Alta Velocidad Española (AVE) is a high-speed rail service operated by Renfe, the Spanish State railway company. The first AVE service was inaugurated in 1992, with the introduction of the first Spanish high-speed railway connecting the cities of Madrid, Córdoba and Seville. In addition to Renfe's use of the Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias-managed rail infrastructure in Spain, Renfe offers two AVE services partially in France, connecting respectively Barcelona-Lyon and Madrid-Marseille. Alta Velocidad Española translates to "Spanish High Speed", but the initials are also a play on the word ave, meaning "bird". AVE trains operate at speeds of up to 300 km/h.

Services

Renfe offers the following AVE services: The central hub of the AVE system is Madrid's Puerta de Atocha, except for the Madrid–Asturias, Madrid–Burgos, Madrid–Galicia, Madrid–Alicante and Madrid-Murcia lines, that terminate at Chamartín station.

Trains

Currently, there are several series of high-speed trains that run the AVE service:

Passenger usage

The still-growing network transported a record 32.4 million passengers in 2023. Though the network length is extensive, it lags in ridership behind comparable high-speed rail systems in Japan, France, Germany, China, Taiwan, and Korea.

Rail infrastructure in Spain and Europe