Today, a new investment was announced for the Antequera-Granada high-speed rail link, with AVE trains due to start running in 2018. Andalucia's budget for 2016 includes 62 million euros to finish this AVE route linking Antequera (Santa Ana Station), the geographically central junction of the region, with Granada, while nearby Bobadilla was an important junction on the old train network.
A few weeks ago, it was announced that the PGE (Presupuestos Generales del Estado) was allocating 192m euros to the Bobadilla-Granada line (half of the province's total budget). This will be a relief to many since the current works which were halted in 2014 remain a construction scar on the landscape and EU funding had to be returned for not completing the works by the previous deadline.
Antequera is already served by the Seville - Malaga line, which continues on to Madrid from Seville.
Andalucia was the first region to have the revolutionary pointy-nosed trains, which can travel at speeds of up to 310km/h. AVE means Tren de Alta Velocidad Española. The first route which launched was the Madrid-Seville service, starting in 1992 in time for the Expo 92 in Seville.
The current AVE train routes are these:
- Madrid to Cordoba
- Madrid to Seville
- Madrid to Málaga
- Barcelona to Seville
- Seville to Málaga
- Seville to Valencia