When the first AVE between Madrid and Seville was launched on 21st April 1992, at 300 kilometres per hour, Renfe had a fleet of 18 trains and 12 daily trips. Currently, that figure has multiplied to reach 229 vehicles and the 471 kilometres of track already reach 3,726 between them. Every day there are 331 services, 158 from Ave, 90 from Avant, 69 from Alvia, and 14 from Avlo.
It is not the only thing that has changed in these 30 years. New products have been added to the original offer of AVE and Renfe makes available to the traveller the Avant (Medium Distance at high speed), Alvia or Avlo (high speed at low cost). Together, they provide 331 services on a daily basis.
Avant
A first trip in October 1992 between Ciudad Real/Puertollano and Madrid, called ‘lanzadera’, was the prelude to Avant. This service was born in 2004 to meet mobility between nearby towns, but with the advantages of the AVE. It is therefore called medium-distance high-speed and serves with trains designed specifically for these connections. They reach a speed of up to 250 km/h and the services are carried out with 104, 114 and 121 series trains. Currently, Avant falls into the Category of Public Service and Renfe operates the service with high-speed trains designed specifically for short trips.
Alvia
Two types of track gauge coexist in the Spanish railway infrastructure, one of standard or international gauge (1,435 mm) and another of Iberian gauge (1,668 mm). This made it necessary for Renfe to have to work in such a way so that the trains could run, without interruption, through both. The result was the construction of movable rolling trains, which run through both infrastructures. We are talking about the Alvia trains, which were born in 2006, reach a maximum speed of 250 km/h and circulate to cities such as Pamplona, Cádiz, Asturias, Cantabria, Logroño or the Basque Country. These services are delivered with the series 120, 130, 730, 121 and with formations of Talgo 7.
Avlo
Almost a year ago, in June 2021, Renfe’s latest addition was born, the Avlo trains, which run between Madrid and Barcelona. It is a new high-speed service that was added to the traditional lines, but with a particularity: they are marketed under the low-cost brand. With similar features to the AVE in terms of speed and comfort, the aim is
to facilitate access to high speed for all types of travellers from other means of transport, especially the road. The first connection, Madrid-Zaragoza-Barcelona-Figueras, started with 40 trains and made four daily trips in each direction. For this connection, five trains of the 112 series have been refurbished, the cars unified in a single economy class.
In February of this year the Avlo service was increased with its arrival in Valencia through 6 daily trips, three in each direction. Four of them also stop in Cuenca and Requena-Utiel. In this first phase, it runs with trains of the 112 series.
New stakeholders in high-speed
The liberalisation of the sector has also reached high-speed and has brought new operators who, under the low-cost brand, aim to make high-speed service available to everyone.
Ouigo
In May 2021, Ouigo, the low-cost high-speed brand of the French Railways, SNCF, was born, a fleet of 14 double-decker trains of Alstom’s Euroduplex model, each one with 509 seats. With the advent of the liberalisation of passenger railway transport, Ouigo was the first low-cost service operated in the Spanish market. The trains connected Madrid and Barcelona, with stops in Zaragoza and Tarragona. The price, from 9 euros.
For a later stage, Ouigo plans to take its services first to the Valencian Community and then to Andalusia: Córdoba, Seville and Málaga.
Iryo
It is a new trademark of the private railway operator ILSA, which, as announced in February 2022, will begin to circulate in Spain from the second half of 2022 connecting Madrid and Barcelona. Although it will not be its only service. The operator expects that by the end of the year it will be providing service in Seville, Málaga, Córdoba, Valencia, Alicante, and Zaragoza. The travel times, of course, will be the same as those currently offered by Renfe.
A little further in the future, by 2025, Iryo plans to make available to passengers 58 daily frequencies between the stations of Seville-Santa Justa, María Zambrano Málaga, Córdoba and Madrid in which it is estimated that they will exceed 2.5 million passengers. The forecasts point to a fleet of twenty ETR 1000 trains, of the 109 series, of the so-called Frecciarossa 1000, with capacity for 467 passengers.
