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The Spanish high-speed railway celebra-
tes its 20th anniversary this year. In 1992,
Spain was immersed in an unprecedented
process of changes and celebrations. It
was not just the World Soccer Cup and the
Seville Expo ’92 that were being held that
year in Spain; it was also the year that wit-
nessed the birth of the high-speed railway.
For Spain, the 20th of April of 1992 marked
a milestone in the modernisation and revo-
lution of the Spanish railway network. The
new train made a strong debut and offe-
red a rapid, comfortable, safe, and efficient
mode of transport.
According to data compiled by Administra-
dor de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias (ADIF,
Spanish acronym), two decades later,
Spain ranks first in Europe in terms of ki-
lometres of high-speed railways and is the
second country in the world, just behind
China, with a network of more than 3,300
km and nearly 23 million users. The AVE
train service is also a leader in speed, the
fastest in the world, with an average com-
mercial speed of 222 km/hour, faster than
high-speed
railways
200 km
It was 20 years ago, coinciding with the inauguration of the Seville Expo ’92, that the
high-speed train (AVE, Spanish acronym), made its first trip from Madrid to Seville.
The two cities were then connected by the high-speed train in less than three hours
and a new era of communications began in Spain. Two decades later, the AVE not
only goes to the Andalusian capital city, but also to more than a dozen other Spanish
cities, including Barcelona, Valencia, Valladolid, Toledo and, very soon, to Galicia.
FCC:
in 20 years
of
Japan’s high-speed train (218 km/h) and
France (216 km/h). It is also famous for its
punctuality of almost 99%. The goal for the
next decade, 2020, is for the network to
grow to 10,000 kilometres.
FCC at the forefront
The first high-speed railway in Spain, which
connected Madrid and Seville, gave rise
to one of the greatest challenges in ci-
vil works. FCC Construcción contributed