page_title: AVE
section_title: AVANT – Media Distancia
hierarchical_section_title: AVE / History / AVANT – Media Distancia
caption_attribution_description: Renfe Avant en la estación de Madrid-Atocha
context_page_description: Alta Velocidad Española is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to 310 km/h. Alta Velocidad Española translates to "Spanish High Speed", but the initials are also a play on the word ave, meaning "bird". As of August 2017, the Spanish AVE system is the longest HSR network in Europe with 3,240 km and the second longest in the world, after China's.
  AVE trains run on a network of high-speed rail track owned and managed by ADIF, where other high-speed and mid-speed services also operate. The first line was opened in 1992, connecting the cities of Madrid, Córdoba and Seville. Unlike the rest of the Iberian broad gauge network, the AVE uses standard gauge. This permits direct connections to outside Spain through the link to the French network at the Perthus Tunnel. AVE trains are operated by RENFE, but private companies may be allowed to operate trains in the future using other brands, in accordance with European Union legislation. Some TGV-derived trains used to run on the broad-gauge network at slower speeds, but these were branded separately as Euromed until new rolling stock was commissioned for these services.
context_section_description: In 1992, a new high-speed medium distance service (AV Media Distancia operating under the AVE Lanzadera brand) began between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Puertollano, using spare class 100 trains. In November 2003 a new service began between Seville and Córdoba using new class 104 trains, reducing journey times between the two cities to 40 minutes.
  In 2005 the brand was renamed RENFE Avant, and all services started to use class 104 trains, leaving class 100 for AVE services.
  The construction of a 21-kilometre (13 mi) stretch of high-speed line from Madrid to Toledo allowed the inauguration of a medium distance service in November 2005. The journey time between the two cities is now less than 30 minutes. The high-speed link combined with high property prices in Madrid has encouraged many Madrid commuters to settle in Ciudad Real, the first stop on the Madrid–Seville line. There has, however, been controversy over the construction of this line as the change to standard-gauge track meant that towns such as Getafe, Aranjuez and Algodor, which now have no commercial services, lost their direct services to Toledo. Furthermore, since Toledo is now connected by standard-gauge track it is impossible for other passenger or goods trains to reach it that have not come from other high-speed lines.
  Further Avant services have been launched with the expansion of the AVE lines to Valladolid, Barcelona, Málaga and Galicia. See below for details of all Avant services.
  In the Valladolid line, new class 114 trains are used. Both Avant class 104 and class 114 trains are Pendolino designs, without tilting capacity:
  - Avant class 104 trains are based in ETR 480
  - Avant class 114 trains are based in ETR 600
caption: Class 104 train.
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