Key Highlights
- 34 years ———- The number of years since Spain inaugurated its first high-speed AVE, which means “bird” in Spanish.
- Both before and after that milestone, successive Spanish governments devoted tax revenues and European Union development aid to its high-speed rail network that quickly caught up and surpassed high-speed pioneers Japan and France.
- The first high-speed train to speed across Spain preceded the opening of the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona by two months.
- Both marked high points in Spain’s recent history after it emerged from the economic doldrums and cultural and political isolation of the 20th-century dictatorship of Gen.
- Francisco Franco.
