Spain's first high-speed rail link between Madrid and Barcelona has become operational, after years of delay.
Hitting speeds of 300km/h (186mph), the first AVE train took 155 minutes to cover the 550km (342 miles) to Madrid.
A total of 17 trains - each expected to carry some 200 people - will now be operating daily between the two cities.
At a price of some 180 euros (£136) return, the new train link competes favourably with air travel, the BBC's Danny Wood in Madrid says.
The added advantage is that the train takes passengers right into the heart of Madrid, our correspondent says.
"I think it was an excellent trip from Barcelona," one of the AVE passengers told the BBC.
The service is operated by Spain's national train company Renfe.
The high-speed link between the country's two biggest cities was planned nearly two decades ago, but its completion was delayed by a number of administrative and construction issues.
Spain's first high-speed train line - between Madrid and Seville - opened in 1992.
The Spanish government now says it will have more high-speed train lines than anywhere else in the world by 2010, our correspondent says.
以上文章擷取自BBC全球新聞網2008.2.20
Stranger閒扯蛋:
西班牙的高鐵由西南的塞維亞延伸至東北的巴塞隆納,把西班牙切成了兩大塊。從「餐桌農產學」來看,左半邊負責了人民的主食,如小麥、玉米、馬鈴薯;右半邊則是副食區,如橄欖、葡萄、柑橘和其他水果。我玩西班牙先從「主食區」玩起,走過了Salamanca, Avila, Valladolid, Segovia和Madrid,右半邊的部分只去過橘子城Seville。下次遊西班牙我打算好好逛逛「副食區」,讓我的西班牙「餐桌」更豐富一點!
話題扯遠了。查了Renfe網站後發現從馬德里到巴塞隆納只需2小時又43分,比搭飛機還要方便,不過單程票價就要120歐,比起距離差不多的塞維亞路段(2.5個小時)貴了將近一倍,果然是「黃金路線」!
如果旅行計畫可以提早安排的話,那麼搭飛機或許能撿到便宜。如果要更省錢的話,不妨考慮夜車,還可以省下一筆旅館費哩!