Page 481 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 6

High Speed Rail in Spain - a statement from a foreign expert

running with a speed of 300 km/h is being delayed by 11 minutes to the in front running Alta
train 9330, which runs only with a maximum speed of 200 km/h. This unsatisfactory timetable
situation exists since December 2011. Absolute parallel train paths have a positive influence
on the use to capacity and they are also a condition for an easier daily operation process. This
unsatisfactory situation for the train diagram also applies for the mixture of AVE train paths
(300 km/h) and Alvia train paths (250 km/h) respective Avant train paths (V max =270 Km/h)

Figure 1. Extract from present train diagram Madrid - Málaga

A relative new unsatisfactory timetable situation exists since December 2016 on the Madrid -
Sevilla AVE line. Since this date a nonstop AVE 2360 Madrid (16.00) - Sevilla (18.55) is affected
by a 5 minutes delay approaching Sevilla. The in front running IC train 2364 Fr runs only 200
km/h.
3.3 Different travel times Madrid - Málaga

Although only 13 or less trains run daily Madrid - Málaga (Sunday to Wednesday = 12, Thursday
and Friday = 13, Saturday = 10) nearly every AVE-train has a different travel time: 2082 + 2102
= 140 min; 2182 + 2212 = 143 min; 2152 = 151 min, 2162 = 152 min, 2112 = 162 min, 2143 = 163
min, 2072 = 165 min, 2092 = 167 min, 2192 = 168 min, 2172 = 170 min, 2122 + 2202 = 185 min).
Such a divergence of travel times between two towns nowhere else can be found in a country
with high speed traffic.
3.4 Scheduling the length of intermediate stops

Looking at the AVE Madrid - Barcelona timetable it can be noticed that an AVE-train with 4
intermediate stops needs a total travel time of 3h 10 min whereas a nonstop AVE train needs
only 2 h 30 min. So the average length of an intermediate stop is about 10 min. This finding also
applies for the stop in Córdoba although the AVE trains in this section at present only run with
a maximum speed of 250 km/h.

International Congress on High-speed Rail: Technologies and Long Term Impacts - Ciudad Real (Spain) - 25th anniversary Madrid-Sevilla corridor 479