Rail Transportation in Spain

Growth of Rail

Current international trends support the development of train lines around the world. The cost of gas is spiking at the same time as rail technology has enabled ever-increasing speeds. The growing focus on limiting greenhouse gases adds to the interest in improving existing lines or developing new ones. According to RENFE estimates, a train traveler from Madrid to Barcelona generates 13 kilograms of carbon emissions, while the same trip by air generates 70 kilograms.

Today, there are about 625,000 miles of high-speed lines in the world, according to Barron. The International Union of Railways (know by its French initials, IUC) predicts three times that total by 2025, he says. According to these predictions, about a third of the world’s high-speed lines will be in Spain.

“Before, trains were competing with cars; now today’s highspeed trains are competing with planes,” says Mario Oriol, export and marketing director of the Spanish railway-vehicle manufacturer Talgo. “That shows how fast the train technology has developed.”

In Turkey, the government is building a high-speed track connecting Istanbul and Ankara; Spanish construction companies OHL and Guinovart are involved in building the line, and Spanish manufacturer Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) will provide the trains. The company also recently won a bid to supply suburban trains to the Turkish city of Izmir. In Saudi Arabia, a high-speed line now in the planning stages will link Mecca and Medina. Two groups of Spanish companies–CAF/OHL and Talgo/Isolux Corsán—are finalists in the bid, and CAF recently won a bid to supply eight trains to a future line.

Tracks are also under development in North African countries such as Algeria, Morocco, and Libya, an area of interest and bidding for many Spanish companies. SENER, an engineering company whose transportation branch can cover a project’s full cycle, has recently expanded into Algeria and is working on a metro and tramway. “Algeria has a lot of money from oil and gas, and they’re investing it in infrastructure,” says Cristina Ginés, SENER’s director of international development. CAF is providing trains for the new Algerian metro.

Talgo and CAF have also supplied trains for rail projects in the U.S., including the Washington, DC, Metro and the Cascades railway in the Pacific Northwest. Many companies plan to submit bids when a final decision is made on plans for a potential highspeed link between San Francisco and L.A.

While Spain surges ahead in rail construction, China may be a close second, according to Barron. “China’s rail system is creating a completely new network on the continental scale,” he says. The Spanish information technology company Telvent is already operating in Chinese metros, and another Spanish IT company, Indra, is one of the finalists in the bid for control systems on new planned high-speed lines.