Page 5 - Vía Libre Special - 25 Years of Spanish High Speed Rail

to their development will implement a high speed
system with longer lines and higher performance
levels. To those we might say, he who modernizes
last modernizes best.
China, for example, did not open its first high
speed line until 2008, but now, every year, they are
opening the same number of kilometres of lines
as Spain or France opened in 25 years. Fortunately
China has based its transport modernization

High speed has enabled

the railway to regain its
Juan alfaro Juan Bravo
President of President of adif and leadership in long-distance
renfe oPeradora adif alta velocidad
collective passenger

of the time rather than those necessary for the transport.
future. None of these lines has stood the test of
time.
Towards the end of 20th century there scheme on high speed rail. The world can breathe
was an opportunity – which was duly taken – to easy because if China had chosen a transport
commit to an option with a future, one which was model based on road and air travel it would
technologically advanced and would allow Renfe have had a devastating environmental impact on
to reap the benefits of a transport service better humanity.
aligned with the new social reality and the growing After this initial forward-looking decision to
need for mobility. introduce high speed working and standard gauge,
In other countries of our environment a second decision was taken in the 1990s, a decision
high speed rail was introduced, using as a basis a just as important as the previous one: Spain decided
conventional network which was reasonably fit for to stop importing “full turnkey” technologies and
the needs of the time. In the second half of the systems and to reduce the material scope of
century, major investment had been made on these contracts. In this way Spain opened the door to
conventional networks. In Spain, however, the domestic developments competing with foreign
high speed opportunity arose when the network rivals, thereby giving an opportunity to Spanish
was still underdeveloped and undercapitalized and industry and engineering. This enabled second
therefore the need to modernize was greater, and generation lines (from Madrid to Lleida) not
there was no risk of Spain wasting investment in only to deliver higher performance and greater
already modernized routes as there were none. In efficiency, but also resulted in Spanish designs and
the future, other countries wishing to give a boost companies becoming far more involved. Spain’s
competitive advantage in high speed rail lies in its
capacity to leverage technological hybridization,
High speed rail taking technologies from different sources and
combining them to extract optimum performance
has enabled Spain and maximum knowledge transfer.
Spain has an excellent network of high
to develop its own speed lines and services, which has enabled the
railway to regain its leadership in long-distance
technology backed by a collective passenger transport, a leadership lost
in the 1980s , first to coach travel and then to air
specialized industry travel. But the great beneficiary is not the railway
but the passengers: people who can now move years of Spanish high speed rail
easily and comfortably with reasonable journey
times, for whom life has been made so much easier

Vía Libre • Special 25th Anniversary of the AVE Edition 5