Tom PowellTHE future high speed train to Granada will be served by just a single track for the final 81km before the city.
Critics have argued that a single line will significantly reduce the operating capacity of the line, and if a train were to break down on it there could be untold delays.
The measures do however ensure that the new AVE line will meet its late 2015 opening date. It is part of the high-speed rail network in Spain, operated by Renfe Operadora, the Spanish national railway company. It runs at speeds of up to 310 km/h.
The new line will leave the Malaga to Cordoba track at Antequera Santa Ana station and go east to Antequera. Then it will pass through Loja before arriving at Granada’s new Mariana Pineda station.
The AVE – a huge and crippling financial burden on Spain, invented by the PSOE for travel for the wealthy (rather than a network of ‘People’s transport’).
@ Lenox………The fact that comparative air traffic operators are reducing their ticket prices to better compete with the AVE tends to contradict your comment.
It may well be costly at the moment but as a strategy for future travel it’s somewhat better than the UK’s performance to date. And when was the last time you took a train in the UK?….Sardines would run (ok, flip) a mile.
Brian,
At last we seem to have another sensible person replying to stupid statements on these sites. They just don’t stop and think in what they are saying, just blurt out anything that comes into mind. I wonder if you would have employed any one of these as an under manager.
@Brian. Do you have any idea how much the AVE net work costs and has cost not just Spain but the European Union? A lot of the track has been paid for with EU funds, ie British taxpayers amongst others. Breakeven for the Madrid-Barcelona route equates to about 9M passengers per year. It doesn’t even carry half that many, in spite of lowering fares, ie losing even more money than before.
High Speed does not always mean progress: “http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2013/12/high-speed-trains-are-killing-the-european-railway-network.html”
I don’t see how more debt and subsidising uneconomic services can be a strategy for the future?
Iestyn ap Robert,
No need to concern yourself too deeply regarding the cost to the British tax payers for the AVE. If we pull out of the EU no costs involved.
@Iestyn ap Robert…In actual fact this route carried nearly 6 million passengers Feb 13/Feb 14 which represented an increase of 20% over the previous year….In terms of customer convenience it well outranks the airlines in service reviews according to independent surveys.
If Dr Beeching had been a little more tenacious and forward thinking in his review of British Rail in the 60’s, the UK road network would not now be gridlocked with juggernauts and companies like Eddie Stobart would be in far better position to maximise their rail business…In multi billion pound industries, short term nervous jitters over profitability serve no purpose.
You will be aware that the Arabs, not known for their unsound investments are spending billions (a fair amount coming to Spain) on a high speed network.
@Caccia….Not too sure what an “under manager” is. In my years as a manager, I frequently came across people who emulated a rather well known Hungarian film director who once proudly proclaimed, “you people think I know f*** nothing, but I’m telling you I know f*** all”.
I just ignore ’em.
Brian,
Perhaps I should have said, someone in charge if you were not available, ie; at a meeting or off sick.
Hope that clarifies the wording of “under manager”
Brian,
Perhaps I should have said, a supervisor or someone in charge if you were not available, ie; at a meeting or off sick etc.
Hope that clarifies the wording of a “under manager”.
Brian,
I suppose if you were off sick another manager or the area manager would step in until you were back on your feet.
OK, so 6M passengers, Brian, still 3M shy of making that particular route economically viable, while the rest of the network will never be and will go on costing Spanish and EU taxpayers who do not use it into the future. I can’t see how that could possibly be called progress?
The train to Granada (1864) has suffered from being single track since then. The only reason that the Talgo trains (1932) cannot run at their full 150 km speed is that they keep having to stop at passing points to let slower traffic past. The whole point of the AVE was that it was to be two track so that the trains could run at full speed. The single track means that the trains will have to be slower than the current ones. It is still quicker by bus from Granada to Madrid and half the cost of the train.
The AVe, a foreign designed and manufactured train cost 10 timesmore than the Talg, a Spanish designed and built train. On the malaga madrid line the Ave is 10 minutes faster to Madrid. The AVE is an over complex computer controlled high speerd train requiring special track and very costly overhead cables. The Talgo will go at similar speeds on the AVE track but will also run happily on the normal rail system. Fot the cost of one AVE train the track from Granada to Linares could have been made double track and the AVE would not have been needed.