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Renfe, the AVE, and why everything goes through Madrid
Spain has one of the best rail networks in Europe and one of the most centralised, and both facts are worth knowing before you plan a year of travelling in it. Renfe is the state operator and the AVE — Alta Velocidad Española — is its high-speed service, running at up to three hundred kilometres an hour on a purpose-built network that is the longest in Europe. Since the market opened to competition you will also see Ouigo and Iryo on the same routes at lower prices, which is genuinely worth checking. Fares behave like airline fares: they rise steeply as the date approaches, which is what the clerk means by según la antelación, and the cheapest tickets are non-refundable. Buy weeks ahead for a puente. The network is radial. Almost every high-speed line runs from Madrid outwards, so Madrid to Seville, Barcelona, Valencia, Málaga or Alicante is fast, and Seville to Barcelona without passing through Madrid is slow. This is not an accident of engineering but of history: the road and rail systems were built from the capital outwards, and the pattern is old enough that the kilometre markers on Spanish main roads still count from a single point in the Puerta del Sol. Two practical habits. Spanish stations have security screening for long-distance trains and ask you to arrive a little early, unlike most of Europe; twenty minutes is plenty. And the platform is genuinely not announced until shortly before departure — the clerk's media hora antes is standard — so everyone stands watching el panel, and joining them is the normal thing to do rather than a sign that something has gone wrong.