Page 376 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 5

Pagliara, Francesca. Menicocci, Fabrizio.Vassallo, José Manuel. Gómez Sánchez, Juan.

Seville. It was designed according to the technical standards of the French high-speed TGV. In
the following years, the network was extended towards the northern part of the country, with
the aim to create a connection to France and thus to the European high-speed network. Despite
several problems encountered during the construction process, the Madrid-French Border line
reached the cities of Zaragoza (2003) and Barcelona (2008). This line connects the two most
populated urban areas in Spain –separated by 620 km– in 2h 30 min, which has led to a great
success. Later this line was expanded to the city of Figueras, near the French border, and
Perpignan (France). In Table 1 the annual passengers in the main AVE lines have been reported
for the year 2012.

Furthermore, in the last few years the high-speed network has been extended to connect some
of the most populated cities in the Spanish Mediterranean coast such as Málaga (2007), Valencia
(2010) and Alicante (2013), with great tourist appealing, too. However, due to the shortfall of
financial resources, caused by the economic recession in Spain, the government has postponed
or cancelled some of the high-speed projects already approved (Pagliara, et al., 2012). The
most recent extensions of the network up to Palencia and León (2015) have experienced
significant delays, in line with other connections already under construction to reach areas
such as the Basque Country, Granada or Extremadura. In this respect, the complex topography
of the territory – Spain is the second most mountainous country in Europe – combined with a
deterioration in the economic context and therefore in the public budget, have caused that
currently some of the Spanish regions are not accessible to HSR services.
Despite the continuous financial losses experienced in previous years, in 2013 RENFE implemented
alternative pricing systems in order to make HSR services accessible to a wider range of the
population. For instance, discounts up to 70% are currently offered when buying single tickets
in advance for certain train services. Reduced prices (up to 60%) can also be found when buying
group tickets (4 people). Alternatively, students and elderly people are offered discounts of
up to 50% and 60% respectively, over the standard ticket price. This policy, promoted by the
Spanish Ministry of Transportation, has resulted in an average reduction of 11% in HSR tickets
and has increased rail demand substantially in the last years. In 2015, the HSR services reached
a total of 31 million passengers, constituting the peak in the historic trend and almost doubling

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