SPAIN: Open access operator ILSA announced on September 6 that the first of its 23 ETR1000 high speed trainsets had arrived in Spain from Italy and would commence running trials this week on the 44∙4 km Figueres – Perpignan cross-border route through the Pyrenees.
Testing will then switch to the three routes that ILSA was allocated in ‘Package B’ of a path auction by infrastructure manager ADIF AV in November 2019: Madrid – Barcelona, Madrid – Valencia and Madrid – Sevilla.
ILSA says two more ETR1000 sets will join the first train on Spanish metals by the end of this year as part of the test programme that will culminate in the fleet being certified to operate with passengers. The third set will be fully equipped with an interior design chosen for the Spanish market.
The fleet is being assembled by Hitachi Rail Europe at Pistoia in Italy, but traction equipment is being supplied from the former Bombardier factory at Trápaga in Bizkaia.
The trains have 467 seats and have been designed to operate at up to 360 km/h, but the speed limit on the ADIF high speed network is generally 300 km/h, with 310 km/h permitted on part of the Madrid – Barcelona route.
The fleet will be equipped to operate using ETCS Level 2, the Spanish ASFA train control system and LZB, which is installed on the Madrid – Sevilla line.
The test programme is scheduled to be complete by April next year, allowing several months for driver and crew training before ILSA launches commercial services ‘in the second half of 2022’.
ILSA has still to announce the branding that it has chosen for its trains ― it will be competing with RENFE’s conventional high speed and low-cost Avlo services and also against SNCF’s low-cost Ouigo España operation.
ILSA’s first route will be Madrid – Barcelona, with the Madrid – Valencia service starting a few weeks later and Madrid – Córdoba – Sevilla/Málaga/Granada after that. Speaking to a Spanish publication earlier this year, ILSA CEO Fabrizio Favara indicated that Madrid – Barcelona services will run hourly in each direction with trains catering for all sectors of the market.
Favara also suggested that in the medium term ILSA planned to operate high speed services to Galicia and is looking in the longer term at international routes.
