The visit of the delegation of the Ministry of Transport to China has become an expressive assessment of the railway progress of the Asian country, world leader in high-speed kilometers light years behind the second, Spain. Minister Óscar Puente, accompanied by the President of Renfe, Álvaro Fernández Heredia, has access to the latest innovations in signaling systems, electrification, security, digitalization and material testing. But above all, you have the opportunity to experience in person the high-speed train production capacity of the giant CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles, whose factory awaits you this Saturday, and how to build the China Railway Construction Corporation.
The Chinese model of high-speed development is “particularly attractive for Spain, which finds itself at a time of enormous expansion of its railway network and acquisition of new train fleets, with the challenges that lead to when integrating them into the circulation of the network”, explains Transport.
Puente and Fernández Heredia spent months maintaining contacts with different European manufacturers, now also with the Chinese CRRC, before the launch of the first 2026 tenders to strengthen Renfe’s high-speed fleet in the short and medium term. The public operator is currently increasing the capacity of high-speed and medium-distance services (Avant), at a time when it will try to recover the Avlo service on the Madrid-Barcelona corridor, without rolling stock for several years on the new Talgo Avril.
The minister indicated last week in an interview with SER that the European railway industry offers reliability and quality, “but there is a problem of price and delivery times”. In a context of urgency for the renewal of the Renfe fleet, Transport is considering the possibility of purchasing trains in Asia: “Chinese manufacturers deliver trains at a high price within six months each year, while the European industry offers them for 60 months. I am the politician who buys and who is not 60 months old,” declares the minister. It is expected that the call for the next Renfe competitions will receive references such as Alstom, Siemens, Hitachi or Talgo.
A few days ago, it was also announced that the railway infrastructure manager, Adif, had the horizon of allowing the high-performance network to take the step up to 350 kilometers per hour. The Madrid-Barcelona corridor, the largest traffic corridor in the country and in need of reform, will be the first to adapt to the increase in travel speed. This work could take years, starting with the replacement of the girders without touching the rear and, in later phases, with modifications to the line, but it will also require trains with a capacity to run up to 350 per hour.
In addition to the purchase of rolling stock, Transports has planned the construction of a railway test ring in Andalusia. And once again you look at yourself in the Chinese mirror. The high traffic that the network supports in Spain makes it possible to carry out this type of solo testing at night and on lines with less traffic, which delays the entry into service of new trains and, above all, innovation and development projects. You had already participated in 2011 in the project to build one of these railway circuits in Antequera (Málaga), but the initiative succumbed to the financial crisis. Puente has now discovered the Chinese train certification center, the National Railway Track Test Center (NRTC), in Beijing and belonging to the state railway manager China State Railway Group. With 61 kilometers of track, it is the only existing closed rail test circuit in all of Asia and includes high-speed laboratories and advanced dynamic verification capabilities.
Strategic partner
China, which presents its railway development formulas, is the country with the most extensive network in the world, with 162,000 kilometers of track, including 48,000 high-speed. Its objective is to increase this latter speed to 60,000 kilometers in 2030. Spain, with 4,000 kilometers of high speed, is the second most developed country in the world.
In addition to opening the way for Chinese equipment for the first time, the Transport chief sought to establish bilateral cooperation with his counterpart Liu Wei also in air and maritime modes, starting with technical exchanges. Spanish and Chinese companies participate in joint projects through different memorandums of understanding, the last of which was signed by the state-owned companies Adif and China Railway.
“I hope that our joint efforts will continue to bear fruit and that we will achieve other goals such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions during the winter of ships and establishing the new net zero emissions framework,” said Óscar Puente referring to the expected cooperation related to maritime transport. The signing of a pact on port issues and the promotion of green maritime corridors is expected.
The growing number of Chinese airlines operating in Spain, with a latest case like the launch of the country’s largest airline, China Southern, in Madrid-Barajas, was also discussed during the meeting between Óscar Puente and Liu Wei. The Spanish side took the opportunity to highlight the “strategic role of Spain as a connection bridge with Latin America”, according to the minister’s statement.
The Spanish delegation also stopped at the Gotion High-Tech Engineering innovation institute, located in the city of Hefei and specializing in the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. Gotion, in alliance with Slovak company InoBat, announced an investment of around 5 billion euros in Spain to build a factory capable of developing the complete battery supply chain.
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