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Date Published: 02/04/2024

The new high-speed train that will slash journey times in parts of Spain... but never Marbella

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Spain’s Transport Minister has promised a host of new trains but ruled out the possibility of a high-speed service for Marbella

The new high-speed train that will slash journey times in parts of Spain... but never Marbella

The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility in Spain, Óscar Puente, has assured that train manufacturing company Talgo has told him that it will deliver the first variable gauge, high-speed Avril trains as of next Monday, April 8.

In the same breath, Puente has not promised that the trains will be delivered on that date, nor that they will be put into service immediately.

“Talgo told us that the trains would be delivered from April 8, but it also told us previously that it would deliver them on the first, and this has not happened, so I cannot commit to a date. But it does seem that we are already very close, we are probably talking about days or at most weeks,” he said in an interview on Onda Cero radio.

These trains will be used mainly to connect Madrid with the northwestern Spanish communities of Galicia and Asturias, regions where it is necessary for trains to change their axle gauge to be able to continue running from Ourense and Pola de Lena, thus improving current times and frequencies.

The minister also said the possibility of reopening the train line between the Spanish capital and Aranda de Duero to Burgos was very slim. A feasibility study is currently being carried out to assess the rehabilitation of the Somosierra tunnel, where a tamping machine was trapped 13 years ago and which led to the suspension of the line.

Removing the tamping machine and renovating the tunnel and tracks could cost between 1.3 and 1.4 billion euros, a cost that the minister believes is hardly worth it, especially since Burgos is already connected to Madrid by the high-speed AVE train via Valladolid.

“I do not want to raise false expectations,” he said. “It does not look good because the cost-benefit ratio of this infrastructure is very unbalanced. It does not seem that it is going to be easy to set up this corridor again.”

Asked about the request from Marbella to have a high-speed train line, the minister also ruled out that this is a viable option, saying that the extension of the suburban train to this Costa del Sol municipality would have too many stops and would not be an attractive alternative for travellers compared to going by car, and that a high-speed line would be complicated.

Image: Talgo

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