French TGVs Pierce the Pyrenees!
 

Finally after years of work on the high-speed rail line from Perpignan to Figueras (and eventually on to Barcelona) French TGVs now run as far into Spain, without any change of train at the border, to Figueras - to a new TGV station outside of town. But it seems there is often a lengthy delay there for a connecting train to Barcelona so the old route with the Cataln Talgo between Montpellier and Barcelona (and beyond) is still the best route to Barcelona (Talgos have wheel bases that can be cranked out and in to accommodate the different track widths in both Spain and France - Spain's being wider. The new high-speed line is built to general European standard as are all of Spain's several new high-speed AVE lines.

The delay for connecting trains to Barcelona is 20/25 minutes.
Same delay for connecting trains to Perpignan and beyond. RENFE has suppressed the Talgo from Barcelona to Perpignan.

oops : read "the Talgo from Barcelona to Montpellier".

Also note that the French part of the rail-line (Perpignan to the Perthus tunnel) was finished in .......2009.

And yet Spain is now the country with the biggest high speed rail network in Europe, having passed France last week.

I heard there were plans to build a tunnel under the Pyrenees near Lourdes. Has anyone heard what happened to that plan?

The plan (TCP for Traversée Centrale des Pyrénées) has been in the air for at least 40 years. Presumably it will still be in the air in a few years from now. Environmentalists on both sides of the border are against it.

Spain has Europe's most extensive high-speed rail lines yet is a financial basketcase like Greece. Thank God these things got done when the did.

and thanks to Pvoyageuse for the corrections - friends just back said they had to wait an hour for a train a Figureas TGV but probably due to late running connecting train.

any word on when the TGV will be able to blast into Barcelona?

Friends also said the old Catalan Talgo was still running direct Barcelona - Montpellier and the Wunderbar German railway timetable does indeed indicate for tomorrow the Talgo is still running - unless the information is wrong and this is unusual for bahn.de IME EXCEPT in the case of Spain, where the info received at times must have been wrong. But one may suspect they would keep the only direct service until the new high-speed line was finished. Anyone have any info on Talgo still running?

2013 at the earliest (and I am being optimistic).

At the moment there is only one daily "Talgo" between Barcelona and Montpellier (4.42 pm, arrival Montpellier at 9.09 pm. Return trip at 7.27 am, arrival Barcelona at 11.48 am). Very different timetable from the usual Talgo and very inconvenient for people who want to make a connection in Montpellier.
All other trains stop in Figueres Vilafant.

2013 is when the LGV is expected to run between Figueres and Barcelona.

"Spain has Europe's most extensive high-speed rail lines yet is a financial basketcase like Greece."

The two facts are not unconnected.

The two facts are not unconnected.>

as we take flimflanner's word for this - as usual as bromide sans any factual backing - but then again the U.K. without any indigenous high-speed rail line is as much a financial basket case as is Sapin.

And probably EU funds were sucked up by the Spaniards anyway.

More hot air from the Cotswolds Lord.