Albacete To Alacant HSL Inaugration

On 6 June 2013 it was announced that the Albacete to Alacant high speed line would be inaugurated on 18 June, the nine train pairs daily (ten on Fridays) between Madrid and Alacant offering a journey time of 2h20, 50 minutes faster than at present, calling en route at Cuenca, Albacete and Villena. Services are to be provided by Class 100 and Class 112 trains, with Class 130s on the weekend services from Alacant to Santander and Gijón and Class 730 electro-diesels on Alacant to A Coruña and Vigo services. Tickets are to go on sale from 10 June with an initial fare promotion offering a 50% discount in Turista class, from 18 to 25 June, resulting in the standard single fare of 64.90 EUR being cut to 32.45 EUR. Here we see a Class 730 electro-diesel on test in late April 2013 near Monovar, in the vicinity of Elda.