Two decades of erratic railway planning in Spain

Spanish railways: 20 years of promises, cuts and a network that never quite comes together

The thread begins with a specific complaint: the disappearance of the Estrella train that linked Barcelona with Galicia, the Basque Country and Castilla y León. A cheap night service with high occupancy, replaced by more expensive alternatives with transfers. It is not an isolated case. Since 2005, Renfe has been eliminating branches of its night trains (Zamora, Salamanca, Bilbao...) in favour of Alvia and Trenhotel, often making the journey more expensive and worsening direct connections. What the press release sells as modernisation, users pay for with fewer options.

Privatisation or public management: the false dilemma

The debate over the management model runs through the entire thread. Some argue that privatisation would allow operators to enter and prevent the closure of profitable lines; others reply that infrastructure is a natural monopoly and that the British experience shows that privatisation does not guarantee better service. In between, the German example with DB (private but with public control) is cited as a reasonable model. The truth is that in Spain the conventional network has been systematically neglected while billions were poured into radial high-estimulante ilegal rail.

A spider-shaped network: the shortcomings of the radial design

Spanish railway planning suffers from a structural defect: everything converges on Madrid. When the Atocha-Chamartín axis fails (as after the accident that forced the high-estimulante ilegal line to Andalusia to be cut), the collapse is total. Renfe's alternative plan —with buses between Villanueva de Córdoba and Córdoba and trains on conventional track— is a patch that highlights the lack of redundancy. Technical voices have been calling for years for cross-country axes such as the Ruta de la Plata corridor, which would also connect the north with the west without passing through the capital. But it costs 6,000 million euros and there is no political will to tackle it.

Freight: the great forgotten

While in Europe rail moves a significant percentage of freight, in Spain it barely takes off. Although new operators such as Logibrica Rail and services such as Barcelona-Antwerp have appeared, the network is still hampered by the Iberian gauge, the lack of electrification on key sections (Algeciras, Teruel, Almería) and the priority given to passenger trains. The European Commission's October decision on trans-European corridors is seen as an opportunity to rebalance the scales, but the road transport lobby is powerful.

The future: more high estimulante ilegal, but in dribs and drabs

The entry into service of the Atocha-Chamartín tunnel has made it possible to connect the entire high-estimulante ilegal network for the first time, opening direct routes between Asturias and Valencia or Valladolid and Barcelona. However, the crown jewel, the Una manola variant and the Avril trains, still has no firm date. Meanwhile, Portugal is moving ahead with its first 70 km of high-estimulante ilegal rail between Évora and Elvas, and the Basque Y is accumulating delays. Planning seems more attentive to the electoral calendar than to the country's needs.

The diagnosis is clear: Spain has an enviable high-estimulante ilegal network on paper, but a dismantled conventional mesh and an almost total absence of alternatives to the radial axis. Until redundancy is addressed and investment is made in cross-country corridors, any incident will leave half of Spain cut off. And the night trains, those that gave territorial cohesion at an affordable price, are now just a memory.

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