Spain launches new ‘low-cost’ high speed train between Madrid and Barcelona

Spain launches new ‘low-cost’ high speed train between Madrid and Barcelona
The joys of speeding across Spain’s vast countryside in a bullet train will soon become a more affordable pleasure with the announcement that RENFE are developing a low-cost alternative.

Íñigo de la Serna, Spain’s minister of Publics Works unveiled plans to launch a new service in 2018, that will initially run between Madrid and Barcelona.

Nuevo servicio de alta velocidad: Eva

The route, which will be called the EVA, would begin with five trains in each direction each day and aim to transport over a million passengers in the first year, the minister said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The ticket price will be at least 25 percent cheaper than the current service between Madrid and Barcelona and would operate not from Barcelona-Sants station in the centre of the Catalan capital but a new hub in El Prat de Llobregat, a satellite town near the airport.

The current AVE service hurtles the 621km (386 miles) between Madrid and Barcelona in under three hours reaching a speed above 310 km/h.

The route was inaugurated in 2008 and competes with flights between the two cities  but tickets cost an average of €98 each way, althougher cheaper deals are available to savvy travellers who book in advance.

The new budget service is designed to attract a younger generation who generally make the journey by coach, explained the minister.

Source: The Local es

Image & Video Sources: Twitter/YouTube/EVA/Ministerio de Fomento