High-speed route
AVE Madrid–Alicante
Madrid → Alicante · Spain
Branches off the Madrid–Levante high-speed line to reach the Costa Blanca, opened in 2013 and worked by S-112 “Pato” trainsets.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 4777350 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 9 m from it
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: Renfe — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it
Questions and answers
How long is the AVE?
The AVE runs 480 km from Madrid to Alicante.
How long does the AVE take?
The fastest scheduled journey is 2 h 12 min for the 480 km. That is an average of 218 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 300 km/h.
Who runs the AVE?
Renfe, with S-112 "Pato".
How old is the AVE?
The line has been in service since 2013. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.
More high-speed routes
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Drops 75 m below the sea through the 50.5 km Channel Tunnel, 37.9 km of it under the seabed, the longest undersea stretch of any rail tunnel.
Wikipedia ↗ - TGV inOui
France’s original 1981 LGV forms the first leg; today the TGV holds 320 km/h nearly all the way to the Mediterranean.
Wikipedia ↗ - AVE
Scheduled at 300 km/h, this line flipped one of the world’s busiest air routes to rail.
Wikipedia ↗ - AVE
Spain’s first AVE, built for Expo ’92 in standard gauge, the line that reset Spanish railways.
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More train routes in Spain.
Planning this trip? Journey time & direct trains: Alicante → Madrid · Madrid → Alicante.