Barcelona and Seville, closer together by direct high-speed trains

BarcelonaThe first tickets for the new direct train between Barcelona and Seville went on sale this week. This new high-speed service without transfers between Andalusia, Aragon, and Catalonia will begin on April 23, just three days before the Copa del Rey final between Barça and Madrid is played in the Andalusian city. It is added to the existing lines. From Barcelona, ​​for example, direct trains to Seville already departed daily at 8:30 a.m. and 3:17 p.m.

The new AVE trains aim to improve rail connectivity and optimize service offerings, and are added to the trains currently operating. In fact, this service between the Catalan and Andalusian capitals will connect a train that already runs between Seville and Madrid with another that runs between Barcelona and the Spanish capital. The difference, however, is that passengers will not have to change trains at Atocha station, which will reduce time and improve comfort.

This is also confirmed by the study carried out by the Traspol transport policy laboratory at the Polytechnic University of Milan, which states that the connection between these two cities is one of the services with the greatest potential in all of Europe. The increase in frequency and the reduction in time may lead to the plane journeys that currently connect the two cities being replaced by trains, as has already occurred with the Barcelona-Madrid AVE, which is going to meal The air shuttle business. Today, only one in four people who make this journey uses a plane.

The announcement of this connection was made public just weeks before Barça's Copa del Rey final in Seville. "It's common sense that this journey can be made comfortably by train, but knowing how difficult it is to travel by this means lately, I was pleased to see that there was a good schedule and price for this trip," explains a traveler who has already purchased train tickets for the day of the match.

The schedules for the new Barcelona-Seville high-speed trains

• A train will depart from Sants every day, except Saturdays, at 4:58 p.m. and arrive in Seville at 10:49 p.m. There are intermediate stops in Zaragoza, Madrid, and Córdoba.
• In the opposite direction, a train will depart from Seville's Santa Justa station at 6:00 a.m. every day and arrive in Sants at 12:41 p.m. This route ends in Figueres at 1:44 p.m., with stops along the way to Córdoba, Puertollano, Ciudad Real, Madrid, Zaragoza, Lérida, Tarragona, and Girona.