Barack Obama praised Spain’s high-speed rail system during his presidency and held it up as a model for the United States. Seventeen years ago, he sent Transport Secretary Ray LaHood to Madrid to study the network. After a further visit to examine its costs and potential, LaHood reportedly remarked that Spain could afford the system while the United States could not.
The ambition to connect every provincial capital to Madrid by high-speed rail, pursued under José María Aznar, has proved costly to build and maintain. Many sections have struggled to be economically viable. The Madrid–Barcelona route stands out: it carries around 40,000 passengers a day across all operators and directions, and is the only corridor where ticket revenue exceeds operators’ running costs.
That is why comments by Transport Minister Óscar Puente, who suggested closing the line for a couple of years for maintenance after a rail accident in Toledo, appeared premature, the article says. Catalan leader Salvador Illa has defended the corridor as safe, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has backed him, making the restoration of public confidence in high-speed rail a priority.
The first direct train between Barcelona and Madrid began operating in 1959. The Talgo service took nine hours and reached speeds of 100 kilometres per hour. Until recently, the high-speed journey took around two and a half hours. Cutting the connection would disrupt businesses and carry a troubling symbolic weight, the article argues, as confidence in the network remains shaken.
Sources: La Vanguardia.