At seven in the morning on April 21, 1992, Renfe driver Alfredo Durán started up the first AVE locomotive that ran between Madrid and Seville, where he arrived two hours and forty-five minutes later after traveling 470 kilometers. The first commercial trip on a high-speed rail line in Spain. Thirty years later, in an act to commemorate that inaugural journey, the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez, celebrated the anniversary as “one of the events in the recent history of our country”. This year, as Sánchez has announced, the Spanish network will reach 4,000 kilometres, which means putting 272 new kilometers into service in the next eight months. There are works underway worth 11,500 million euros and the commitment to mobilize another 12,000 million by 2025.
That first trip thirty years ago -on a train full of politicians and “train geeks”, as the organizers of the 92 route remember today- required investments of 3,250 million euros in the Madrid-Seville line. “Now nobody doubts the profitability, although at that time there were those who criticized it as a waste,” said the minister. As of today, 57,000 million euros have already been invested in high speed, with a total of 3,728 kilometers in service, which means that 70% of the Spanish population has a station close at hand to travel by Ave, indicated Sánchez.
The Spanish network is currently the second largest in the world and the first in Europe, only behind China. Although it does not manage to overcome the 4,000 kilometer barrier, a challenge that different governments have been setting.
Through the current more than 3,700 kilometers of network, 229 trains circulate, carrying passengers to 39 cities. If between Madrid and Seville, in 30 years, more than 84 million passengers have traveled, the total network has served 465 million passengers.
works in progress
After having managed to connect Galicia to the network last December, Adif is now working to link the north and south of the country without having to change trains in Madrid, through the tunnel between Atocha and Chamartín; the start of the Extremaduran connection; the union between Venta de Baños and Palencia; and works in Murcia. These are the sections planned this year to reach the 4,000 kilometers that the minister spoke about yesterday.
For later there are the variants of Orense and Pajares, the Basque sections and the Palencia-Santander, continue with the road to Extremadura, the Mediterranean coastal corridor, the line to Barajas and the cross connections.
Everything about high speed is bombastic. In today’s celebration at the Seville station of Santa Justa, the minister recalled the words of the minister who inaugurated the AVE, José Borrell, who came to compare this work with the engineering of the Channel tunnel (in Sierra Morena the route required 32 viaducts and 12 tunnels).
Raquel Sánchez also spoke of a “colossal work” that made it possible “for Spain to get on the train of modernity.” “She changed the image we had of Spain,” she added.
The mayor of Seville, Antonio Muñoz, has highlighted the strategic importance of the decision of the government of Felipe González to make the Ave to Seville before Barcelona, and has pointed out the contribution of the train to tourism and business in the capital hispalense. Later he obtained the commitment of the minister for a historical claim of the city: the railway connection between Santa Justa and the airport.
Promotion
The Ave arrived in Seville the day after the inauguration of Expo92. The ticket then cost 6,000 pesetas. Today getting on a high-speed train is only possible for a minimum of 70 euros.
Renfe has launched a promotion to purchase, starting this Friday, up to 100,000 AVE and Long Distance tickets at 15 euros each, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the birth of the first AVE between Madrid and Seville, which went into circulation on 21 April 1992.
The tickets in this offer, which will be on sale on April 22, 23 and 24, are for travel in the three summer months, between July 1 and September 30, in all national destinations, according to informed the operator in a statement.
When purchasing tickets, the standard accessories of the ‘Basic’ option will be allowed, with changes and cancellations of the ‘Elige’ level or with changes and cancellations of the ‘Premium’ level, with selection of seat, bicycle and pet.
Also to celebrate the anniversary, the railway company has renewed the AVE brand logo.
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