Spain's high-speed rail scene just got a little better: A new line has opened to connect the Costa Brava to Europe’s major cities.
The line, which kicked off in 2010 with the Perpignan-Figueres section, has now been extended to Girona and Barcelona, letting visitors from across Continental Europe play some of Spain’s top ranked golf courses on the Costa Brava.
The latest 81-mile branch between Figueres—home to Dalí’s Theatre-Museum—and the metropolitan city of Barcelona completes the 500-mile high-speed line between Madrid and the French boarder. It also leaves Spain second only to China in the size of its high-speed rail network, with 1,864 miles in service.
Commenting on the new Barcelona-Figueres link, Ramon Ramos, Director of Costa Brava Girona Tourist Board, noted that “it used to take two hours to travel by train from Barcelona to Figueres…But now, with the new link, the trip’s only 53 minutes long. To get to Girona its just 37 minutes, and, if you’re planning a trip to Madrid, you can be there in three hours and 32 minutes.”
Eight of the current nine southbound trains will connect Girona and Figueres with the Barcelona-Zaragoza-Madrid service, while two northbound trains will offer links to France’s TGV line to Paris, where passengers will be able to reach the French capital in five hours and 26 minutes.
The new high-speed rail link complements flights into the region’s two airports (Girona-Costa Brava and Barcelona International), the cross-border motorway network into France and the international ports of Palamós and Roses.