Alicante, Barcelona

Today I will be visiting Alicante and later take the Euromed train to Barcelona.

Waking up in the morning with this view from my hotel room

Esplanada d'Espanya

Castell de la Santa Bàrbara at the top

Alicante is a popular tourist destination, there is a large beach in the central part of the town

Alacant Terminal station

S130 and S100

Renfe Class 334, Vossloh Euro 4000

Today I will be taking Euromed service to Barcelona, operated with S130 trains

Renfe Class 252

Not many passengers on this train today

The train is named Euromed and not AVE, due to that it is using the Iberian gauge railway. Since December 2019 it is switching to Standard gauge railway near Tarragona and continues on the high-speed railway the rest of the route to Barcelona.

The train is now taking the Iberian gauge railway to Valencia. I can see the high-speed line to Madrid here

I'm taking now the La Encina-Alicante Line, the Iberian gauge railway constructed in 1858

At Valencia the train will be changing the direction before continuing to Barcelona

Valencia

Now traveling on the coastline Valencia-Tarragona

The line is built for 200km/h operations

Vandellòs Nuclear Power Plant

On January 13, 2020, the Vandellós bypass was inaugurated, between the Vandellós and Vila-Seca stations, which meant the connection with the Madrid-Barcelona / France HSR in Vilaseca through two gauge changers. As a consequence, the closure of the old single-track route to passenger traffic meant that the Salou, Cambrils, Montroig, and Hospitalet del Infante stations were left without service. In addition, the section between the Tarragona and San Vicente Calders stations was separated from this line and was integrated into the Zaragoza-Miraflores to the Tarragona line. (Wikipedia)

Passing through the gauge changer

Camp de Tarragona station at the Standard high-speed railway line

The Euromed train terminates now at Barcelona Sants station, but I'm taking the commuter train to the beautiful Estació de França station

Sagrada Familia

MD train (S449) at Sant Celoni station

On the Iberian gauge railway from Barcelona to Port-Bou, there is a mixed operation of commuter, regional and freight trains

Here is a freight train to Port-Bou

253 007 and 253 008, Traxx F140 DC 

These are the Iberian gauge version of famous Traxx locomotives, there are 100 of them operated by Renfe Mercancias

The freight cargo will be loaded on a standard gauge train at Port-Bou and will continue its journey in France

More cats

S449 train at Les Franqueses-Granollers Nord

Renfe Class 465, Alstom Civia

MD train to Girona

253 062, 253 035, 253 059