speed

The Madrid-Barcelona AVE will reach a peak speed of 350 km/h. And it will do so thanks to new sleepers of Spanish design

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While in China they are already thinking about trains that reach 4,000 km/hIn Spain we are looking for an AVE that reaches 350 km/h that could be reached without problems if it were not for one detail: the tracks. And for something much more specific: the sleepers. The solution is a new design called “aerotraviesa” that will increase the speed of the BIRD. The problem is that theory is one thing, and practice another. a physical problem. Spain plays in the high speed major league and, in it, Renfe opera four types of trains. The Alvia and Avant reach 250 km/h. The Avlo and the AVE reach 300 km/h. However, the machines are prepared to reach higher speeds, the aforementioned 350 km/h. The problem is in physics. When a train exceeds a certain speed, 300 km/h, a phenomenon called ‘ballast flight’ occurs. This implies that the underside of the train generates turbulence that creates areas of low pressure on the track. This causes the passage of the train to vibrate the stones, the ballast, lifting them and causing them to collide against the underside of the train or settle on the tracks and sleepers themselves. Furthermore, at more than 300 km/h, the possible bumps on the journey increase. Air traverses. That’s where a new sleeper design comes into play that the company itself Adif presented a few years ago. Instead of a flat crossbar, a traditional rectangle, the central part of it has a more rounded design. Adif affirms This modifies the velocity field on the ballast in the area between the sleepers, minimizing the presence of ballast particles, and the key points are: Reduces 21% of the aerodynamic load in the space immediately above the ballast bed. The design allows increasing the distance between the ballast level and the upper face of the sleeper. It has no higher manufacturing or handling costs (they are still molds). And most importantly: the aerodynamic load generated by a train at 330 km/h on a track with current sleepers is equivalent to that generated by the same train at 370 km/h, but with aero sleepers. AV350 Plan. In short, the aerocrossers improve the aerodynamic performance of the infrastructure and there is another important fact: their use allows an increase of 12% in the operating speed of the train. And it is not just theory, since Spain wants to start installing overhead traverses to improve the speed of the AVE. A few weeks ago, Óscar Puente, Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, advertisement that the Madrid-Barcelona line will be the first to have these overhead traverses. The result? Reach the maximum speed of the original design of the infrastructure, which is 350 km/h. Currently, the AVE reaches those 300 km/h due to the physical limitations mentioned above. This will allow us to go from the two hours and 37 minutes of the AVE that currently takes the least time to less than two hours. Puente highlighted that the design of the aerocrosses is pioneer in the world. The Polytechnic University of Madrid, Adif and SENER constituted a consortium to develop this technology and obtained the patent in March 2014, achieving international protection in Europe, Saudi Arabia and the United States. There are countries that have faced the ballast problem in other ways, Germany covering the ballast with concrete, for example. Arching an eyebrow. Increasing the speed of the train by changing the sleepers sounds great. The problem is that there are some aspects to consider. On the one hand, the cost-benefit debate not only because of what the investment will mean in changing all the sleepers, but also because of the maintenance of certain train materials that will suffer more than now. Driving at 350 km/h exponentially increases the wear of both the wheels and the catenary, regardless of whether the ballast causes no damage to the train, or causes less. On the other hand, not only the sleepers come into play, but also the own land. A bump at 300 km/h can be annoying, at 350 km/h it can be something more. Or two. And, beyond whether it is worth the investment to gain half an hour or what will happen with those possible technical problems, the big question is what happens with the rest of Spain. It is estimated that the Madrid-Barcelona section in which these air crossings begin to be applied will take about two years to complete. At a rate of 800 sleepers changed per day and 1,666 sleepers per kilometer, the work is of great magnitude. And it is clear that it is a congested route and that it is seeing a boom in the number of travelers, but while that line is reinforced, the connection with other parts of the peninsula remains neglectedlike the train to Soria, Teruel or the perennial case of Extremadura. Images | Xataka, Adif In Xataka | AVLO’s departure from Madrid-Barcelona seemed like another problem for Renfe. He has left us an unexpected winner

In 1970, the train to my town in Extremadura took 20 minutes longer than it does today. It’s a painful reminder about “high speed”

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For eight days, Cáceres and Badajoz have been linked by train. To be exact, they are united by a train typical of the 21st century and, more specifically, of 2025. Since last December 1the two largest cities in Extremadura are linked by a journey of just 50 minutes. A trip with four frequencies daily that makes the lives of thousands of Extremadurans easier. By the middle of next year, in 2026, the Government says that trains will finally be able to reach 300 km/h. If fulfilled, it will be a milestone for the region and a first step to make that Madrid-Lisbon a reality, of which been talking for more than 20 years. Europe seems to have gotten serious in that sense. The intention is to have a connection between capitals in 2030 and that four years later, the journey will only take a little more than 180 minutes. Three hours that now seem little more than a chimera. Especially if we take into account that the first promise to connect both cities dates back to 2003. So he was aiming for 2010 as a final date to have the high-speed connection ready. Today, from Madrid to Badajoz, the only section that operates at “high speed” is the one that separates Badajoz from Cáceres… and a little further, up to the Monfragüe station and its connection with Plasencia. The problem is that the Plasencia-Badajoz section is only one of the three sections that make up the connection between Madrid and the Portuguese border. Yes, it began to act as an electrified connection of iberian width in December 2023. Now, almost two years later, passengers can move between Cáceres and Badajoz in less than an hour. But traveling between Madrid and Badajoz still requires you to use almost five hours of travel. And it is not something that is going to change in the short term. Because it took us almost the same time to get to Extremadura as it did 50 years ago. 20 minutes Browsing the net and trying to understand how we have evolved, I came across the seventh number of the Renfe guide in which the schedules of all the trains available in Spain between December 1970 and March 1971 are collected. In addition to having a good time diving and finding some curiosities such as that the traveler had a Madrid-Paris available that only required worrying about the change in gauge at the border, I found something that caught my attention. Since I was a child, I move frequently between Madrid and Extremadura. Specifically, a town near the Monfragüe Natural Park, an enclave that is located a few kilometers from Plasencia. As long as I’ve had a car, I’ve always traveled in it, but when I didn’t have a driving license I used to opt for the bus. First because there were more frequencies available. Then because delays and breakdowns became part of normality. A shame because the train trip is much more comfortable than the bus and should be faster. Ought. Because while diving I found a detail that caught my attention. Trains leaving from Madrid and arriving in Extremadura in 1970. Click on the image to see more schedules There it was. Train leaving Madrid at 10:40. Arrival at Palazuelo-Empalme (current Monfragüe station) at 13:41 minutes. 181 minutes to cover the 253 kilometers of the journey. Today, luckily, Renfe offers a faster connection. Specifically, 20 minutes faster. As you can see in the following image, the trains between this Extremaduran station (the first electrified) and Madrid are still more than two and a half hours away to travel just over 250 kilometers. Let us remember that Madrid and Barcelona aspire to be united in less time. Or that in less than 10 years we should see a Madrid-Lisbon in less than three hours. The problem, as we said, is that the connection between Madrid and Extremadura is progressing at an extremely slow pace. The first step has been to electrify the Iberian gauge track between Badajoz and this Extremaduran stop. Now, in addition, it is double, which prevents a failure in one direction from immediately affecting the other and, at least, one of the two from continuing to function. The second and biggest problem is that the connection in its La Mancha section is especially slow. The line is divided as follows: Plasencia-Cáceres-Mérida-Badajoz section Talayuela-Plasencia section Madrid-Oropesa section At the moment, the section between Talayuela and Plasencia (on the Extremadura side) is in the construction phase but as indicated in Levantthe works are still in an initial phase. In fact, of the seven subsections into which it is divided, only two of them have been completed, as collected by Adif. Despite everything, the deadlines should not be extended much longer and the section should be active in 2028. But the most problematic thing is in Castilla-La Mancha. The Madrid-Oropesa section is still in the information project phase. In it, the biggest obstacle is the passage through Toledo. The intention of the Ministry of Transport and the city council is to bring the AVE as close as possible to the municipality, using the current station that is located just two kilometers away in a straight line from the urban area. This forces us to design a new viaduct to solve the passage through the Tagus… and there is the conflict. The Autonomous Community and platforms in defense of the city’s heritage believe that it damages its image and propose an alternative station in an industrial estate further away from the urban area, reducing the visual impact and discarding the need for the viaduct. They show in an exhaustive analysis in Geotrain how one day, if all goes well, in 2030 we will have a connection between Madrid and Badajoz in 151 minutes. That is, in two and a half hours. Until then, it will still be 10 minutes less than it currently takes to the station closest to my town, located long before reaching … Read more

Liberalization brought us the lowest prices in the history of high speed. Everything indicates that it is about to end

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A high-speed runner that is becoming more expensive and others that seem to have hit the ground. The arrival of competition to Renfe promised to reduce the price of train tickets. In fact, it reduced them. But the big question is knowing when they will rise again. Or, if necessary, how far they will end up going up. spring. It is the data that it collects the latest report published by the CNMC. It analyzes the price and occupancy of high-speed trains in our country. Specifically, the data refers to the months of April, May and June, which are the last recorded by Competition. It is an interesting study as it covers dates in which rail traffic increases, with passengers opting for this type of transport for their Easter holidays and first summer trips. The impact of both events is clear because despite offering 0.6% fewer seats, the number of travelers has increased by 4.4% compared to 2024. What do the data tell us? That we travel faster and faster. Because the previous data breaks down the high-speed markets open to competition and reflects that in the second quarter of 2025, a total of 11.8 million passengers boarded the high-speed long-distance train, 16.1% more than in the previous quarter and 15.2% more than in the same quarter last year. The data also tells us that clearly Spain moves at two speeds. One is represented by Madrid-Barcelona, ​​which increases its prices and remains the main corridor in the country. The other is the Andalusian or Valencian high speed, whose prices are already beginning to remain stable. The cheapest. The brokers who reduce their prices are, as we said, the Andalusians and Valencians. Traveling from Madrid to Seville was, on average, 8.6% cheaper than the previous year, boosted by the arrival of Ouigo as Iryo reduced its prices by 2%, AVE by 3.8% and AVLO raised prices by 3.4%. The average price of the trip was 49.47 euros. Below is the Madrid-Málaga corridor, which maintains a price about two euros cheaper but which barely changes its prices compared to the previous year (-1.2%). Again it is Ouigo who presses down. For their part, Madrid-Valencia and Madrid-Alicante have also significantly reduced their price compared to the previous year. In the first the decrease is estimated at 8.3% and in the second 8.7%. The (almost) cheapest. Although prices are lower In these corridors than in the same period of 2024, the truth is that the average ticket price has been lower. In all the previous cases, the average ticket price was lower in various months last year. In the graphs, in addition, a certain stagnation and slowdown in the fall is observed. It must be taken into account that, except for Madrid-Málaga, Renfe has considerably lowered the ticket price on its AVE. In the Sevillian corridor it has fallen by 3.8%, in the Valencian corridor by 10.6% and in the Alicante corridor by 11.6%. These falls, despite being partially offset by the increases in AVLO where the AVE falls, have a great impact on the average price of the ticket since a percentage drop in the AVE is more money than the same reduction in Ouigo, Iryo or AVLO, which are lower cost for the customer. That is, we have cheaper general prices, yes. But above all because Renfe seems to be pressuring customers to “jump” to the AVE, with an increase in the prices of AVLO and an evident drop in the price of its most expensive option. The most expensive. The corridor that has experienced the most increase in cost has been Madrid-Barcelona. Since competition entered, traveling between both cities has never been so expensive. At the beginning of 2024, the average price hit the bottom, standing at around 40 euros. On the same dates in 2025, that same bill was already looking at 50 euros. Between April and June, the average price reached 63.14 euros. All companies have made their tickets more expensive and no small feat. The cheapest average price was that of Ouigo, with 50.11 euros and despite this it became 18.7% more expensive. The second, that of AVLO (offer that no longer existswhich will continue to increase prices) with 51.95 euros and an increase of 14.5%. Between the two Renfe options is Iryo, with 56.01% and an increase of 22.5%. The AVE closes at the top with an average price of 73.91 euros and an increase of 13.1%. Have we hit the ground? It is the big question that arises now for the client. Although year-on-year prices have fallen, the truth is that we continue to see a slight increase in the overall price for the year or, at the very least, stagnation where the three companies operate at full capacity. Only the entry of Ouigo in Andalusia seems to have moved the market a little. But Iryo and Ouigo have been sending more or less clear messages that they are beginning to move away from the price war. Everything indicates that this was not sustainable to maintain these companies and both the italian as the french they seem to take new directions (with changes in address) now that its landing seems consolidated. “We will follow them”. Renfe, for its part, has been clearer. The company defends that the situation is not profitable for the companies and that sooner or later their competitors are going to raise prices. And the company does not seem to want to compete with them on price. Its president has already announced that if its rivals raise prices “we will follow them”anticipating a growth in the cost for the user that has already been seen in Madrid-Barcelona. Photo | Xataka In Xataka | Ouigo and Renfe have found a new way to make life impossible: torpedo repairs

High speed in Madrid is at risk of collapsing. And that’s why Adif wants to send her to Parla

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Parla has 134,833 inhabitants, 24.43 km² in area and one goal: to become the nerve center of high speed in the south of Madrid. The idea was presented yesterday by Óscar Puente, Minister of Transport, and is part of the profound renovation that the Government wants to carry out on the high-speed line between Madrid and Barcelona. The plans. Announced yesterday by Puente: a Madrid-Barcelona in less than two hours. That is the goal and the big headline. At the moment what we know is that two feasibility studies have been requested. They will study the possibility of introducing improvements in the infrastructure so that trains can reach 350 km/h top speed and both cities can join in less than 120 minutes. The investment should be reflected in “more services, less time, more users, more territorial structure and flexibility of exploitation, according to Puente’s own words. For this, the construction of two new stations will be key, which will also be the key to introducing two new variants at the entrance to both cities. Parla. It would become the reference for the municipalities in the south of Madrid. And the construction of a large caliber station in the southern zone would not only impact the more than 130,000 residents of the municipality. The key is in everything that is nearby: Getafe, Leganés, Fuenlabrada or Pinto. Alcorcón and Móstoles are further away but there are connections with Cercanías. From Transport they say that Parla has “an area of ​​influence of more than 1.26 million inhabitants and in which, within a range of 15 minutes, 4.7 million people would have access and in less than 1 hour, about 6 million potential users.” In these moments, and if no delays or breakdowns occurthe connection between the Parla and Atocha Cercanías stations is covered in 29 minutes. And it takes 33 minutes to get to Sol station, in the heart of Madrid. Decongest. It is the last objective of the new station. If built, the idea is to offer an alternative to intern services. That is, those who travel from Barcelona to Seville directly. These trains would need less time to travel the distance since they would travel fewer kilometers and could travel faster as they would not have to deal with speed reductions at the entrance to the city and passing through Atocha. Besides, Puente pointed out in his speech that with this new station the station can be used as an intermediate stop on the Madrid-Seville and Madrid-Levante services (its neighbors would not have to go to the center of the capital to return back having boarded the high-speed train) and it can serve as an alternative station in case of incidents. Right now, Transport assures, 250 trains circulate through Madrid or its surroundings. With this variant an alternative would be created to the high-speed route already existing between Madrid and Andalusia or Levante. In addition, it would improve the service for the increase in traffic expected with the improvements in the Extremadura corridor. Parla, you are not alone. Parla’s action, as we said, is not the only one that Transport plans to reduce the time between Madrid and Barcelona. With the same arguments, the idea is to create a new station near Barcelonaspecifically in El Prat de Llobregat. The idea is that this new station would allow the Madrid-Barcelona-French border high-speed train to connect with the Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat airport. Regional trains would also stop at this station through the corresponding adaptation of the lines. The other action in Catalonia involves linking the Lleida-Pirineus station with Barcelona with a new line that would enter the city through La Sagrera, north of Barcelona. In this way, trains would not necessarily have to pass through Camp de Tarragona, freeing up part of the traffic that already circulates there and, therefore, offering a new variant to Barcelona very similar to that of Parla in Madrid. Many trains, little investment. Although the study of these actions has raised some controversy when it is understood that other Spanish roads still need significant improvement to lighten travel times, the truth is that investment in Adif’s infrastructure has been requested for a long time. It must be taken into account that both alternatives in large cities, and especially south of Madrid, represent a good escape route to decentralize the network. The arrival of Ouigo and Iryo has exponentially increased the number of trains on the tracks but they face the problem of Adif has not invested enough money to absorb traffic. own Puente assured last August that “6 trains circulated per day on the Madrid-Seville line, in each direction. Today, 289 trains circulated at the Torrejón de Velasco point on the Madrid-Seville high-speed line (…) When there is an incident you have 25 trains in both directions within a radius of one hour.” Photo | Smiley.toerist and Google Maps In Xataka | A Spain literally at two speeds: while the Madrid-Barcelona AVE goes at 350 km/h, the rest of the network languishes

China’s biggest problem is not the US. It is a “virus” that advances at an unprecedented speed and threatens to empty its factories

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In September, and in front to a data offered by the United Nations that put the future of the Chinese economy in check, Beijing defended itself with an opportunity for the future: the AI. In between, it remained to be seen who was right. Because the main problem of the economy that pull the strings of the planet are pure mathematics applied to a near and most uncertain future. One that indicates that, sooner rather than later, its population will to plummet. Against oneself. The demographic crisis that shakes China today is, to a large extent, the result of a policy that worked too well: the birth control campaign begun in the seventies and crystallized in the policy of only child 1979. What began as a state intervention to contain population growth that was considered unsustainable ended up shaping behaviors, expectations, and family structures for generations. Sterilizations, fines and forced abortions not only birth numbers reducedbut they inhibited the cultural habit of mass reproduction, and when the State began to relax the rules (allowing two children in 2016 and three in 2021) the social response was no longer the same: the fertility rate fell from 1.77 children per woman in 2016 up to 1.12 in 2021and the timid incentive measures have barely reversed the curve. The real cost of breeding. Behind the numbers there are everyday decisions. The economic calculation of starting a family in China is, as in so many other places, considerable: studies estimate that raising a child from birth to the end of their college education can cost on average about $75,000and in cities like Shanghai that figure shoots up to approximately $140,000. These prices, together with long work daysmarket expensive housing and professional expectations, explain why many young people (especially women) they choose not to have children. Surveys and testimonials collected show that for many people motherhood today is equivalent to a professional and personal resignation that they are not willing to assume: “I don’t want to think about sacrificing my life,” summarizes an executive from Hangzhou in the Washington Postand that plea for time and personal autonomy is one of the reasons why symbolic subsidies from the government (for example, some 500 dollars a year for the first three years) are insufficient to reverse the trend. Without weddings and solutions. we have been counting. Demographic decline is accelerated by fall of marriage: in 2024 just 6.1 million of couples registered their union, compared to 13.5 million in 2013, a data that works as predictor of future births when the rate of births outside of marriage is marginal. The State not only offers economic incentives and university courses about “how to flirt”, but has returned to intrusive behavior: officials pressure newlyweds about your plans of pregnancy and control the conversation public about marriage in the media. It is a gesture of urgency that clashes with the autonomy of generation Z, increasingly individualisticfor which getting married and procreating are no longer social mandates but options (among many). That tension between pronatalist policy and cultural change explains why coercive measures of the past do not seem to translate into higher births today. Accelerated aging. While fewer Chinese are born, the older population continues to grow: Life expectancy rises and the population pyramid inverts, which poses a brutal rebalancing in public accounts. Projections indicate that in the coming decades the proportion of elderly will doublewith colossal pressure on pensions, healthcare and long-term care financed by an increasingly narrow contributor base. Demographers warn that this phenomenon can trigger a vicious circle: more resources allocated to the elderly imply less public support for young families, which further reduces fertility. By 2100, according to calculations by international organizations, there will be more people out of working life than within it, a scenario with economic and political implications of systemic scope. The factory of the world shrinks. The problem is not only quantitative but qualitative: the workforce that made China the factory of the planet (born between 1960 and 1980, with a disposition for industrial jobs) has no substitute culture in later generations that they avoid factory work. At the same time, the proportion of Chinese manufacturing in the world total (today located around 30%) will necessarily be reduced if demographics exhaust the labor supply. The official short-term answer is automationbetting on robots and investment in productivity, but substitution does not work the same in all sectors: services, care and certain labor-intensive branches will continue to demand humans. The consequence is that manufacturing companies already they detect competitive pressure in prices and labor costs, and some observers point out that the industrial replacement could move to India, Southeast Asia, Mexico or Eastern Europe, with a multiplier effect on global supply chains. Politics and resistance to foreigners. They remembered in the post that a lever that in other countries would alleviate the labor force deficit (immigration) crashes in China with taboos of cultural homogeneity and political considerations that make the adoption of broad immigration policies difficult. That forces the government’s options and forces it to rely on internal incentives and in robotization. The strain between the economic need for labor and the preference to maintain cultural cohesion places Beijing in a strategic dilemma: either it embraces broader migrations (with all the integration challenges that this would imply) or it accelerates productive reconversion and the displacement of sectors that depend less on the labor factor. State measures. Faced with the abyss, Beijing has been introducing measures: relaxation of family policysubsidies, public campaigns for promote marriage and birth rate, and tax programs limited. But the experts they underline that late policies rarely reorder behaviors already fixed for decades. Louise Loo and other economists they estimate that reducing the workforce could take away about 0.5 points percentages to annual GDP growth in the next decade, a bite significant for an economy that needs to grow to absorb debts and finance its modernization. The challenge is that demographics act over long periods of time: cohorts born today … Read more

In 1896 a man decided to lead to the reckless speed of 13 km/h. And received the first fine in history

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Speed ​​fines in Spain vary from 100 at 600 euros. The table in which the economic amount is collected also serves if the driver will also be punished with the subtraction of driving card points. In the best case, the sanction It does not entail the subtraction of points, while in the worst you can detract a maximum of six. All this information can be consulted in your own DGT website or in the Traffic LawMotor vehicles and road safety. And it is useful, according to data from Associated European motoriststwo out of three fines that are imposed in Spain are motivated by speeding. But although speeding fines look like something modern, what is necessary to invest most sophisticated media To register the infraction and judicially demonstrate the breakdown of the norms, its history begins before The first car in Spain will enroll. The first fine of history for speeding Fines for committing some kind of Flying infraction They have a lot of history. Some suggest that the first punishment related to a traffic infraction was recorded in Egypt more than 2,800 years ago, after a drunk driver run over a girl and collided with a statue. However, the basis of this information is, at least, doubtful. But what is a general consensus is in the registration of the first penalty for speeding. In fact, those responsible for Guinness Record They make it record as the early infraction of this type. And they put date: January 28, 1896. The fine also has a name, surname and place of origin. Specifically, the offender was Walter Arnold who in the United Kingdom, and fully aware of what was played, promoted one of the first cars built by Karl Benz until the devilish speed of 13 km/h. Arnold exceeded the streets of Paddock Wood at full speed, in Kent Count “Horses without horses”. Arnold had broken four rules in a single moment: Drive a car without horses along a public street Drive a car without horses without the intervention of three people Do not show the name and direction of the vehicle Quadruplica the maximum permitted speed Yes, according to the fine, Arnold was traveling at a speed of 8 mph (about 13 km/h) when the maximum allowed limit was 2 mph. Of the means to calculate this speed, nothing is said. What we do know is that the result was immediate. Put before Justice, Arnold was convicted of each and every one of the accusations that were awarded. What Arnold had in mind is that the payment of 4.7 pounds were just an investment. With his stumbling he showed that the speed limits were completely outdated for those Combustion vehicles And, therefore, shortly after the speed limit was extended to reasonable 14 mph (just over 22 km/h). But this was not here. Arnold, in addition, was known for its handling of vehicles. He got the license to sell in the United Kingdom the vehicles of Karl Benz slightly modified with a local production under the name of Arnold Motor Carriage. A car with which he managed to win in the first race of emancipation in it was linked to London with Brighton (separated by 87 kilometers) and served to multiply car sales. The first fine was, in short, a marketing trick. In Xataka | The Mercedes T80, the car mounted on the engine of a hunt with which Hitler wanted to reach 750 km/h Photo | Clare Black and Knowledge of London

‘Operation Triunfo’ is the prime video tool to grow at full speed. The key is in Latin America

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Although the audience figures did not seem clear until Operation Triunfo 2023 concluded, the program He ended up throwing a very positive balancebecoming the most watched national premiere in the history of prime video in Spain. Therefore, the platform has decided to bet strongly on this new stage, seeking to maximize its scope, and devote itself especially as a cultural reference for generation Z and decisively reaching various Latin American countries. Some figures. Among the things that Prime Video has told is that it reached 3.5 million unique viewers during its 14 weeks of broadcast. A triumph that extended, as Amazon will certainly interest, Beyond the mere audience Of the platform: in its 14 weeks of broadcast, Amazon registered one million visits to the OT thematic store, 720,000 interactions with Alexa and 66 million votes through the app. They are additional business routes that corroborate why OT is so important for the digital store economy. Audience involved. The great triumph of the program (worth the redundancy) has been to earn to very involved spectators with the format: 8.6 million weekly votes and 1.6 million records in the app (the previous record was at 820,000) that add up to those mentioned 66 million; 5,000 million global visualizations and 80,000 publications in Tiktok; a peak of 180,000 users connected simultaneously on YouTube; And more than 27,000 attendees in disc firms, so that everything is not virtual. And in addition, of course, hashtags about the program after in the list of Twitter trends every Monday, on many occasions monopolizing the first ten positions and making the edition of constant conversation during its 14 weeks. For all of Latin America. ‘OT 2025 ‘premieres on September 15 at 10:00 p.m. in Spain with simultaneous live transmission for the first time in its history for six Latin American countries: Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Peru. It is a Amazon response to the growing demand of the fans of the program and, above all, wants to take ‘OT’ beyond Spain, and that Prime Video impacts more globally. Undoubtedly, an ambitious intention but that if it is possible to give an extraordinary dissemination to the program. To increase this impact will bet on social networkswith 15 weekly minutes with which the contestants to generate content in a “Tiktok Corner” within the Academy, with live reactions on Fridays on social networks at 15. Again, as happened last year, social networks will form a primary part of the Amazon strategy. There will also be new weekly programs: ‘OT connection (Tuesday to Saturday at 8:00 p.m.) and’ Face B ‘(Sunday, also at eight in the afternoon). Technological investment To provide viewers A program at the heightAmazon has put on their feet the greatest scenario in the history of Prime Video, with 358 m² of LED screens, 10 cameras, including the Spderm, and more than 750 lighting devices. It is a considerable technological leap and as Amazon has revealed to the press, it is only the spearhead of a very ambitious project, where everything is integrated more organically than in previous stages. For example, the study where ‘connection ot’ is recorded just below the academy, so that there is immediate access to teachers and contestants. And there will be no post -grooves or videosumeros: everything will be part of the gala. Youth is sought. Therefore, expand borders, more programs and support determined to the possibilities of social networks. All with a very clear intention: to appeal to the interests of generation Z, which is able to make a fan phenomenon germinate that is the one that really gives life to this type of programs. In search of the youngest generations of spectators to get the format, which is already 24 years old, it remains fresh. Header | Amazon In Xataka | How Prime Video Use Chenoa and ‘Operation Triunfo’ to destroy the tired audiences of traditional TV

There is only a great beneficiary at Ryanair’s departure from regional airports. One called “High Speed ​​Train”

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Ryanair threatened and fulfilled. As he turned a few months ago. The company confirmed yesterday, September 3, which removes more than one million places from regional airports. In total, its activity will be reduced by 41 % in this type of aerodromes and 10 % of its activity in the Canary Islands will also be affected. The movement has unleashed an wave of indignation among Spanish institutions that qualify the exit as blackmail or extortion. The company, meanwhile, defends itself by ensuring that the increase in Aena’s rates are incompatible with its operations in this type of airports. But what the movement leaves us is the confirmation that regional airports are less and less competitive. A good part of them have based their operations on a huge dependence on the company. And the Good train health It is making operating in them, more and more complicated. A good example is that the company will increase its operations in larger airports. The controversy As we explained yesterday, with its latest Ryanair movement it will reduce 400,000 places in the Canary Islands in winter, being the autonomous community most punished by volume. In total, 36 connections are canceled. It remains to be seen if the flights to the Canary Islands are held by other companies. A good example is the Binter expansion that in recent times it has begun to increase its routes in the connections between peninsular Spain and the islands. In addition, Ryanair has announced the closure of Santiago de Compostela and the suspension of all flights to Vigo as of January 1, 2026. It maintains the closure at the airports of Valladolid and Jerez de la Frontera. And will reduce its operations in Zaragoza (-45 %), Santander (-38 %), Asturias (-16 %) and Vitoria (-2 %). The company attacks Aena and the Government, to whom it accuses of “failing to the Spanish regions, whose airports are almost 70 % empty.” For its part, the airport manager attacks that “the communication and institutional relations policy of Ryanair is guided by Phariseism, bad education and blackmail”, while trying to “falsify reality.” All these words pick them up eldiario.es from the mouth of Maurici Lucena, president and CEO of Aena. The excuse Ryanair has used to abandon or reduce its operations at these airports is at the rise of Aena rates. Those rates are the ones guarantee basic services of airports such as cleaning or safety, to put only some examples. At the moment, there are substantial discounts than in airports with the lowest volume of passengers make them insignificant. On the contrary, where it is paid the most is in the airports of greater volume. That rate has been frozen in recent years but will rise if the CNMC approves it. From the beginning, the company’s opposition has been found. They defend that in countries such as Italy, Morocco or Croatia have been lowered to attract tourism and that, with these increases, “Spain is closing” to the same. A statement that The data denies. According to Aena, The increase is just 68 euro cents By passenger but they put the company that their rates have increased by 21% in the last year. But this is just the surface. Spain is not the only country in which Ryanair has reduced operations. The Irish have also retired more than 700,000 places from the French regional airports. And it is also not accidental that their operations to Morocco travel almost empty. For a long time, the company has exploited institutional advertising to maintain open paths that would not be profitable without these substantial pluses. In fact, that Ryanair trip to Daklha is only explained since The interest that Morocco has in exploiting that areanear the Sahara, as a holiday destination. Ryanair as a symptom And the train as a disease that hurts regional airports. To all of the above we must add the loss in competitiveness of many of the airports of which Ryanair leaves. The company has closed operations in Santiago and reduces its connections in Vigo. Casually there are two cities to which The arrival of high speed is especially affecting. Until not so long ago, the only way to travel quickly between Madrid and Galicia was by plane. Now, the High speed It allows you to reach the center of the capital more or less the same time as you travel by plane. And without the discomforts of this means of transport. In Asturiashigh speed is not yet working in full performance but the opening of new sections (and others on the horizon)place the region in a position where the train, again, will compete with the plane for faster connections. It will remain faster to travel by plane but its connection with Madrid is already competitive by train. What to say about Zaragoza where in recent years Renfe has joined Ouigo and Iroyo. The corridor maintains a hard competition And although the tickets are not the cheapest on the market, the volume of trains is very high and the latest connections already allow Zaragoza to be linked with Galicia in four hours (making transford in Madrid). In addition, the possibilities to get to Seville or Malaga are multiple with the aforementioned Renfe rivals. Eliminate air connections with the main Spanish cities should result in greater use of this means of transport. And from Aena they are clear that reality is “more prosaic.” “Ryanair moves her planes to airports where can set higher prices In their plane tickets and earn more money, such as Great Spanish airports“, despite being” substantially higher, “they insisted on words collected by RTVE. In Santander, where connections with Madrid are not so advanced, four international destinations have been withdrawn (Rome, Milan, Vienna and Paris) but the flights to Valencia and Malaga are maintained. In Santiago, however, connections with other Spanish cities die. And in Vigo he retires from the line he had with London. Casually when the contract ends Between the City Council and the company … Read more

Spain has been a world reference in high speed. And the doubt is whether we are dying of success

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Saturation. That is, according to the Government, the reason why Spanish high speed does not stop accumulating delays and breakdowns. At least, that’s what is suggested. The increase in frequencies, new competitors and the same ways. Those are, for the government, the reason why Spanish trains have been forgetting a year. 289 trains. In the 90s, “6 trains a day, by direction, today through the Torrejón de Velasco point of the Madrid-Sevilla high speed, 289 trains circulated.” With these words Óscar Puente, Minister of Transportationof those who point out that in the 90s there were no problems of delays that today exist in the high railway speed of our country. “If there was an incidence in the infrastructure or the train, the impact was minimal. The time it took another to pass allowed to solve the problem. Today when there is an incidence you have 25 trains in both ways in a radius of one hour. Therefore the effects are greater. The controversy. The bridge response tweet comes to an interpellation in which a user indicated that In the 90s you could take a train without fear of delays. The answer also coincides with a new fault in the high -speed line of the Andalusian corridor where 261 passengers had to be evicted from a train because a car caught fire Last Saturday, August 30. This caused delays throughout the afternoon. However, the fire was not the only cause of delays. That same morninga breakdown in the infrastructure was also causing delays in the trains because it was showing a false obstacle sign on the road. Although before restoring the service it was already known that this obstacle did not exist, the machinists had to stop to comply with the protocol. A summer to forget in Andalusia. The events of September 30 have been the last of this summer but, much less, the only ones. In early July, A train was stopped 13 hours On the roads and their passengers they did not receive assistance from emergency services throughout the night. Days later, another problem with A catenary in Toledo It caused significant delays in the same high -speed line. He even had to stop passing through one of the tunnels of the Malaga line by leaks in one of the facilitieswhat had caused detachments. And Adif? The first of those incidents It seemed to come from an ouigo train which was disconnected from some security systems. This caused the chain stop of four other trains that circulated in the same area. One of those operated by Renfe, overloaded by the stop, ended up suffering a small fire of his systems, being completely arrested. The problem affected More than 16,000 passengers and From Adif they pointed to the French company as the cause of the problem. Ouigo, meanwhile, returned the accusation saying that Adif did not maintain the facilities correctly. A few days later (and after the adif notice that the critical points of the infrastructure was going to review) that Second problem in La Sagra (Toledo) who stopped the trains again. More traffic volume … The truth is that the volume of traffic in the high Spanish speed has shot in recent years. To give only one example, the day of the fault that left a train for 13 hours 30 trains between Madrid and Andalusia had to circulate. Yes it is true that 30 years ago, that volume of traffic was unthinkable. To the traffic of Renfe we ​​must add the entrance of Ouigo and Iryo into the Spanish railways which, without a doubt, has stressed the tracks. If there are more trains, there are more possibilities of suffering a delay but there are also more possibilities that such delay affects a greater number of trains. To get an idea, in 1992 (with the inauguration of the first high -speed line) 1.3 million passengers traveled between Madrid and Seville. In 2024, that figure was 5 million passengers. Another 5 million passengers were recorded in the corridor to Malaga. And throughout Spain almost 40 million passengers moved in this type of trains, According to CNMC data. … but an insufficient investment. In ELECONOMIST They point out that Adif’s investment in infrastructure is greater than ever. In 2025 just over 681 million euros will be allocated while in 2015 it was 465.5 million euros. However, they point out that taking into account their heritage, Adifs spends 16% less than a decade ago. Keep in mind that in that decade, in addition, the Spanish railways have gone from some 31 million passengers To touch the 40 million and the number of trains has multiplied with the entrance of Ouigo and Iroyo. Everything indicates that the investment in the facilities is insufficient and, above all, it is late if we take into account the increase in the number of travelers. In 2021 investments were guaranteed until 2025 worth 21,000 million euros in Adif But this game It is not dedicated entirely to maintenance of the tracks. That is, it seems that “emergency” maintenance is being carried out in too stressed lines for the expense that had been made in them. Photo | Tim Adams In Xataka | He vibrated so much that “the Water of the Váter came out.” Renfe has a problem in Catalonia and the AVE of Lleida is only the last example

give up the high cheap speed to Ouigo and Iro

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High speed Renfe output Low Cost In Madrid-Barcelona it is the chronicle of an announced death. The company was not obtaining bad results in the corridor with the AVE but the problems with the Avril trains have removed it from the race for the price. The company renounces high speed Low Cost In this corridor. This is all that has happened. Goodbye to Madrid-Barcelona Cheap. It will be from September 8 but the decision is taken, as confirmed by The country. Renfe Saca Avlo, its high price of low price, of the corridor that moves more traffic in Spain. It is a decision that backed by the failure of their Avril trains, which had to be removed a few weeks ago in this line. The company will relocate in birds to those who buy an avlo ticket for the dates after September 7, so they will get a small Upgrade without doing any disbursement. What happened? At the end of July, Renfe paralyzed the sale of tickets of the Avlo trains in Madrid-Barcelona. The decision, which seemed surprising, soon shows its true face: the Avril trains that provided this service had suffered damage during a trip. The information was revealed by The economistwho assured that cracks had been detected in the trains. Then a pull and loosen between the media and renfe. The company began denying what happened, speaking of reorganization. Time later he confirmed that trains had suffered damage and that would circulate at a lower speed. Subsequently, Some leaked photos They demonstrated the seriousness of the damage. Finally, Renfe withdrew the Avril from the line. Because? The causes that have caused the damage to the Avril trains built by Talgo are about to be revealed. In fact, a strip and loosen between both companies have already begun to settle who takes care of the damage. Trains are under guarantee Because they delivered just over a year ago. The Avril trains were sold as a milestone of the engineering of the Spanish trains. Ra take high speed to Galicia. The latter too suffered problems with the change of year and also accumulated delays in their first days In Galicia and Asturias. But, in addition, the Avril trains have also been criticized for their Low quality in interior materials or by the Strong shakes that occur when they are in motion, far from the best European high -speed trains. In the hands of Ouigo and Iro. With the departure of the Avlo, Renfe renounces the high cheap speed. Or, at least, to a good part of it because the company ensures that it will continue to offer “Competitive prices”. However, it is difficult to think that the latter is not a specific strategy, taking into account that the Avlo seat cost an average of 37 euros, for the more than 61 euros on average of the bird, According to CNMC data. In addition, the impact of Avlo was not less on the line. It is true that Renfe had a market share of 60.1% between Madrid and Barcelona in 2024 but 12.2% of the total market share was borrowed by Avlo. That is, most passengers already moved in AVE but the Avril trains allowed them to compete in a market that will now be more complicated, with trains with less available places. The second company that has been taking over Madrid-Barcelona is Iro, which accumulated 23.7% last year, while Ouigo stayed at 16.2%. Renfe, in addition, had managed to remove customers from Ouigo because both Avlo and Iryo grew two percentage points compared to 2023. A clear bias. However, Madrid-Barcelona is a corridor marked by high prices. As we have seen, most of the travelers continue to opt for the bird despite the fact that their tickets are, on average 25 euros more expensive than those of Ouigo, always According to CNMC data. Avlo, in fact, offered cheaper tickets than those of Iro (37.8 euros compared to the 40.3 euros of the Italians). This issue had caused Ouigo itself, which offered the cheapest tickets and yet had the slightest market share, would opt for some time to remove some of its trains and boost the Andalusian corridor, more price sensitive. Now he has a new open door to insist again on the high speed Madrid-Barcelona. Photo | Phil Richards In Xataka | Renfe has joined the “Slow Luxury” with a luxury alternative to visit Andalusia: Al-Andalus with tickets at 14,000 euros

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