Córdoba–Málaga high-speed rail line

Málaga-Córdoba high-speed rail line marked in blue.

Nuevo Acceso Ferroviario a Andalucía

Legend 0 km Madrid-Atocha Madrid–Barcelona line Madrid–Seville line 345.2 Córdoba-Central Río Guadalquivir 358.0 0.0 Beginning of Córdoba-Málaga line Madrid–Seville line continues to Seville 5.8 Río Guadalquivir 7.7 La Marota 8.8 La Marota 11.6 Guadalmazar 25.6 Carretera Nacional N-IV 34.6 Santaella 37.8 Arroyo del Salado 43.5 Río Cabra 50.2 Ingeniero 54.9 Río Genil 61.4 Puente Genil-Herrera 75.3 Río Yeguas 89.2 Autovía A-92 93.1 Sierra Humilladero Tunnel 96.6 Antequera-Santa Ana 97.7 Santa Ana gauge-changer 100.4 River Guadalhorce 106.6 Gobantes Tunnel 110.8 Abdalajís Tunnel 118.4 Arroyo Piedras 121.4 Alora 122.5 Arroyo Espinazo 123.4 Arroyo Jevar 125.0 Alora 126.5 El Espartal Tunnel 128.2 Tevilla Tunnel 130.4 Gibralmora Tunnel 133.3 Cártama Tunnel 135.4 Viaduct 149.5 Los Prados 152.8 Tunnel in Málaga 154.5 Málaga-María Zambrano

The Córdoba–Málaga high-speed rail line is a standard gauge railway line of 155 km in length (the total distance between Córdoba and Málaga on the line is 170 km^[1]), inaugurated on 24 December 2007. Designed for speeds of 300 km/h (186 mph) and compatibility with neighbouring countries' rail systems, it connects the cities of Málaga and Córdoba in Andalusia, Spain. This is part of the rail-route Madrid-Malaga and is connected to Madrid-Sevilla high-speed rail line. The line also has stops at Puente Genil and Antequera that are served by the AVANT service. At the time the service opened, RENFE was running 22 trains daily between Madrid and Málaga.

The stations along the line are Córdoba Central, Puente Genil-Herrera, Antequera-Santa Ana and Málaga María Zambrano.

The line runs along a double track section in the few kilometres after Córdoba Central and later becomes quadruple track. Eventually, just outside a town called Los Mochos (a few kilometres east-north-east of Almodóvar del Río), the Seville and Málaga branches become separate^[2] on the edge of a village called Los Mochos. The line takes a different route to the existing slower single-track line, but starts to run parallel to it between the towns of Doñana and Santa Rosalia Maqueda, ^[3] running alongside it for the rest of the journey to Málaga María Zambrano station.

The line runs through precipitous terrain in the Sierra Nevada and several viaducts and tunnels were necessary to complete the connections, including the Guadalhorce viaduct (574m), the Tunnels del Abdalajís (the 3rd longest in Spain after the Guadarrama and Pajares tunnels at 8970m in the Cordillera Bética), the Arroyo de las Piedras viaduct (1208m long and 93.4m high, making it the highest viaduct along the line), the Arroyo del Espinazo and Jévar viaducts (the longest viaduct along the line when the two are considered together) and the Álora, Espartal, Tevilla, Gibralmora and Cártama tunnels that exist in a long chain.^[4] The precipitous terrain is one possible reason why the Córdoba-Seville section was opened in 1992, but the Córdoba-Málaga section wasn't opened until December 1997.^{[citation needed]}

The AVANT services transport passengers directly from Seville to Málaga and vice-versa, with intermediate stops at Puente Genil-Herrera and Antequera-Santa Ana stations between Córdoba and Málaga. The AVE service (using the AVE Class 102) offers Madrid-Málaga journey times of 2 hours and 30 minutes with direct services. The average speed of 205 km/h for this journey is not particularly high (the fastest Madrid-Barcelona journey is 2 hours and 38 minutes over 621 km, giving an average speed of 236 km/h): - trains are restricted to 200 km/h in the Sierra Morena (here, the curvature drops as low as 2300m,^[5] meaning the maximum safe speed without tilting technology is approximately 226 km/h, as a curvature of at least 1800m is needed for 200 km/h and 7200m for 400 km/h [1]). The trains also slow down to 160km/h for the Abdalajís and Gobantes tunnels, even though the tunnel radii are high enough to support 300km/h.^[6]

See also

• High-speed rail in Spain
• Madrid-Sevilla high-speed rail line
• Madrid-Barcelona high-speed rail line
• AVE Class 103
• AVE
• Córdoba, Spain
• Málaga

References

1. ^ http://www.descubrelaaltavelocidad.net/default_en.aspx
2. ^ Google Maps
3. ^ Google Maps
4. ^ The northern portal of the Álora Tunnel can be seen on Google Maps, as can the southern portal of the Cártama Tunnel here.
5. ^ http://www.adif.es/es_ES/infraestructuras/lineas_de_alta_velocidad/madrid_sevilla/madrid_sevilla.shtml
6. ^ http://www.adif.es/es_ES/infraestructuras/lineas_de_alta_velocidad/cordoba-malaga/tunel_abdalajis.shtml

External links

• AVE at the RENFE (Spanish)
• www.youtube.com (Spanish)
• www.youtube.com