿
Yes!! There are Talgos in many other countries like the US, Argentina or Germany (in the near future).
Also Uzbekistan
Just like the Arabian lines, achieved due to friendships with a former king... which uh... has moved nowadays into UAE due to multiple lawsuits. He seems to like Arabic and Kazakh ruling classes a lot.
Интересно
And Kazakhstan is actually a great client, not only they bought the trains, they also spoke very highly about them, wich has been great for the international image of our industry. Thank you
The airport style security on the AVE system is a legacy of the bombing attacks near the Atocha station in March 2004.
I was in place long before, but yes it is a lecacy of terrorism. ETA terrorism.
Not really. The airport style security has been like that since the beginning. I've taken the AVE docens of times along the years, before and after 2004, and the security checks have been always the same.
Actually those bomb attacks did not take place on high-speed trains but on Cercanías, that is, on short-haul lines
A fascinating and thought provoking insight as to just how Spain is making such an impact on aspects of modern life across the globe. Largely unheralded with little or no publicity or "fanfare", Spain just quietly and to many, surprisingly efficiently, just gets "stuck in" and gets the job done. As a British born long-term resident(17 years) of the Costa Blanca, I am always amused or even a little annoyed at how disparaging some foreigners are about, my beloved adopted "homeland". Don't get me wrong, of course Spain has it's share of problems, just as does everywhere else. But here folks just seem to get busy trying to resolve them, rather than simply sit around complaining. " VIVA ESPANA..."!!
Spain has always been a land of inventors. You can see inventions like the gyroplane (predecessor of the helicopter), the wheelchair. the table football, the disposable syringe, the first arithmetic calculator, the mop. the inventor of the gyroplane was from Valencia.
@@angyliv8040 También inventamos el submarino
@@angyliv8040 The modern wheelchair is not Spanish, that Philip II was almost useless, the disposable syringe is not Spanish, and neither is the mop (old af), the first arithmetic calculator was the Pascaline, Pascal was not Spanish (that i know). Table football??? Really??? Spain is not that tiny in terms of population compared to France or Italy and culturally is not that different, and yet it goes pale if it has to stand a comparison with them, compare scientific Nobel prizes, you only have two, one of them ex aequo and had to work in the US. France and Italy have dozen of them. You did your best and only came up with things you did not invent, one of the predecessors of the helycopter and table football. Congrats.
@@adahbafa22 We may be busy providing the best infrastructure per capita and quality of life to your retirees ;)
@@adahbafa22 Did you take your medicine before posting this?
I’d love to see Lisbon connected through to the Spanish network, that there’s no direct high speed rail service between the two Iberian capitals is a terrible shame
Culpa de los políticos provincianos portugueses, los españoles llevan años queriendo, incluso pagando la mayor parte, pero los gobiernos portugueses temen que el sistema español se coma y se haga dueño del portugués. Ese es el problema
It's a shame but Portugal again and again refuses to build their share. Spain has agreed to take the rail to the border if Portugal agrees to do the Portuguese side but to date there's been no commitment from Portugal.
I'd love to have the chance to visit Lisbon as easily as i can visit Barcelona or Malaga.
Portugal is trying to improve the connetion with south Portugal, Huelva, Porto, Vigo and Coruña, as the main exports and population movements are there and would result the reduction of time by half and big growth all the line from Coruña to ALgarve would bennefict a lot,. There were studies suggesting Lisbon-Madrid would not give that much benefict, specially since Porto metropolitan area is strategic.
@@juanantelo9451 thanks for the info. Frankly, i question those studies. There are not many kilometers between the border and lisbon and the geography is quite easy so i don't anticipate a high cost. Also, the route would not only connect madrid and lisbon but lisbon to badajoz, merida, caceres, barcelona, france and the rest of the european rail maps.
Currently, the only train connection between madrid and lisbon takes 10 hours which is a total shame.
Btw, no issue with the plan to connect the north and south of portugal. It makes total sense. However if, portugal is really interested in connecting faro to spain, it does not make sense it connects huelva but seville and that requires quite the investment from Spain. such investment should be conditioned to portugal connecting lisbon and badajoz.
@@bgranger_842 yeah, I guess they have to choose one first but I hope at the end, hopefully sooner than later, all the peninsula is well connected :)
As a Spaniard, I have to say that a very frequent criticism of our high speed network is that too much of the railways' budget is spent on it, neglecting the conventional network. Also, construction is frequently used for political purpouses first, meaning tiny cities get high speed rail without much justification.
Also, I live in Gijón (Asturias), and our HS rail connection through the Pajares mountains is notoriously delayed and over budget, having spent over 3 billion euros for a small region of under one milion inhabitants.
@Zaydan Alfariz ? There's never been an AVE accident.
Totalmente de acuerdo
@Zaydan Alfariz The 2013 accident was an Alvia, not an AVE. I don't know what recent incident you're talking about.
@Zaydan Alfariz For your information, the Alvia is NOT a high-speed train. It's a train able to work on both conventional and high-speed lines. The curve the train derailed on had an 80 km/h speed limit so it most definately wasn't a high-speed line.
@@apolofeve afaik the Alvia ís a high speed train with a max of 250kmh . The Madrid-Galicia is a hs line with a max of 350kmh. The location of the accident is a dedicated hsr section. Albeit 4km from the the Santiago de Compostela station, hence the 80kmh max speed in the bend.
The train, the railway and its train management system were for HSR.
So it was a High Speed Train accident .
I'm from Spain, and I can say, you really don't apreciate how good it is until you try it
I used the AVE and Ouigo trains when I went to Spain last year, along with some metro and commuter trains. As a Canadian going abroad for the first time I was blown away! Can't wait to get back and see more of the country, especially the north. Here's hoping we can have HSR in Canada someday!
it made me really happy that our country contributed positively to your first trip abroad!
As a Canadian/North American is absolutely embarrassing that despite our economies and rail-friendly topographies we don't have anything close to this or other systems in the world. I guess this instead shows how effective lobbying by the car and airline industries is and how short-sighted our politicians are.
We can trade, you come to Spain and I go to Canada to hike for a year those endless woods you have.( Bears are a handicap though 🤔)
Hard for canada to have this long distance and small population .
The commuter train lines need a refurbishment in many places tho. Glad you enjoy your visit.
As a Valencia resident, I must say that the missing link is an efficient and fast Mediterranean corridor. It could enable a lot of fast travel up and down between Barcelona, Valencia, Málaga etc. Valencia is a bit of a bottleneck because it is not possible to run trains through Valencia, they have to stop and turn around.
Improving the speeds between Valencia and Tarragona would be a fantastic improvement.
The joke is that the Euromed is already capable of sustained 250kph, I've measured it with GPS signal several times between Tarragona and Barcelona for over 10 mins at that speed, so tbh we wouldn't even need an AVE but higher speed limits from Tarragona to Alicante.
A new, improved main railway station in Valencia city is expected in 4 years time, as the central government, the Valencian Autonomous Community government and the City mayor signed recently an agreement to revamp the railtracks yard (playa de vías as it is known in Spanish) half a mile away south of the Nord Station and Sorolla Station. The former one is used for HSR.
as someone who had to travel with Talgo almost every weekend, I'd be very happy for there to be a high speed train connecting the Mediterranean coast.
@@caballoloco100 Sure as a Valencia resident I am sure that will happen soon... ;)
yes yes yes im so tired of having to go all the way to madrid to visit andalucia
When I went to Spain I was blown away by the quality of the high speed rail. Great job.
I live in Spain currently (in Pamplona!) and I would KILL for a high speed rail connection here. The one from Bilbao to Donostia is going to be so amazing ❤ I would love for it to connect to Pamplona and then to Zaragoza. It would allow for so much more movement in the north!
I’m from the US, so getting to experience AVE here has been amazing! I frequently take Amtrak at home and it’s such a pain in the butt because it’s always delayed and sooo slow. We could learn a lot from Spain!
I live in Belgium and instead of booking a cheap flight with Ryanair I prefer to take the high speed train from Brussels to Barcelona. so many beautiful views and the seats are just so comfortable. Now that French 'ouigo' entered the Spanish market prices for High Speed Rail are really cheap if you book early. I booked a ticket between Barcelona and Madrid for 9 euro!
That's amazing, tell me how you do please, every time I look for trains in France to go to Barcelona they are incredibly expensive haha
wow, wow 9 euros!! great!!
Wow . That’s sounds so attractive. I hate flying after suffered turbulences in my last flight a decade ago . I haven’t left the Uk since then. 😬
You sound more proud of this subject than some Spaniards. The AVE provides a very reliable and fantastic service. The views are stunning.
The infrastructure is a dream for many other countries, even un Europe. Also metros systems and airports are excellent. Madrid is the most developed city in transport systems
Even many long distance trains run at 250kmh and they are not taken as high speed train when in most of the countries they would be a good hst
I travelled to Spain for the first time last summer and I just fell in love with the countries transit system…
As for the comment on airport style security: it’s much, much less invasive and is considerably faster. I’ve sped through security on the trains in about 15 seconds and without even taking shoes off, yay.
It used to be slower and a bit more invasive (tho still not needing you to take off your shoes), but last few years they seem to have sped it up quite a bit.
In my experience the security check only involves passing your bags through a big scanner. It is bigger than that at the airport and at knee level so it is easier and faster to drop your bags off. And people don't pass through a metal detector so there are no issues with beeping and the line goes quite fast.
I was in Spain in the year 2000 when they were constructing the HS route between Barcelona and Madrid. Incredible how far the system has come. The concept of low cost high speed train seems to be making it affordable. The only issue I had noticed when watching Paul Lucas do a review is that you are require to go through airport style security before getting on - this is fine - but they only announce your platform 30 mins before departure.
@@elfrjz how is it unsafe? there have been no bombings and except for a derailment in Galicia (which wasn't part of the "core" high speed network at the time), there have been no major accidents
@@davidyago6015 They're just saying the same thing over and over again in every single comment they can, with absolutely nothing to back it up of course...
Yeah, I don't really get the point of treating those High Speed trains as airline service. The luggage security, the asistants walking through the coaches offering tissues and snaks, and sometimes the manual announcements instead of a pre-recorded audio feels like and excuse to higher the prices. I'm sure majority of people don't want those extra services that make you feel like you are riding something luxurious. Getting to your destination fast and cheap should be the main focus.
Oh absolutely yeah its not great! I made a point to mention!
This was made after 11-M (Madrid's and Europe's deadliest terrorist attack) train bombs. Similar to how 9-11 changed the US' airport security.
You finally talk about Spain's High Speed Network! 😍Thank you from Madrid!
Greetings to Madrid!
To hear they accomplished so much efficiency in 20 years is impressive! Your videos also highlights to me what factors help countries accomplish such progress and what limits others. You show challenges and advantages to each which is why I continue to watch your videos. Appreciate your work!
Thank you for watching! I appreciate it!
@@RMTransitAn accident happened near Santiago de Compostela on July 24th, 2013 on the Madrid-Ferrol Line.
4:10 That's my brothers favorite high speed service in Spain.
As a Spaniard (like many others) I'm honoured that our country has 'mastered' high-speed rail! While I live in the U.S. now (pray for me) every time I go back to Spain the journey between Puerta de Atocha Station wherever on the high-speed network to visit my relatives is _always_ one of the best parts. The trains are insanely comfortable and the scenery is incredible!
one more thing:
_DO NOT INSULT THE PATO_
When I visited Spain in like 1998, we had to take the conventional train from Madrid to Granada to visit the Costa Del Sol. It was like 8 hours long, with no aircon - we are spoiled here in the States, I know. I was like 12 and didn't care though, and we also watched Men In Black en Español, hahah.
Fair. I lived near Valencia 20 years ago. I took the Euromed to Barcelona sometimes and it was like the US East coast Acela. Neither had dedicated track and slowed down a lot.
I don't care. This was a courtain for polititians to steal money and create silly lines nobody use. It much rather was needed to use the money on the regional and local trains first
@@SeeLasSee yet it's the same connection still. No money on trains was invested there
Do not insult the Pato = Do not swear on Talgo quirky design ?
Málaga is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable. That's why there's an accent mark there!
- Saying that "gauge change" is proven is an understatement: it was invented by Talgo in the 1960's to make trains between Spain and France, and been operative since then
- Just before the opening of the HSR service, Barcelona - Madrid had become the air route in the world with the most passengers. AVE ate 3/4 of its slice. There's still a question mark on how useful are some of the other lines
- At least in Barcelona, ridership of Renfe commuter trains suffered a lot since then. Not for lack of demand, the Catalan FGC grew extremely. In 40 years they've gone from being almost closed, to a major agent putting 30 trains per hour on its central trunk.
Talgo has also sent train sets to Egypt. I rode on one of their beautiful sets from Cairo to Alexandria a couple weeks ago!
Some more important facts for your video.
Spain has the most extensive implementation of ERTMS technology in the world. Approximately 1,850 km of the railway line has this system installed and in service.
Spain leads the development of level 2 of ERTMS, already installed on over 1000km of railways.
The Madrid-Zaragoza-Barcelona-Figueras line, with 804km, is the longest in the world with the ERTMS system.
The Malaga Railway Technology Center houses the national laboratory specializing in the technological advancement of the ERTMS system.
Bueno, y ya de paso, recordemos también que dado que hay que hacer infraestructuras y grandes obras para estos bichos, que España cuenta con 7 de las 10 mayores constructoras del mundo y con su modelo propio inigualado (véase por ejemplo el nuevo canal de Panamá, con todos sus desafíos técnicos)
Yay Spain finally! Living here for a few years now and taking the AVE is always like a different universe. Things are often a bit chaotic here like taking the metro or the big train stations themselves but as soon as you're in the train everything is good. Comfy, quiet, insanely fast (at least compared to Germany...) and thanks to dedicated high speed tracks i think I was never really delayed.
What you didn't talk about is how much Spain is invests in stations today. Pretty much all the main stations are getting or having serious upgrades planned. Both in Madrid, huge new station in Barcelona, plans in Valencia, Málaga, Bilbao... it really feels like Spain is getting ready for a post fossile fuel society, while in countries like Germany... I guess they more or less cover today's demand (bravo)
High speed is nice, but at the same time Spain is also neglecting the commuter and regional services by closing down entire lines, reducing frequencies, increasing travel times due to outdated equipment and making these trips an overall nightmare. I know because I'm from a smaller Spanish town out of the High speed network's reach (Pamplona-Iruña), and taking the train here is ridiculous: the few trains we get are old, dirty and always late, and the situation keeps getting worse by the year.
So much for a _post fossil fuel society..._
@@osasunaitor they should absolutely be funding local trains properly, but trunk line trains will also always be bigger
There's no such thing as fossil fuel. And is not going to run out.
@@osasunaitor No invertir en trenes de alta velocidad no significa automáticamente invertir en trenes convencionales. Hay un gran número de países que no tienen tren de alta velocidad y muchas veces no tienen ningún tren convencional porque se ha descuidado. Si los servicios ferroviarios convencionales se encuentran en un nivel bajo, a menudo se debe, entre otras cosas, a los bajos parámetros geométricos de la línea construida hace 100 o 150 años. Llegará el momento de mejorar otras relaciones. La vertebración con Madrid y las líneas al mar ya está muy avanzada. Actualmente se puede ver haciendo un anillo junto al mar.
Aquí otro de iruña, eres un exagerado. 4h bcn y madrid…si vas hacia Euskadi es una mierda pero estamos en ello…
I remember taking a train from Madrid to Valencia in the 90s. The train system I took then was much better than the current one we have in the UK now.
Seguramente tomarías el Talgo Pendular que para su época era un tren increíble.
Spain has also one of the most important train manufacturers of the world, CAF
Siemens (German) and Alstom (French) these two companies build turnkey, rail, safety system, wagon, and lead locomotive. CAF only builds cars . Text processed by Google
@@thierryrebillard6432Spain has CAF and Talgo
@@thierryrebillard6432 CAF makes tram, trains, metro trains and they are spread all over the world
@@axwleurope9519 Excepto los motores , los motores de cabeza son fabricados por el francés Alstom y el alemán Siemens...90% de los motores de cabeza en España son de marca alemana o francesa . Para terminar la alta velocidad en Francia existe desde 1978 y en España sólo desde 1992 con la línea Madrid/Sevilla totalmente construida del ferrocarril , vagón , motriz de cabeza, sistema de seguridad por el francés Alstom porque en ese momento España no tenía ingenieros cualificados para construir la alta velocidad . Texto traducido del francés al español por Google traducción.
@@faragatanfarra Reread my comments!!! I am French and my comments are translated by Google translation ... this explains this!
I'm from Barcelona...one of my favorite things is taking the AVE to Madrid (3 hours) to spend a couple of days, go to the theater, the Prado...
I’m so proud of my country in this aspect; transportation. We got an amazing public transport in the majority of big cities, an amazing high speed network and lots of future incredible projects (Lisbon/Porto-Madrid)
Thanks for this amazing video, regards from Madrid :)
Also do you know that Spain made the first high speed train in the world ? it was the talgo 1 , made in 1942 it was the first ever high speed train ever made
@@fazerswinky2766 That's a bit of a myth created in Spain I'm afraid. There were faster trains in other countries before that in the US, UK, Germany and Italy.
@@ianjones7488 well tell me some models that were made before the talgo 1 on 1942 because even in france we have articles talking about the talgo 1 being the first ever high speed train made in ww2 used beetwen 1942 and 1950
@@ianjones7488not really
10:07 We have a good reason to keep those tbh.
And they're really not that exhaustive and long, in my experience they're just a bag check and you pass by them in less than 5 mins.
Airport security is a different beast.
13:30 Things are a quite bit tense with our southern neighbors at the moment, so I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it haha.
Using AVE is the most civilized way to travel.
The whole experience is so cool.
Spain's use of airport style security is understandable given the 2004 bombing attacks against the rail system.
Which weren't on the high-speed network. Local trains are still unchecked
The US and Canada could learn a lot from Spain's HSR. Our construction costs are absurd
@Zaydan Alfariz ?? That is completely fake... The only major accident in the last 10 years was Angrois, which wasn't even an AVE service.
Yes, not just costs but route network. Canada is crying out for a 300kph rail service between Quebec and Toronto (including Montreal and Ottawa), there are so many routes in USA where HS rail would work well, there needs to be a change in mindset which I am afraid is a massive challange to overcome. Even the UK is trying to improve rail speeds, albeit at a stupid almost bankrupting cost.
@Zaydan Alfariz Could you list these accidents?
@@elfrjz I find this comment to be troublesome, please support with facts or withdraw. Granted rail crashes can occur, but in Europe in general these are very rare indeed. I would be as bold as to say that rail travel is as safe as air travel.
@Zaydan Alfariz "routinely" lmfao. You "routinely" go to the supermarket.
im from Spain and our infrastructure are incredibly underrated here. Its a joy to see that is in fact a lie and is one of the better infrastuctures of the world. Ty so much about the video
Estaba pensando justo lo mismo! En España tenemos esta tendencia a pensar que lo nuestro es peor y no vale nada, y de repente te encuentras con que el resto del mundo está viendo lo que hacemos y pensando que somos super eficientes!
I am from Galicia and it is terrible here. I hate you, RENFE :(
One more correction. At minute 4:15, you say that Iryo's private operator is owned by Trenitalia and is wrong. Iryo's shareholding is distributed among the partners of Air Nostrum (🇪🇸 company), which holds 31%, Globalvia (🇪🇸 company) 24% and Trenitalia (🇮🇹 company) 45%. So Iryo is a company whose MAJORITY of the CAPITAL is 🇪🇸.
It is quite frequent that foreign channels, especially English, American and Dutch, quickly identify the shareholding of other countries in Spanish infrastructures but, nevertheless, ignore the Spanish participation in companies from those countries or the foreignization of companies from the Netherlands, the United States or the United Kingdom, which belong to other countries, such as China, Germany, France,... but consider themselves their own. It is a question of constant contempt and of diverting public opinion in those countries from the reality of current globalization.
It is quite frequent that foreign channels, especially English, American and Dutch, quickly identify the shareholding of other countries in Spanish infrastructures but, nevertheless, ignore the Spanish participation in companies from those countries or the foreignization of companies from the Netherlands, the United States or the United Kingdom, which belong to other countries, such as China, Germany, France,... but consider themselves their own. It is a question of constant contempt and of diverting public opinion in those countries from the reality of current globalization.
Iryo is mostly Spanish, that's why food on board is so good. I'm amazed
@@mikesuar8842totally agree!
Just got back from Spain less than a week ago and had the opportunity to ride renfe from Madrid to Granada as well as Toledo and the subway system in Madrid. I had never been to Europe before so coming from the US, I have ridden Chicago's Metra and CTA, Washington DCs metro, New Yorks MTA, and also in South America the Medellin Metro.
It does feel like Europe surpasses us in everything rail and definitely a nice system.
@Paseos por Madrid USA has water fountains.
@@bristoled93so does Spain :)
As a turkish, spanish hsr network always made me jealous, they are incredibly good at it, on the other hand our hsr constructions are really slow for instance ankara-izmir route is in progress for 10 years and they dont really start to laying the rails yet another example is ankara sivas route, construction begun in 2008 and route hasnt completly finished yet there is a 70-80 km long section that they still laying the rails another thing make me really uncomfortable is the operational speed of the yht (turkish hsr network) at this point 300 km/h is like standart of hsr but in turkey high speed trains operating at 250 km/h and new lines also building for 250 km/h and thoses are the fastest ones some lines are building for much lower speeds like istanbul-edirne route building for 215 km/h, i hope turkish goverment give much more importance to hsr in the future, we really can learn something from spain ave and the spanish hsr generally is a budget beast
It's been such a pleasure to help you with videos for this content. We truly live in a country were high speed rail is the de facto form of transportation on many corridors. We need to work on integrating both UIC and Iberian gauge railways and maintain the second so that all spaniards have access to rail.
I couldn’t agree more! Thank you André!
As a Spaniard I cannot stretch how useful and good AVE is, I live in Madrid but have family in Córdoba(located in southern spain) and whenever I want to visit my family I just buy a 20 euro ticket that takes me to Córdoba in 2 hours. Its always super comfortable and is relatively cheap, if you visit Spain I highly recomend using the AVE, its sucj a good way to travel around the country and you get to see how the land gets greener as you go from the south to the north.
It is more cheaper when you buy it in advance 😉
I'm from Murcia, here we had a big problem with getting AVE because it had to go through an urban zone, and the people living there wanted it to go underneath the surface, because it created a division between two parts of the city, so everything got delayed because of the tunnel construction, recently we finally got the service at El carmen station and I used the line to visit Barcelona, I got a great experience, but the main problem keeps being the delays in construction and investment.
PD: Loved your video :D
Great video.
You forgot another solution for the gauge problem. The third rail.
Some tracks have three rails to accommodate standard and Spanish gauge. Like in València-Castellón
Resident of Madrid - worth noting that the disconnect between high speed rail in Chamartin and Atocha wasn't necessarily as big of a deal as it looks. While it's certainly nowhere near as convenient as a through line, Chamartin and Atocha have been connected by a Cercanias (commuter train) line for as long as I (as a 26 year old) can remember, which is only a 15 or so minute ride. There's been a direct metro line between the two stations for even longer than that. You by no means had to "hike across" the city or even leave either of the train stations to make your high speed rail connections, at least not in the last 20 years.
47 million is the current population, but we have around 80 million tourist visiting every year.
The security check at the stations is nothing like in the airports. I have never lost more than 5 minutes in hundreds of trips.
Anglophone countries sorely need to look to countries like Spain/France who have done well at low cost in this sector, the costs are insane on California HSR and HS2, with all their endless permits, environmental assessments, etc.
Enviornmental assessments have a bad rap in some places. They're important, but I rather get the impression that they're often badly managed, and I Know that at least some of the time the issue isn't the environmental assessment, so much as that the environmental assessment (somewhat rightly) has a time limit, which is then wasted by Other aspects of projects getting delayed and delayed and delayed until you have to do a new Enrivonmental Assessment to stay current. (this is actually a problem with a lot of permits and the like).
There's also a depressing tendancy to cave to nonsense complaints from NIMBYs while ignoring legitimate issues raised about how 'doing X will cause Y actual real problem, either solve that or do Z instead'... and then they don't, and the problem turns out to be real, and untold must be spent correcting it.
And then there's land prices going up along the route precisely because the people building the railway have to buy it (and the current owners, or speculators who bought it of the previous owners for this purpose), Know they can basically extort the project for more money than the land would be worth otherwise because of how little flex a railway has to just go around individual properties (though it can bypass an entire town or the like if need be... unless the authorities Require them not to...)
And then you get the glorious practice of awarding contracts to the lowest bidder, rather than the most viable plan (for which low cost is a relevant, but lesser, consideration), which leads to bogus estimates that, at Best, Intentionally play silly games with 'cost now' vs 'likely cost at time of actual purchase, because inflation and so on', leading to the bid never Actually being anywhere near as cheap as it claims.
The costs are usually the result of a whole collection of bad practices and malicious self interest by many parties, basically.
(oh, here's a fun thing: when governments privatise things that they used to run, with alarming regularity the cost of the beurocracy needed to manage ensuring that private industry actually does everything to the necessary minimum standard and so on, and then the infrastructure to support that beurocracy, and so on and so forth... within a very small number of years (and a not so small number of bad actors needing to be taken to with a metaphorical hammer) ends up equalling or exceeding the cost of running the now privatised thing in house. Either that or the quality of results nosedives Spectacularly. Sometimes both. Not that nationalising things that were being successfully run by private interests (where 'success' is measured by 'quality of result', not 'profit for owners') tends to go overly well either.)
Absolutely, just outside of the Anglosphere!
Loved the video. A bit surprised you didn't mention the Mediterranean Corridor that is being built intermittently that will connect the entire Mediterranean coast beginning at Cádiz with the rest of Europe (France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, and Hungary).
Well not even the Spanish government has interest on it, it makes sense he forgot about it
The Mediterranean corridor will only be built when Spain as a concept ceases to exist
@@oriolopocholo IT'S BEING BUILT AS WE SPEAK 😂😂🤣🤣🤪🤪😂😂😜😜😁😁
@@porculizador Is it? When you visit the website for the Mediterranean Corridor the first thing you find is a signature request for a petition to the Spanish government to finance it. I think the current plans are supposed to be completed just a bit after the Palestinian conflict is solved.
@@oriolopocholo You will cease to exist earlier.
As a Spaniard, my issue with our high speed rail is that it is mostly used to connect Madrid in a radial way with the coast, with vertebrating coastal areas (which are consistently densely populated) not being treated as a priority. We need a consistent connection between Vigo and the Portuguese rail system, and a way to handle the Cantabrian coast, giving it a link to the Atlantic high speed system.
"gauge changers could be game changers" was right there.😄
just a correction, spain and france are very similar in size
The problem with the strait of gibraltar is that it is VERY deep for such a narrow channel. Much deeper than the english channel for example. Tunnels would need to be long and expensive to build.
Adelante ....siempre adelante España querida Patria mía.....
Siempre adelante como españoles y
Buenos ciudadanos de la UE que
somos.
...
You are a gem for the train lovers 💯Support from Bangladesh
Reece what amazing knowledge about high speed rail in Spain. I have enjoyed using high speed rail while visiting Spain 3 x and it's fascinating to learn so much more about this amazing rail system! I am always thrilled to see your videos and just subbed to your substack! Outstanding!! Cheers!! Have a great weekend!
As a worker of ADIF in the "catenaria" as we call it here, we're currentlly working in joining the "corredor mediterráneo" from Castellón to Tarragona. And future plans are to go from "ancho iberico" 1668mm rails to UIC 1435mm in the near future.
Very proud of my countrie's railway system, no to say the same about our politicians tho...
Grande chaval!!!
Are you sure about the “change of gauge to 1435mm in the near future” thing?
I’ve been searching for reliable sources on this topic, and it seems like there is no consensus yet on whether the line will be converted at all - they are basically still scratching their heads on whether they should keep the Iberian gauge or switch to international.
@@KasabianFan44 I'm pretty sure the objetive is to comunicate big cities with UIC and leave the iberian width for "cercanias" and "mercancias", they are working on it right now in the lane Tarragona-Valencia (Corredor Mediterraneo)
@@victorortiz4448
If this is definitely true then that will be great, but again, I would love to see a source for this.
I know that the line from Almería to Murcia is being constructed as we speak, as is the line from Caudete to Valencia. (The line from Murcia to Caudete already exists, and the line from Valencia to Castellón is partially done too.) But I haven’t been able to find anything concrete regarding the line through to Tarragona. I know that a UIC line is their eventual long-term goal, I just haven’t seen any evidence of it going past the proposal stages. Hell, as far as I have read, they’re still not sure if they want to upgrade the existing line or build a new one!
3:41 the construction of connection between Chamartin and Atocha is being a pain in the ass for those who use the regular trains in Madrid, but I guess it will be nice. Great video, as someone that works in engineering of Spanish trains I appreciate it
I live in south Florida where we have the brightline which is considered “higher speed” rail but not high speed rail. Grateful we have options now.
Okay, airport-style security is a big no-no. But as a German, I can only marvel at the speed Spain is building rail. Twenty years is what it takes to plan, not even build, a single line over here.
Airport style security is already largely an unhelpful nonsense in Airports, and one of the big contributors to the delay and hassel of air travel that is a significant factor in people prefering rail in the first place. Using it at your stations does somewhat undermine the point.
"Airport style security" is more of an exaggerated description for just a plain security check: your bags pass a separate scanner on a conveyor belt and you pass a metal detector. It takes you less than a minute, and it is enough being there 10 to max 30min earlier (depending which day it is and so forth). Yes, nowadays it's a little bit more hectic and fuller, because of the discounted transportation prizes for the general public (if I recall correctly in Germany you something similar: "9 Euro Ticket"), so the demand skyrocketed and on some lines and at certain hours (mostly Friday and Sunday evenings) I recommend being there 45-60min earlier and to book way in advance.
@@Yquarus Thank you for the clarification. It still sounds unnecessary though. Unfortunately the 9 Euro Ticket was only available for 3 months, didn't cover high speed rail and is being replaced by a permanent 49 Euro Ticket in May.
Germany has a lot to learn from Spain!
@@RMTransit I visit Spain at least once per year and I couldn't agree more!
Could you maybe also do a video as to how national european rail networks are interconnected (or not), because this has in the last years become a major issue in the EU (and neighbouring non-EU countries). You have a fatastic national high speed railway nework in Spain and an amazing high speed railway network in France. But try travelling from From France to Spain by rail. There are significant issues with compatibility of standards, like electrification. Progress has been made since the 90s, there is now a standard signalling system for example. But there still are a lot of infrastructure components, that aren't standardised across Europe and those that are, have a lot of legacy systems still hanging around. It was only a few years ago, that an automated freight coupling system, until recently, all coupling system were somebody manually screwing heavy links between waggons together, because european countries just couldn't agree on common design standards. There are so many reforms, that are yet to be made, oe that are yet to be executed, it gets extremely complicated and as a European, who wishes to one day be able to travel to Tallin or Naples by hsr easily and quickly, it is difficult to foresee the path way railway will take over the next decade or two on a european level.
Finding your channel was something really great for me, I love your videos, I always liked trains in general and having so many details and explanations about decisions that countries had to make it just amazes me, thank you for everything, I'm definitely became a supporter
Thanks for the recognition. As a spaniard I have to say that the AVE system works very well, is a great example of engineering and the satisfaction of the user is high. However, taking into account the number of passengers that use that service and the infrastructure and service costs, that train is a waste of money. AVE train infrastructures are only a political tool.
I use HS in Spain a lot and usually it is quite full, at least AVE-Renfe is, lately I've been using Iryo and its almost empty. By the way the first image is from my home town. Also the HS, conventional and bus station is featured in your video (2:55), here we say that "they made cold there", it's freezing in winter. From a tecnical point of view there is a small thing missing. The network also uses another trick, the third rail, that way the line is both HS and wide gauge, its used in several small portions of the network. Madrid-Atocha to Madrid-Chamartin is 13min using Cercanias (commuter service) that it is included with AVE and Iryo tickets.
This is wild!
The first time I traveled around Europe was in the winter of 1990/spring of 1991, and at that time Spain was notoriously the country most difficult to travel through, with a different rail gauge than the rest of Europe, pre-E.U. border checks even during middle-of-the-night sleeper train border crossings, slow and infrequent service, dreadful cramped couchettes, and mostly small under-maintained stations save for Madrid Atocha, Barcelona Sants, and to a lesser extent Valencia Nord. It was one of my favorite countries to travel through, but I did tend both to skip smaller cities, and to linger longer in the few cities I *did* visit while visiting them less frequently.
By the next time I spent any length of time in Europe, the late 1990s and early 2000s, Spain’s *had* installed *some* high-speed rail, but I recall it only really covering Barcelona and Madrid reliably … which, again, was fine: Barcelona is an awesome hub for traveling, and I was happy to spend weeks there, and Madrid has the Prado. But visiting France in the 2000s-and even in 1991-it was great to make day-trips or quick overnight trips from Paris to … well, practically any part of France, just to catch a festival or to visit a restaurant or to follow-up on having dinner or breakfast with a new friend. This wasn’t the case in Spain, the tendency was to get to a city and think “Ahhh … I’d love to hop over to Seville to pat some horses for a day, but the trains are such a pain in the ass, and I don’t know if I can get back in just a day … oh, I’ll blow it off, I’ll just spend a whole week there at the end of next month instead.”
So what’s being described here, the situation in Spain now, sounds totally different … like quick frequent trips all over the country are finally as easy as they are in countries such as France or Japan.
I can’t wait to get back! 🇪🇸
You mention the inconvenience of airport-style security in Spain’s train stations, and while this *is* a drag, it’s not entirely surprising: Spain was until quite recently under the iron grip of Franco’s ghastly fascist regime-he’d only been dead for 15 years when I first traveled there, and people were *still* afraid to talk openly about him-and King Juan Carlos wasn’t able to begin liberalizing the country until around 1978 … so even though the nation is now only nominally a monarchy, and is _de facto_ a parliamentary democracy under the leadership of an elected coalition of socialist parties, following the decades of negative conditioning between 1939 and 1978 everyone is still wound a little tight. Add to that the pre-2011 activities of the E.T.A. (a Basque separatist group, who led a bombing campaign against Franco’s regime, often specifically targeting trains, but who then persisted in their attacks beyond Franco’s death), and it’s not surprising there are pat-downs and bag checks at train stations. It’ll take another few decades for things to loosen up, but they surely will.
Yeah, Spain rail has changed a lot, now there's even french and italian HS trains you can use! you should definitely check them out.
@@danopticon actually, train stations in Spain tend to have LOTS of security checks not because of Franco, but because of the 2004 terrorist attacks, the deadliest terrorist attacks in Europe's history.
@@danopticon ETA wasn't a basque separatist group. They were a TERRORIST band, killing much more people since Franco's death that before. Their enemy wasn't Franco, their enemy were all the Spanish. All your narrative sound a little bit...cinematographic. In 1978 nobody is Spain had fear of talking about Franco, we had fear of the f****** terrorists who killed here and there almost every week. Believe me, I was here and there. Until 2010 they were murdering. Franco had been dead for 35 years.
Franco had been dead for almost 50 years, if that's recent for you... so no, as others said, all the security checks nowadays have nothing to do with that.
Spain should consider a full Med corridor between Barcelona to Valencia to Alicante to Almeira to Malaga. A long way off and a difficult task with the mountains but would be jewel in the crown if ever achieved
It's being already done. Maybe finished in 2030.
While the Strait of Gibraltar is relatively narrow, it's also very, very deep. Up to 900 meters. Takes makes it not likely a train tunnel will be made any time soon. Considering high speed lines cannot have much of an incline, such a tunnel would not only be the deepest tunnel ever created, it will also have to be the longest.
While I don’t disagree with you overall (I also don’t think it will ever be built), I’d like to point out that the Strait is *much* shallower if you go slightly west of the narrowest point - “only” 300 metres below sea level.
Always great to see the international comparisons!
That gauge changer technology is very interesting. You are right about Eastern Europe as one of the places which might find it useful. I am originally Ukrainian and where I am from we have a connection with Hungary. Ukraine still runs on old soviet gauge but Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland (and I think Romanian) all run on standard gauge now. Having that link would be very useful and speed up travel. Having an HSR one day between Warsaw, Lviv, and Kyiv would be an amazing feat. I hope its something we heavily invest in after the war during the rebuild.
If the money isn’t embezzled.
@@adamcheklat7387 what does that have to do with anything?
@@yuriydee Corruption, remember?
@@adamcheklat7387 okay but we are talking rail technology here and youre bringing in politics and just a bad faith argument and trying to troll/rile up myself and other Ukrainians.
@@yuriydee I wasn’t riling anybody, I was just making a point.
That's a fantastic video! Thanks!
Great video! I didn't know about gauge-changing technology. Thank you for keeping my infrastructure dreams alive!
You did not mention the high speed network in Uzbekistan that also uses Talgo “pato” trains. I travelled on one last year from Samarkand to Tashkent in 2.5 hours.
Magical video, keep it up. 😉😀
Very well explained. As always, a pleasure to help you out! Keep the good work up!!
It was great helping you with this documentary. It came very well, explaining and giving details!
We will see the major projects terminated in few years with the massive introduction of open access operators!
Great video, Reece! These explainer videos have gotten better over time. I appreciate learning what is unique about each system, and what works and doesn't work. And I especially appreciate your positive outlook that wends its way through most of your videos.
Thanks Andrew! I figure that a lot of negativity exists about public transport in general and more positivity can be helpful!
AVE killed domestic flights on several corridors over the years. That's a win in itself.
Amazing network and amazing video Reece!
This was a really good one Reese! thanks
loved th spanish high speed rail when travelled there recently. easy smooth and fair price
Italy high speed rail was great as a visitor. Deep dive into that system and the ways that travelers can tour the country without needing a car would be incredible
My partner and I took the AVE trains from Atocha to Granada - and then from Granada to Seville via Cordoba - in late 2019 and we found them to be very decent. Would have been nice had the link to Barajas Airport and crosstown links been done at that time, but oh well. The technical aspects such as gauge changing are fascinating. Thanks for this.
Really good info!
There is a reason for the security that you seem to have missed. I suggest looking at their history a bit.
Personally, did not find the security intrusive. Still faster than going through an airport.
Also, Spanish trains will come to Germany as the ICE L (L for low-floor) and maybe as the ICE 5, though the second one is unlikely because the Spanish manufacturer didn't propose an EMU which is likely needed for the grades of up to 4% present in the German HSR network (specifically on the cologne-Frankfurt link, the most used part of the network)
I hope you like the new Talgo and it works well. CAF is also making new 'baby' bullets and is launching good products.
The Talgo trains are just excellent, comfortable and easy to use for disable people due to the low floor vagons
Dope. Thanks for the information.
Thanks, saludos from Burgos, Spain
CAF has been manufacturing/selling trains for markets avroad for decades. Lots of British rolling stock is and was produced/designed in Spain, for one. They have thirteen factories all over the world not I believe.
congratulations to our Spanish brothers and sisters on such a success
The gauge changing system was invented by the spanish trainmaker Talgo. In the past only Talgo trains could use it. It is quite a complex but a elegant system.
A lot of people treat Spain like a backwards country, they just aren't educated. Even the french and english, but we are very far ahead technologically, nice to see somebody talking about that
The main problem with Spains railway system is that it’s focused on Madrid, so all lines HAVE to go through madrid, which stops other possible lines such as “Ruta de la plata” (which runs from south to north) from being developed
The current government has boosted the Mediterranean Corridor from Barcelona - Tarragona - Castellón - Valencia - Alicante - Murcia and some major Andalucía cities on East Andalucía. The plans are to develop the Northern Corridor too.
One may or may not agree with its policies in other areas of public life but certainly it has invested heavily in transport infrastructure.
All decisions are always focused in economics . Probably is not financially viable .
@@verucasalt9182I think politics play a bigger part than economics.
The Mediterranian Corridor would be the 2nd most economically viable rail infrastructure after the Barcelona-Madrid, but it is still not built because it doesn't go through Madrid... >:(
As a Spaniard, this is spot on information. I was expecting some misinformation because the narrator not being Spanish but actually I am very surprised!
Well done job!
Why were you expecting misinformation because the narrator is foreign? Not everyone, in fact very people are out to cause Spain reputational damage. In fact the opposite is often true with Spanish people badmouthing everyone else. I think it is a deep set insecurity in the Spanish psyche that seeks external approval while simultaneously is suspicious of foreigners and their opinions because Spaniards think that foreigners are out to get them and sharpening their knives, a type of paranoia. I blame Franco's regime for spreading brainwashing anti foreign propaganda.
I used the HS service in 1992 when travelling between Cordoba and Seville. I was visiting the World Expo '92 but wanted to take in some of Spain's facinating and detailed history so a trip to Cordoba was in order. With the passage of time my memory has faded but I do recall finding the service excellent with comfortable seats and on train TV. This compared favourably with the standard service which I used on the return. As a matter of note, my trip to Seville was by ferry to Santander then overnight motorail to Malaga. That is the only time I've ever used a long distance car carrying rail service or sleeper service, it was a fun thing to do. (But I have used short distance services between England and France, and under the Alps France/Switzerland/Italy). Overnight rail is becoming more popular in Europe, would be an ideal topic for a future posting.
I wanted to point out 2 things:
1. Spain is not small, it's actually the 3rd/4th. largest European Country with 500k sq Km. Main cities are in a very good range for HSR (300-700Km).
2. You went SCI-FI with the Tunnel to Africa.
In his defence, he is Canadian. Most countries look small from that reference point. He might also have meant it more in terms population.
As a German who will avoid our Deutsche Bahn at all cost, I must say that Spanish rail really impressed me!
It’s clean, reliable, reasonably priced, fast and well-connected.
The only annoying thing are their ticket machines which require stuff like passport numbers and whatnot.
Yeah, that part is a far cry from the dutch OV chip card which you can tap to enter every train and bus in the country
Since eta in spain there are more security measures to avoid terrorist atacks
What is a a "low" price for you? (and compared to what kind of monthly income? :)
I was living in Germany for 5 years and I was shocked to see the german HSR ICE sharing railroad with the slow trains. My thought was like what's the point on having 300+ km/h trains when you can't go whole time high speed but 80 km/h because of the old bad maintained railroad
@@johnwu9168 Yeah, that drove me nuts too!
Had to take the train last year. The ICE international from cologne to utrecht and it moved at around 80kph for more than an hour somewhere around the border.
Also, the cheapest ticket I could get was 60 bucks for a 200km ride and took almost 3 hours…. 1 hour delay not included.
And that was the ICE. “Intercity express” on a train that can hit 300kph.
@@propergander8509 I know. Back then I used more the bus than the train. 300km would take me 3h in bus but with the ICE train and a transfer in the middle it would take me 4h, insane. And to get a compensation for delay it needs more than 2h+, in Spain you get compensation for delays after 15min
Good video, as always. On the other hand, the gauge change system of the Talgo train is a marvel of engineering, could it be improved? Maybe, but we are talking about the current speed of 15km/h, the cost in time is minimal and it is a more than proven (and exported) system.
Spanish trains are a delight. Modern, comfortable, clean, friendly staff. Fast. Very fast. The best way to get around the peninsula. A Madrid-Lisbon fast track is much needed.
Woww... there is a lot of cool information in this video.
Great infrastructure, but as mentioned in the video, Renfe needs to stop cosplaying an airline. That means serving stations in the middle of the city without airport-style security. Only then will the full potential of this network be unlocked.
Absolutely, should be able to get to the station and go!
The security checks at the ave stations are a lot less intensive than airport security.
A very informative and perfect video! Enjoyed it lot!
Btw can you please do the HK bus demonstration video soon? Thank you!
Just took the train from Barcelona back to Paris last night, and the airport-style security really suprised me. I arrived 10 minutes before the train would depart, as I was accustomed to doing in Paris, and I ended up having to ask to cut the line so I can get to the front of security. All we did was push our luggage through a metal detector- no one really seemed to be checking anything. A waste of time in my opinion- I'm glad I didn't miss my train!
I think what a lot of folks that criticize Spanish allocation of budgets and HSR projects because of its size are missing the point a bit. We are used to expand transit in a reactive way, I mean, reacting to demand and growth, and usually the projects we see in our cities, like the REM and the blue line extension in mine, are projects that should've been started 10 or 20 years ago. Ultimately, I think this is a proactive approach, I'm pretty sure that smaller cities with HSR connection will grow into medium-sized cities and as population grows in the next decades transportation will be able to keep up with it.
The proactivity in this kind of projects in Spain mostly comes from the politicians wanting to buy some votes in the area. The "AVE for everyone" sells a lot.
But it is true what you say: this can induce demand into the public transportation that was previously nonexistent.