Page "AVE" Paragraph 74

In the long term, the Spanish government has an ambitious plan to make of high-speed railway operational by 2010, with all provincial capitals at most only 4 hours from Madrid, and 6½ hours from Barcelona.

According to the Strategic Plan for railway infrastructures developed by the Spanish Ministerio de Fomento Ministry of Public Works, called PEIT, a second expansion programme is planned to start in 2010-11, when the last lines of the first programme still under construction begin operation.

This plan has a ten-year scope, ending in 2020, and its ambition is to make the network reach by the end of that year.

This would be the most extensive network in Europe, with several operational links with France and Portugal, and is the most ambitious high-speed rail plan in the European Union.