Euromed

Talgo tilting sets swap the Madrid high-speed line for the classic Mediterranean corridor at Camp de Tarragona, then follow the coast and the Iberian-gauge line beyond Valencia to Alicante.

The Euromed has run the Mediterranean Corridor since 1997, wide-gauge Talgos lapping the coast from Barcelona to Valencia in under three hours and on to Alicante in about five and a half. It is Spain’s great sea-window railway: the Garraf cliffs beyond Sitges, the Roman skyline of Tarragona, then kilometre after kilometre of beach, castle and orange grove down the Costa del Azahar past Peñíscola and Sagunto. South of Valencia it leaves the coast for the Iberian-gauge line of 1858 through Xàtiva and Villena. The parallel high-speed line keeps shaving minutes; the shoreline run keeps the passengers.

Along the way

• Garraf cliffs after Sitges
• Tarragona’s Roman balcony
• Ebro delta edge at L’Aldea
• Peñíscola across the bay
• Sagunto castle hill
• Valencia orange country

How this line was checked

• Checked against OpenStreetMap: 93.3% of this line lies within 250 m of real track (median 7 m); the longest stretch away from it is 10.5 km
• Checked against the running timetable via ÖBB Scotty: our line sits under 100 m from the shape of EM 1071
• Wikipedia has an article for this line
• See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it

Questions and answers

How long is the Euromed?

The Euromed runs 543 km from Barcelona to Alicante.

How long does the Euromed take?

The fastest scheduled journey is ≈ 5 h 18 min for the 543 km. That is an average of 102 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 250 km/h.

Who runs the Euromed?

Renfe, with Talgo 250 (S-130).

How old is the Euromed?

The line has been in service since 1997. 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.

How often does the Euromed run?

≈ every 1–2 h.

View on the world railway map →

Read more on Wikipedia ↗