Scenic route
Media Distancia R-3f
Bilbao → Santander · Spain
Media Distancia R-3f in pictures


Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 119 km
- Fastest time
- 3 h
- Average speed
- 40 km/h
- Top speed
- 80 km/h
- Operator
- Renfe
- Train
- Renfe 2700-series metre-gauge DMU
- Countries
- Spain
- In service since
- 1898
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
Three metre-gauge trains a day still thread all 119 km of the 1898 Santander–Bilbao railway, winding through green Basque and Cantabrian valleys.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 6634816 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 7 m from it
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: Renfe — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
More scenic routes
- Glacier Express
“The world’s slowest express”: 291 bridges, 91 tunnels and the 2,033 m Oberalp Pass at an average of 36 km/h.
Wikipedia ↗ - Bernina Express
A UNESCO World Heritage railway: 7 % grades with no rack, the Brusio spiral, and the highest rail crossing of the Alps at 2,253 m.
Wikipedia ↗ - Bergensbanen
Northern Europe’s highest main line: over the bare Hardangervidda plateau at 1,237 m, through 182 tunnels.
Wikipedia ↗ - West Highland Line
Regularly voted the world’s most scenic railway: around Rannoch Moor and over the 21-arch Glenfinnan Viaduct of film fame.
Wikipedia ↗
More train routes in Spain.