Key points

• A railway system that once lagged far behind the rest of Europe ;
• A commitment to completely overhaul rail travel in Spain ;
• A registered trademark of the operator Renfe, including abroad

On this page

• 2012 – Birth of the company ;

Summary

The spanish government launched in the 80s, a program to modernize this railways. The country, by his national operator Renfe, introduced the AVE brand in 1992 for the first high‑speed services on the Madrid–Seville line, built entirely in standard gauge to connect with Europe.

In the absence of any alternative, and drawing on France’s experience, it was selected as rolling stock 24 high‑speed trains (S-100) from Alstom, similat to TGV-Atlantique trainsets. Initially, all AVE trains were S-100, but from 1993 other services such as Talgo_200 began using the high‑speed network. Expansion accelerated from the late 1990s, especially toward northeastern Spain to link with France. Between 2003 and 2006, Bombardier and Talgo produced the S102 series, renowned for its duckbill-style design. In the middle of years 200-2010, it was choose Siemens and its ICE 3 to form the fleet S-103 in Renfe.

After the 2005 split between Renfe_Operadora and Adif, the network continued to grow. International services to France began in 2013, and market liberalization in the 2020s introduced competitors like Ouigo (2021) and Iryo (2022). AVE is now a registered trademark.