Spain will renovate the railway network between Madrid and Barcelona to allow trains to reach 350 km/h, reducing travel time to under two hours.

Spain is proposing to modernize the high-speed rail network between Madrid and Barcelona, allowing trains to reach a maximum speed of 350 km/h, similar to that in China. The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, announced that if the plan is implemented, travel time will decrease from nearly three hours to less than two hours, benefiting approximately 15 million travelers annually. A tender of 2.3 million euros will be opened for feasibility studies, including options such as improving access to stations and adding line sections.

Additionally, a new train design developed by Adif will help achieve this speed. Spain has the most high-speed lines in Europe, with 4,091 km, and renovations are expected to take about three years. The number of passengers on high-speed trains has significantly increased, reaching 46.7 million in 2024.