SPAIN INTEGRATES ONE OF THE MOST COMPETITIVE OFFERS IN THE WORLD IN HIGH-SPEED PROJECTS, WHICH ENCOMPASSES THE WHOLE VALUE CHAIN: FROM THE DESIGN, TO THE RUNNING OF THE NETWORK, APPLICATION OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND MANUFACTURE OF MODERN ROLLING STOCK. ITS INDUSTRY IS PRESENT IN THE FIVE FLAGSHIP PROJECTS OF RECENT TIMES.
Spain has an advanced highspeed network with more than 3,000 kilometres in service, thus making it the second largest in the world solely after China. This backing over time of high-speed rail has served to place our country at the forefront in this field and export its deep-rooted technical knowledge. Proof of this is the constant visits of foreign delegations with the aim of finding out more about the national rail system and its operation. It has also successfully exported its own developments, such as the DaVinci system for the management of railway traffic, one of the most advanced in the world, which is already operational in Lithuania and Morocco, amongst other countries. Another important stride forward is the advances in automatic width change system of track, of significant interest to countries like Russia; as well as the development of new technologies linked to the mixed width or “third lane”, the creation of an entirely Spanish catenary under the name C-350, or the high-speed platforms AVRIL manufactured by Talgo and Oaris by CAF, which are renowned amongst the most advanced throughout the world. This experience has enabled the Spanish industry to take its place at the fore of the most important highspeed initiatives of the moment such as the project Mecca-Medina, one of the most important infrastructure projects in the Arab world in recent decades; the Berlin-Moscow railway corridor, which runs on two different track widths; the first highspeed network in California, which is also the most ambitious infrastructure programme in the US, the high speed line between Ankara and Istanbul and the Marmaray Tunnel, built under the Bosporus, amongst numerous other examples.
