The Train in Spain Goes Faster Now

The warm Mediterranean beaches of the Costa del Sol are now only 2 ½ hours by train from Madrid, the arrival point of most overseas travelers.

The last section of the Córdoba-Málaga AVE line began service on December 23, cutting the previous four-hour trip from Madrid to Málaga to just 2 ½ hours.

Málaga, in southern Andalusia, is in the heart of Spain’s fabled Costa del Sol, and area I had a chance to explore myself in December. I actually took an even shorter route there from Madrid, flying directly from Madrid’s Barajas Airport after my inbound flight from New York.

Next time I’ll take this super train, stopping for a few days in Córdoba, a city I also learned to love (it was a learning curve of about 30 seconds!) on this trip. I added the Great Mosque of Córdoba to my short list of the most impressive places I have ever been. Its splendor is perhaps best indicated by the fact that both Muslims and Christians considered it a wonder of the medieval world. Considering that they didn’t agree on much, that’s a serious stamp of approval.

Málaga is now far more, I learned, than just a gateway to the Mediterranean beaches. I’d been there some years ago, and I barely recognized the city. The once traffic-snarled main shopping street is a broad pedestrian avenue paved in striking stone, with fountains and benches – and lined right now with an amazing collection of works by Rodin on loan from Paris. Málaga has its own art credentials, with a stunning new Picasso Museum.

This new high-speed link from Madrid to Málaga via Córdoba is only a small part of the grand plan Spain has been steadily putting into reality, which will by 2010 include 4350 miles of high-speed track connecting all the provincial capitals to Madrid by journeys of no more than four hours.

Learn more about train travel through Spain, and about money-saving passes, from Rail Europe.