The TGV Paris-Barcelona arrives. . . almost

A French TGV speeds across Catalonia en route for Figueras.

Photo: Martin Castellan/Sud Media Images

From 19th December 2010, the Catalan capital of Barcelona will be a step nearer to France. French high speed TGV trains from Paris will continue past Perpignan as far as Figueras in Spain.

The twice-daily service will stop at Nimes, Montpellier, Narbonne and Perpignan. Slower Spanish regional trains will take passengers on to Gerona and Barcelona, shortening the journey between the french and catalan capitals by an hour and a quarter.

Part of the EU dream of a pan-European transport network, the new link will be part of the Brussels-Barcelona high speed route. A new high-speed line snakes across Catalonia to the Barcelona suburbs. Finding a way through urban areas has proved a tougher proposition with the need to tunnel beneath existing buildings.

The French and Spanish rail networks are different gauges, preventing the French TGVs from continuing their journey on older regional Spanish tracks. Built to the European gauge, the new high speed lines will enable the TGVs to go all the way in 2012 or 2013. Reducing the Paris-Barcelona journey to 5 hours 35 minutes.

To reach Barcelona’s main Sants station, the line will pass under the new cathedral, La Sagrada Familia. Designed by the catalan architect Anton Gaudi, the cathedral, under construction since 1888, is still not finished. Despite a visit by the pope in November to consecrate the building, construction continues as tunneling machines burrow gingerly underneath.

No-one wants to be the catalan who dropped 128 years of Catalan pride into a train-shaped hole. The tunnelers will take their time and do it right. This is one job that will be finished when it’s finished, and that's that.