The AVE on Saturday at noon has nothing to do with that of any working day first thing in the morning, where rush prevails and there is a laptop spread out on each bedside table. The list of particularities is very diverse: three women who have left their husbands at home and their carnival children and escape for the weekend, a young couple who are on their way to a surprise party to celebrate that a friend has approved the oppositions… and many, many families.
“Before, when we went to Madrid, we did it by car, buying four tickets was very expensive…, but now? Very cheap!” exclaimed a father accompanied by three children, the youngest eight years old and the oldest 14 years old. “Not to mention the plane -he adds-, what the taxi costs us to El Prat is the same as a return ticket on this train”. He gets on a Renfe AVE but identical stories can be found on board an Ouigo (which has made low prices its main factor) and Iryo, which started positioning itself as a product more comparable to the airlift but has ended up entering the same in the price war and that democratization of high speed.
It is the price reduction and not the competition per se that has led many to try high speed for the first time, even though they have been connecting Barcelona and Madrid every day for fifteen years. This is the case of the Requena González family. Daniela and Ainara behaved so well last year that the Three Wise Men left at home the tickets to go to Madrid by train and the tickets to see the musical El Rey León at the Lope de Vega theater on Gran Via. They are not the only ones who have the same fate in the capital. On Sunday afternoons it is common to see how the occasional Simba and Timon stuffed animals get on the train without a ticket.
“It is much more restful than going by car, in addition, parking in Madrid is very complicated and, most importantly, it is the cheapest option…”, explains Juan Carlos. “And if the King and Queen decided it, it will be because it is the best option!” exclaims Mari Ángeles with complicity while little Ainara observes all the details of the Sants platforms and teenager Daniela is already looking for her seat in the carriage. Two and a half hours later, they will be in Madrid.
Although he is well aware of how much the passage of these fast trains has changed, driver Manel Barot, who takes the controls of that same AVE to Madrid, continues to experience the same sensations as he did fifteen years ago in the train cabin. “Going 300 km/h is spectacular, you feel like you’re on an incredible machine,” he admits. “They are sensational units -he adds-, especially the Siemens series 103, which after so long is still among the best in Europe”.
On the opening day of the Madrid-Barcelona AVE, on February 20, 2008, Manel had not yet finished his training. He was missing very little. “Before, he had run Euromed -he recalls-, so he had experience in trains of this style, although there were many differences”. That March he began to make the long-awaited route between the two great cities. “It was a milestone –he stresses–, it had been expected for a long time; We felt that we were participating in something very important.”
Technology is the order of the day in the corridor. And, of course, the trains are the most visible part. For travelers, due to its very high speed and how short the trip is. When they go along highways, seeing that the cars are left far behind continues to surprise many, who also comfortably enjoy the views, read, watch a movie, work with their computers or rest.
This high-speed line is the scene of a certain amount of competition. “European high speed has not incorporated many innovations in the last twenty years,” points out train driver Manel Barot, “while in Asia, it has done so with trains that reach 500 km/ h, but we still have very good material.” The range is wide. The French Ouigo operates with its veterans TGV Duplex from the also French Alstom. Iryo goes with the very modern Frecciarossa (red arrow) manufactured between Italy and Spain by the Japanese Hitachi Rail and Bombardier (now Alstom). Renfe, for its part, plans to incorporate the brand new Talgo Avril, its 106 series, this year. They will join their already mentioned Siemens of the 103 series and the Alstom of the 100 and the Talgo of the 102 and 112.
