The Madrid–León high-speed rail line was inaugurated on 29 September 2015. The line is built to standard gauge and gauge changers are provided at strategic points to allow interchange with older Spanish railways which were built to Iberian gauge.
History
The line was inaugurated in two stages. Its first 179.6 km section Madrid - Segovia - Valladolid opened for commercial service on 23 December 2007 and is the first instalment of a high-speed rail corridor in the north and northwest of Spain. AVE services reduced journey times between Madrid and Valladolid from 2½ hours to 56 minutes at an average speed of. The second 162.7 km section Valladolid-Venta de Baños-León opened on 29 September 2015 and was built at a cost of €1,62bn for operation at up to 350 km/h. Since then the journey time between Madrid and León was cut by 44 min to 2 h 6 min on AVE trains.
Plan for 2015-2020
According to this, the line will be extended to reach the region of Asturias and will connect the cities of Oviedo and Gijón to the high-speed network via the Pajares Base Tunnel. The line will be connected with the following other HSR lines:
HSR Valladolid - Burgos - Vitoria, and this in turn to the future HSR Logroño-Miranda de Ebro and the HSR Basque Y.
Other high-speed lines departing from Madrid, with the future construction of a third tunnel with standard gauge tracks between Chamartin and Atocha stations.
Features
This line is constructed for trains running at up to. ERTMStype II signaling and ASFA digital diversion clearance of and a reduction of over compared to the general layout of the Northern or Imperial Line, due to the tunnels of San Pedro and Guadarrama through Sierra de Guadarrama, 9 and 28 km respectively. In the section between Valladolid and León the route comprises 78,7 km of double track and two single-track sections totalling 84 km. Gauge changers are installed at Chamartin Valdestillas, Valladolid, León and Villamuriel south of Palencia and this has reduced travel times on all routes between Madrid and Spain's north-northwest.
PAET = Puesto de Adelantamiento y Estacionamiento de Trenes
Special projects
Guadarrama Tunnel
Tunnels of San Pedro
Arroyo Valley Viaduct
Tabladillo tunnel
Puentecilla Tunnel
Tunel del Pinar de Antequera
Reduced travel times
trains were replaced by Alvia trains and these operate on both the high-speed line and the older lines. These trains pass through the gauge changers at Valladolid and Valdestillas or to join the General Line North from this high speed line and back by reducing their travel time by reducing the distance and increasing the commercial speed in the stretch Madrid–Valladolid. The Talgo Madrid-Galicia was diverted later by LAV circulating until Valdestillas changer, which reverses the direction of travel and change of locomotive. In this case the time reduction has been lower, only 15-20 min, while in the Galicia-Madrid train has been an advantage to using the best line to be able to recover the backlog.
Services that use these lines
AVE Chamartin Madrid–Segovia–Valladolid, Campo Grande–Palencia–Léon at 2:13 S-102
AVE Chamartin Madrid–Valladolid, Campo Grande–Palencia–Léon at 2:06 S-102
Jovellanos Gijón S130-wide change in Valladolid / Valdestillas
*1 train per day each direction continues its journey to Alicante
Talgo Madrid-Chamartin La Coruna Segovia Guiomar
Medina del Campo
Zamora
Puebla de Sanabria
The Gudiña
Orense-Joint
Carballiño
Santiago de Compostela Talgo VI gauge change in Valdestillas
Talgo Madrid-Chamartin Pontevedra
Guillarei
Redondela
Vigo Talgo VI circulates together with the branch of La Coruna to Orense
*gauge change in Valdestillas
Speed
The maximum permissible speed in line with ERTMS II in service are shown below. Note that trains are permitted to move at a maximum of over of the line.
