Spanish Railways - Learn EVERYTHING About Them!

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Today we begin a series of videos dedicated to the Spanish railways.

A keyword that for us became a synonym for the Spanish railways is diversity. Namely, you can barely find a country with four different track gauges, a well-developed high-speed rail network, fascinating landscapes, including beautiful nature, deserts, canyons, sierras, unique villages, and plenty of different rail services provided by several public and private railway operators.

As we usually do in this kind of series, this video will deal with the development and overview of the Spanish railways, the next one will cover the development of the Spanish high-speed rail system, and the third will show the evolution of Spanish high-speed trains.

The story about the development and overview of the Spanish railways includes the historical aspect of the development of railways in Spain, the reform of the old RENFE and the railway sector (formation of ADIF and AVE), and, as an inevitable part, of course, some facts and figures about the traffic and the market.

Do you think we managed to present the main aspects of the Spanish railway system in this video? Tell us in the comments below!
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[Vancetizor]

In the Philippines, the Spanish government founded the Ferrocarril de Manila Dagupan in November 24, 1892.

[malgrinu]

You also have to take into account that Spain is a roller coaster in terms of topography, which makes it more difficult than in countries like Germany (pretty flat) when designing the train network and gives the engineers a lot of merit.

[UlliStein]

Coming from Germany, I was so surprised to take the fast renfe train from Madrid to Valencia. So fast, smooth and perfectly on time. And so cheap... I was envious and jealous.

[Gabi-hnmi]

The first train in regular use in Spain was the Havana-Güines line, inaugurated on November 19, 1837. The first in Spain and in all of Latin America. Its function was to transport all the merchandise from the rich agricultural region of Güines to Havana.

[AceroCarbono]

I'm Spanish and I'm surprised seeing everyone from outside loving our trains, meanwhile we are complaining about them a lot

[Aubury]

We were blown over, by the Spanish high speed network..
Not wanting to fly, we used it pre Covid to reach our holiday destination...Wow..

[TwoWholeWorms]

I moved to Spain 7 years ago, and I have to say, Iberian Gauge trains are <3 'cause they 4 seats across the width but still have an aisle that you can actually move with luggage or a bike down. Add that to the double-deckers, they're my favourite trains in Europe. <3

[cmdryuuiza]

About histroy: first Spanish train was not actually in the Iberia peninsule. Was in Cuba in 1837 when the island "belonged" to Spain.
About rail gauges: some smalls areas has 3 gauges (1000mm, 1435mm, 1668mm, for instance at Port de Barcelona), some other uses 3 iron rails to provide 2 gauges at same time (in direct translation the 3rd Thread), and in Port Bou there are smalls portions with two gauges (1668mm and 1435mm) but actually not following same path so they use 4 iron rails.

Curiosities:
- Interconnection with France exists, and several ways to overpass gauge change. Actually two spanish companies sold adjustable-gauge rolling stock with very mature technology proven for years.
- At same time signaling systems are also diverse inside RFIG. There is a common basic standard ASFA with a cool video explanation available in Internet, actually this has been already updated to Digital-ASFA.
- As development was done by several companies some "duplicated" path existed, and exists, for some routes. And some lines were never opened but mostly constructed.

[loumcast]

I love traveling on Spanish railways every time I visit the country, it's one of the best services in all of Europe.

[ÁRivas-Fer]

3:20 The first Spanish railway was that of the province of Cuba (the richest in Spain) in 1837, which covered the Havana-Güines route

[trainstrains]

I love travelling on the Spanish railways especially the AVE. It is interesting to find out some of the history. As always, another fine video. Many thanks.

[Trainviking]

Spain is interesting for sure, I'm now in Spain. Trying out different trains of course, there will be trip reports on this.

[jaimelf]

You mentioned that the Spanish rail network was not as dense as those from other more economically developed European countries, but this is only one factor. The other determining factor is the fact that Spain was then, as it is now, much less densely populated than other countries in Western Europe.

[aitortilla]

There's a mistake in the video. The first railway in Spain was built in 1837 in Cuba. Spain didn't have colonies but provinces. Cuba was considered another province. If we are talking about peninsular Spain then the video is correct, the first railway dates from 1848.

[lindavainomae]

Thanks for this history of the Spanish Railways - really interesting & well put together as always!

[Ramdom]

Spain is easily the powerhouse of high speed trains in Europe.

[jermainetrainallen]

Great video. The history of the Spanish rail network is very interesting. Keep up the good work👍

[ElectricUAM]

Wow, this is some spectacular good deep work and great background research. I didn't know the Spanish railways were so diverse. No wonder the SNCF is fretting opening its rail to international competition.

[pingustrasse]

Didn´t know that my country had such an amazing train infrastructure compared to the rest of Europe lol. Thnaks for the video man, appreciate it

[B-A-L]

What surprises me is how Spain has managed a successful gauge changing system for years yet Japan, which is always considered to be at the forefront of train technology, had to abandon it's attempt only within the last few years!