highspeed

Since Iryo and Ouigo compete with Renfe, we have had ultra-cheap high-speed tickets. Everything has an end

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There is a problem in the supply of high-speed trains in Spain. We believed that with the arrival of competition to Renfe we ​​would see ticket prices reduced. This has been the case during the last four years and in different regions, but now the three operators have begun to raise their rates in most corridors during the third quarter of 2025, according to the latest report of the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC). The change of trend. In the Madrid-Barcelona corridor, the busiest in the country, prices rose by an average of 25% compared to the same period in 2024. Iryo led the increases with an increase of 52.9%, placing the average ticket at 63.82 euros. Renfe AVE raised its fares by 13.3% to 70.58 euros, while Ouigo, traditionally the cheapest option, increased its prices by 20.2% to reach 51.86 euros on average. The context that explains the rise. The withdrawal of Avlo, Renfe’s ‘low cost’ brand, from the Madrid-Barcelona corridor in September after cracks were detected in the bogies of its Avril trains, has reduced the supply of tickets economical on the most popular route. This has caused the remaining operators to adjust their rates upwards. Despite the increase in prices, tickets are still 26% cheaper than before the liberalization of the sector in 2020, as indicated by the CNMC. The exception: Andalusia. In this Autonomous Community, the evolution is different. The entry of Ouigo in January 2025 on the Madrid-Seville and Madrid-Málaga/Granada routes caused a price war which has kept rates down. On the Madrid-Málaga route, only Iryo raised prices (+2.6%), while Renfe AVE lowered them by 8.9% and Avlo by 15.3% to compete with the 32.54 euros on average offered by the French operator. In Madrid-Seville, the average price fell by 2.8% despite the fact that individual operators such as Iryo (+12.5%) and Renfe AVE (+0.9%) did make their tickets more expensive. The Levantine corridor. Regarding routes to the Valencian Community, these show moderate increases. In Madrid-Valencia, prices rose by 1.3% to 30.56 euros on average, the cheapest ticket on the entire network. In Madrid-Alicante, the increase was 1.5% to 37.96 euros. Iryo was the one that increased its fares the most on both routes (with increases of 24.6% and 23.9% respectively), while Ouigo maintained its low price strategy with slight reductions. The thing is about profitability. The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, has been publicly demanding this price increase in recent months, going so far as to accuse Ouigo of operating at losses and dragging Renfe into an unsustainable dynamic. And while the rest of the operators have been gaining ground, we are now at a point where they are looking for the economic viability of their operations, and that is where the price increases come in. The balance of passengers. Despite price increases, demand remains robust. High speed will reach almost 40 million travelers in 2024, 77% more than in 2019, before liberalization. In the third quarter of 2025, routes such as Madrid-Málaga/Granada (+17.7%), Madrid-Seville (+13.2%) and Madrid-Alicante (+8.9%) reached record passenger numbers. Only Madrid-Barcelona registered a slight decrease of 0.3%, possibly weighed down by the withdrawal of Avlo and the increase in fares. The future of the sector. After four years of aggressive offers by the rest of the high-speed operators, the sector seems to be entering a phase of maturity in which it seeks to attract travelers without losing sight of the sustainability of the business. Renfe maintains a market share of 62% in most corridors, although in Madrid-Valencia it is already at 50%. It will be very interesting to know the figures in the coming quarters to know how the panorama evolves. Cover image | Jose Garcia Nieto In Xataka | High speed in Madrid is at risk of collapsing. And that’s why Adif wants to send her to Parla

Saudi Arabia is looking for someone to build its new high-speed train. And a battalion of Spanish giants are going to compete

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Saudi Arabia has put one of the most ambitious railway projects in the Middle East on the table, and the response from the global industry has been especially strong: 145 international companies have officially expressed their interest for participating in the new high-speed line that will connect Riyadh with Qiddiya, a newly created city dedicated to tourism and entertainment. And as it could not be otherwise, among the candidates stand out several Spanish companies with great experience when it comes to cooperating in Saudi projects. What exactly is this project. It is about the Qiddiya High-Speed ​​Railalso known as Q-Express, a high-speed rail line that will link King Salman International Airport and the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh with Qiddiya City, according to the Royal Commission for Riyadh City (RCRC). The trains will reach speeds of up to 250 km/h and the intention is for them to complete the journey in about 30 minutes. Qiddiya is one of Saudi Arabia’s five official mass tourism-oriented gigaprojects and is expected to occupy some 376 square kilometers. The city will include 12 amusement parksa Formula 1 circuit and is projected to house 500,000 inhabitants. Several Spanish companies interested. Between companies that have shown interest There are Spanish names with weight in the railway sector. CAF and Talgo appear in the category of manufacturers of rolling stock and railway systems, where they compete with giants such as Alstom, Siemens Mobility, Hitachi Rail or Stadler Rail. Renfe and Alsa, for their part, are among the 12 interested railway operators, along with Deutsche Bahn, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane or SNCF. In construction, FCC Construction and Copasa stand out, while in technical consulting, Sener, Ayesa, Idom and Typsa are present, competing with international firms such as Aecom, AtkinsRéalis or Systra. Previous experience in the country. Several of these Spanish companies are not new to Saudi Arabia. Some were part of the consortium that developed the well-known AVE to Mecca (Haramain train), which connects the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Currently, Renfe operates precisely that high-speed line. The president of the company, Álvaro Fernández de Heredia, visited Saudi Arabia just a few weeks ago to participate in an international railway meeting, and where reaffirmed the company’s commitment to collaborate with Saudi Arabia Railways on new projects. For its part, Alsa It already has a guaranteed presence in Qiddiya: a €500 million contract was recently awarded to operate the city’s future buses. Fierce world-class competition. He complete list of interested parties gives clues to the magnitude of the project. The 68 main contractors include companies from China (eight companies, including China Railway Construction Corporation and Aviation Industry Corporation of China), Turkey (with Gülermak, Kalyon or Yapı Merkezi), Italy (Webuild and Saipem), South Korea (Hyundai Engineering and Samsung C&T), France (Bouygues Travaux Publics), India (Larsen & Toubro) and Portugal (Mota-Engil), among other countries. 16 capital investors and 23 design and project management consultancies have also shown interest. How it is going to develop. The project will be executed under a public-private partnership model (PPP), as announced by the RCRC in collaboration with the National Center for Privatization and the QIC. The registration period where companies could show interest in the project opened on September 12 and closed on October 12. Although it was initially planned to be developed under a conventional model, the Saudi authorities finally opted for a public-private collaboration scheme. What comes next. The development includes two phases. The first will connect Qiddiya with KAFD and King Khalid International Airport. The second phase will extend from a development known as North Pole, which includes the Public Investment Fund’s two-kilometre-high tower, to New Murabba, King Salman Park, central Riyadh and the Industrial City south of Riyadh. In addition, the 65-kilometer Riyadh metro line 7 will also connect the capital with Qiddiya City in the future. With so many high-level companies competing for this megaproject, now it’s time to find out which consortiums manage to position themselves as favorites in the bidding. Cover image | HE In Xataka | The electrification of the railway passes through Valencia: the Stadler plant will be in charge of building 200 hybrid locomotives

Brazil has been pursuing high-speed trains for 20 years. Now it will have the first in South America

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If we see the list of countries with the most high-speed train linesChina is the one cut the codwith Europe and Japan also on the crest of the wave. However, South America is a territory that neither punctures nor cuts. That’s about to change and, although there are several projects in different countries, the first high-speed train in South America will be in Brazil. And it promises to revolutionize transportation in one of the country’s key corridors. It is not (fast) train territory. Connecting South America by train is extremely complicated. Not only do they have a complex topography with mountains and jungles to overcome, but also an enormous geographical dispersion, political instability in some countries and priorities that have changed with different governments. Currently, the territory is experiencing a revolution. There are countries like Mexico either Chili who are waging war on their own with internal projects, but also a project known as ‘Bioceanic Railway Corridor‘ which will unite the Pacific and Atlantic and connect the port of Santos in Brazil with that of Bayóvar in Peru. Apart from that line, Brazil has its own plans. The Brazilian TAV. The Brazilian high-speed project is not without controversy. The TAV (or High Speed ​​Train) began to take shape in 2004. Named ‘Bandeirantes Express’, the idea was to connect São Paulo with Campinas. It came to nothing and in 2007 it was shelved, but with the arrival of Lula da Silva and the perspective of Soccer World Cup 2014HE relaunched. It would have been the perfect setting, but the dates were not met either and, from lost to the river: we took it back to 2016 for the Rio Olympics. Spoiler: it went wrong due to financing problems, doubts about profitability and, evidently, a lack of interest from the private sector that was not clear about how to recover the investment. Chronology. It would have been the first high-speed train in South America, but it seems that it had not said its last word, because in 2023, the private company TAV Brasil got by the National Land Transportation Agency the authorization to link the main cities of the country: Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. The 99-year concession allows them to plan, build and operate the line that, if all goes well, will connect the two cities with intermediate stops between Sao José dos Campos and Volta Redonda. The investment is not clear and is estimated at about 60,000 million reais, which is about 11,000 million euros, and points to a ticket price of around 85 euros for a complete trip. TAV Brazil has announced the following calendar: End of 2026 for the conclusion of feasibility studies. 2027 as the start of construction. 2032 as commercial commissioning. The train. The intention is that the machine reaches speeds of 320 km/h, which would more than meet what is considered the high speed standard (250 km/h) and will allow travel the 400 kilometers between the two megacities in just one hour and forty-five minutes. This is a considerable reduction compared to a current road trip that takes about six hours. Interests. The big question is who will build the system… and the trains. This is a high-stakes project and, as in other parts of the world, geopolitics plays an important role. Historicallythe project has attracted the interest of companies such as the Spanish CAF or the French Alstom (in contention right now for the train in Belgian), but also from Siemens and other leading companies in the sector. TAV Brazil has not closed its doors and is talking with both Spanish companies and Arab funds and, of course, with China, which is becoming a global touchstone in the railway segment. They are revolutionizing Africa, they have a presence in the deployment of the line that will cross South America from Brazil to Peru and getting a piece of the Brazilian high-speed pie would mean another lucrative hit on the table. In any case, the one in Brazil and other projects seem to be beginning to shape the railway future of a Latin America that has had plans for decades, but for various reasons they have not come to fruition. Images | Limongi, Danilo.mac, Mohamed SY In Xataka | The US has been dreaming of its first high-speed train for decades: the California project is being a real nightmare

The countries with the most kilometers of high-speed train, displayed in a graph with a brutal dominator: China

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The train is the backbone of many countries. For centuries it has been key to mobility in Europe, in Japan it is essential, China has experienced a railway revolution and even the United States or Latin America begin to bet on passenger mobility by train. However, it is one thing to have a railway and quite another to have a rich high-speed network. And this graph shows the countries with the most kilometers of high-speed trains and their plans for the future. China, undisputed queen. The Olympics They are an event in which countries “sell” themselves to the worldbut in the case of China, it involved a profound renovation of its infrastructure. It was in 2008 when China launched its high-speed railway line: barely 120 kilometers between Beijing and Taijin, and 17 years later, it is the country with the most kilometers of high-speed lines in operation. According to the data of World Population Review and as we can see in the graph prepared by Visual CapitalistChina has more than 40,000 kilometers of tracks on which its trains go at 250 km/h or more. They have another 12,800 kilometers under construction and more than 11,000 planned. In total, some 64,000 kilometers of high-speed rail. In addition, they are moving forward to make their network the highest speed thanks to the maglev advancesmagnetic trains, with tracks that already link cities like Beijing and Shanghai to speeds of more than 430 kilometers per hour. And it is this network that is putting the airlines in check. Spain and Japan. The train is vital in a country as huge as China and the numbers speak for themselves, but there are two other countries that, without being the ones with the most kilometers in total (operational, under construction and planned), complete the podium of those with the most high-speed kilometers currently operating. There are no surprises here. Spain has a total of 5,632 kilometers of high speed, of which more than 3,700 are already operational, followed by China the country with the most kilometers of high speed currently holds. There are another 1,040 kilometers under construction and another 862 kilometers planned. For its part, Japan, another example when we talk about fast trainshas a total of 3,700 kilometers divided into 3,050 operational kilometers, 402 under construction and 193 planned. Promises, promises. At a time when the train is emerging as the alternative to international flights, especially to low cost and among short-distance points, it is striking that, in reality, there are no more countries with high-speed lines. In Europe, apart from Spain, France, Germany, Sweden, Finland or Italy, they have hundreds of operational kilometers, but outside of the ‘Old Continent’ and cases like South Korea, things are very different. For example, India. It is the second country in the graph, but of the 8,000 total kilometers, only 508 eare under construction and the remaining 7,400 are planned. They do not have high speed, and the same thing happens in Egypt (with 3,400 kilometers planned), Australia (1,700 planned) and European countries such as Latvia, Estonia, Norway or the Czech Republic: all with plans to create high-speed lines, but not one operational kilometer. America. And if in China the train is essential due to its dimensionson the American continent we should think that things are the same. And no, not at all. The United States, a gigantic country, has only 735 kilometers of high speed, 273 under construction and almost 5,000 planned, but nothing more. Spain tried to bring the AVE to the North American country and there are demands for high-speed trains to expand, but their internal mobility continues to have the plane as the protagonist. Canada has 1,500 kilometers planned and not one kilometer built, Mexico is in the same situation with 210 kilometers on the table, Brazil the same with 510 kilometers planned and Argentina does not even appear on the graph. But, although high speed is complicated on the continent, the truth is that there are many plans to expand the railway network, even creating international trains that go from one ocean to another, like the one planned between Brazil and Peru. And who is behind many of these projects? Well, who has gained experience at a forced pace in recent years ‘pulling’ thousands of kilometers of tracks: China. In Xataka | China wanted to be the queen of high-speed trains. So he built all the longest bridges in the world

China has taken a new step in its high-speed race. The CR450 has just reached a new milestone in its tests

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China has spent years perfecting machinery that not only symbolizes speed, but also industrial precision. Its last exponent, the CR450has shown the scope of that search: in its most recent tests, two trains reached a combined speed of 896 km/h at the intersectiona new record in the Chinese system. It is not an isolated gesture, but a step within the innovation program launched in 2021 to raise the bar for high speed with more reliability and performance. The new registration was confirmed on October 21. During tests on the high-speed line connecting Shanghai, Chongqing and Chengdu, two CR450 trains crossed each other, reaching a relative speed of 896 km/h. In the same test campaign, one of the prototypes once again reached 453 km/h per unit, equaling the record set in 2023. The tests, they explain, are part of the “evaluation operation” that is currently being carried out on the Wuhan–Yichang section, a prior step to a more demanding phase scheduled for 2026. Speed ​​is on the table, but the operation is not yet At first glance, it might seem that two trains traveling at 453 km/h should add up to a crossing speed of 906 km/h. In practice, testing conditions prevent this. As China Railway Group explainedthe exact moment when both units are on parallel tracks it only lasts a few secondsand getting them to maintain the same speed at that point is extremely complex. For safety reasons, technicians increase speed gradually, ensuring stability and synchronization before attempting new records. The CR450 is not an isolated project, but one more piece of the railway plan that China launched in 2021 to raise commercial speed to 400 km/h. The challenge is not minor: maintaining that pace without increasing consumption or noise. Before entering service, the prototype must complete 600,000 kilometers of tests under real conditions, an essential requirement for its certification. This year, trials have extended from the Chongqing to Qianjiang sections to the Wuhan–Yichang line, where technical teams continue to fine-tune the train’s behavior in prolonged use scenarios. How Sina collectsmuch of the CR450’s advancement can be understood by looking inside its engineering. The train incorporates permanent magnet motors with a total power of 11,000 kW. The weight has also been reduced about 50 tons thanks to the use of carbon fiber and magnesium alloys, and the aerodynamic profile has been optimized with a longer nose, 15 meters. They claim that at 400 km/h, the noise level inside the car barely reaches 68 decibels. Although the CR450 has already demonstrated its technical capabilities, its commercial deployment remains without a clear destination. Today there is no operational line in China prepared to travel at 400 km/h. The first that contemplates this possibility is the Chengdu–Chongqing Central Line, approved in 2021 with a base design of 350 km/h and adaptable sections for future tests at higher speeds. According to China Economic Newsthe plan is that next year the train will undergo a more demanding testing phase there, the closest so far to a real service scenario. The development of the CR450 is divided between two of the main railway manufacturers in the country. The CR450AF version has been built by CRRC Qingdao Sifang, while the CR450BF is built by CRRC Changchun. Both They share an eight-car configuration —four engines and four trailers—. Official information indicates that they incorporate advanced communication and braking systems, as well as high stability bogies designed to maintain balance even in extreme speed tests. The immediate future of the CR450 passes through the aforementioned line, where over the next year it will undergo tests closest to real operation. There is still no confirmed date for its entry into service, and those responsible for the project emphasize that the priority continues to be technical validation. For now, we have to wait to see if all the promises of the program materialize and if the new train manages to transfer its laboratory achievements to the operational field. Images | China Railway Group In Xataka | The shortest launch in history: a million-dollar luxury yacht sank just 200 meters from the dock

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