On December 20th, the first AVE train between Madrid and Murcia left from Chamartin station in the capital of Spain, and arrived at Murcia del Carmen, after a journey of two hours and 45 minutes. The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, who took part in the inauguration, announced the extension of the free travel card, from January 1st, 2023, to users of the new Avant medium-distance rail services between Murcia and Alicante.
From Chamartín station, the new high-speed line will have two frequencies and will make an intermediate stop in the Alicante municipalities of Elche and Orihuela. There will be two other daily trains departing from Puerta de Atocha, which will also stop in Alicante, Villena, Albacete and Cuenca, so the travel time will increase to three hours and 25 minutes. According to Euronews, tickets from Murcia to Madrid are available for as low as €19 but go as high as €90, depending on how early they are booked.
The Madrid-Elche-Orihuela AVE line came into service on February 1st, 2021 and on December 20th the extension to the capital of Murcia was inaugurated. The Beniel-Murcia section has been opened, which has had an investment of more than 410 million euros and the most advanced signaling technology. In this way, the Government has completed the high-speed corridor to the Levante.
Today we are putting an end to an unjustly prolonged railway isolation and we are settling a historical debt with Murcia
Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s Prime Minister
Sánchez has indicated that the implementation of this line represents “the value of useful policy, which sews territories, to continue contributing to Spain’s progress”, and has reinforced the commitment of the Executive to bring the high speed to all of Spain.
On the other hand, the President of the Executive announced the extension of the free pass, from January 1st, 2023, to regular users of the new Avant medium-distance rail services between Murcia and Alicante. “The free travel card represents a paradigm shift in mobility and, at the same time, protects the social majority in a context of uncertainty,” he said.
After 20 years, the train is finally connecting Madrid with Murcia with a daily offer of 2,824 seats and a travel time of two hours and 45 minutes. The Beniel and Murcia section is 16 kilometers long, with an investment of more than 410 million euros and which completes the Monforte del Cid-Murcia line with a budget of almost 1,500 million euros.
With trains that can reach a maximum speed of 300 kilometers per hour, there will be eight daily frequencies, and half of them, the shorter ones, will connect Madrid’s Chamartín-Clara Campoamor station with Murcia, with stops in Elche and Alicante. For the rest, the Madrid station is Puerta de Atocha and there are also stops in Alicante, Villena, Albacete and Cuenca, so the travel time increases to three hours and 25 minutes.
The Spanish state-owned railway infrastructure manager Adif informs that the section inaugurated has the ERTMS level 2 train command and control system, the most advanced in the world, and passes through the Reguerón, an important railway junction where the Murcia, Alicante and Cartagena lines converge and where the coexistence of conventional and high-speed train traffic has been guaranteed through the installation of mixed or three-wire track.
The singular elements of this new section include two viaducts, La Basca (181 meters) and Tierra Roya (137 meters), and a 323-meter pergola over the Reguerón junction. The arrival of the high-speed line to Murcia is channeled through a tunnel that has been in service since March of last year for conventional traffic and with a stop at a provisional station built next to the current Carmen station.
The line gives a boost to the progress of the Mediterranean Corridor, for which 254 kilometers have been put into service in the last four years, actions have been tendered for more than 4,400 million euros and almost 2,000 million have been executed. Murcia thus joins this corridor, gives continuity to the south with the high-speed line to Almería (which is under development and will link both cities with an investment of 3,300 million euros) and connects with Cartagena.
The national passenger railway company of Spain, Renfe, reports that it sold 10,600 tickets in the first 20 hours for the new AVE Madrid-Murcia. The first tickets obtained by customers are for travel between December 20, the first day of service, and January 30, according to company sources in a statement.
Other train developments in the region include Paris and Madrid, which are set to be linked with a new high speed train connection by the end of 2024, according to an announcement made last week by Italian train company FS Italiane. The trains will be run by its subsidiary Trenitalia.
The new service between Paris and Barcelona effectively will provide a fast connection all the way from Paris to Madrid, thanks to Trenitalia’s high speed line already operating between Zaragoza, Barcelona and Madrid.
Trenitalia plans to use Frecciarossa or ‘red arrow’ trains, which are already in service beyond the Iberian Peninsula, between Paris, Lyon, Turin and Milan. Reaching speeds of up to 400 kilometres an hour (249 mph), the trains are highly popular. In a September survey, customer ratings were enviable, with 98% of passengers satisfied and 96% recommending the service.
In good news for passengers’ diaries and wallets, it is estimated journey times could be reduced to seven hours or less, with advance one-way tickets at 29 euros. According to Trainline data showcased by FS Italiane, the company records average prices lower than their competition and has driven down ticket costs by 8% since their arrival on the French marketplace.
