Link profile: RENFE

Category: Start / Getting Around / Railways
The main, state-owned Spanish railway operator. The rail network in Spain and to a lesser extent Portugal is being thoroughlty modernized, having historically been isolated from the rest of Europe by a difference in gauge, the width between rails / wheels, which has meant in the past that rail travellers have had to change trains at the French border. All Spain's new high-speed railway lines and trains - the AVE, Alta Velocidad Española - are built to the slighltly narrower European gauge, though, in addition to which the speeds being achieved are genuinely impressive. The journey from Madrid to Barcelona used to take a staggering 12 hours, so for decades communications between the two capitals have been monopolized by the puente aéreo, air shuttle. No longer, though, for the non-stop rail journey now takes only 2 hours 38 minutes, and the fact that it connects city-centre train stations means the air shuttle is no longer an attractive option for visitors, at least. High-speed lines also connect Madrid with Seville and Málaga, and should reach Valencia and Alicante from both Madrid and Barcelona in the near future - indeed, all important inter-provincial and international routes should be high-speed witin the next four or five years.

This does not mean travelling with RENFE is always a comfortable experience - if you find yourself on one of the remaining old regionales slow trains which stop at every station along the route, it can be torture.

Until they are transferred to regional authorities, RENFE also operates the excellent local railway systems - cercanías - which exist around Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Santander, Cádiz, Málaga and in Asturias. Notwithstanding this, RENFE's main failing is that it is simply not ubiquitous, and there are many towns and even cities in Spain which lack a railway station of any kind.

The link above goes to RENFE's official website, with timetables, on-line reservations and so on.
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