Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 611 The Era of High-Speed ​​Trains

Because the flu did not have a significant impact on Spain, most of 1918 was good news for the country.

Spain's industrial and economic development was completely unaffected by the flu, and its military and civilian technologies saw tremendous progress.

The first thing worth mentioning is the train speed, which has long plagued Spain.

Trains are no stranger to Europeans today. The first train was invented in 1825, almost a century ago.

Over the past century, trains have developed rapidly, with significant improvements in speed and cargo capacity compared to a hundred years ago.

However, compared to other European countries, trains in Spain travel much slower.

The main reason for this is that the Meseta Plateau, which occupies more than half of Spain's land area, severely hinders the speed of trains.

Even after the establishment of the Spanish Empire, the Meseta Plateau still occupied more than half of the empire's area. Trains traveling through plateaus and mountainous regions naturally moved much slower than those traveling on plains.

In addition to this, Spain's broad-gauge railway also slows down train speeds to some extent.

The wider the railway track, the greater the train's carrying capacity. A train can carry more goods or passengers, and without a significant change in power, its speed will naturally decrease.

According to data from 1918, the average speed of trains in European countries was 60 miles per hour, or about 97 kilometers per hour.

This is the speed of passenger trains. Freight trains are slower, but they can still generally reach speeds of 70 kilometers per hour or more.

In contrast, in Spain, passenger trains travel at about 80 kilometers per hour, while freight trains travel at a reduced speed of 60 kilometers per hour.

Don't be fooled by the fact that there's only a difference of ten or twenty kilometers per hour in speed; in actual operation, the difference is enormous.

The two most vibrant cities in Spain, Madrid and Barcelona, ​​are approximately 600 kilometers apart as the crow flies and 703 kilometers apart by rail.

Based on the current speed of passenger trains in Spain, it would take nearly 9 hours to travel from Madrid to Barcelona without making any stops along the way.

If you include the time spent stopping at various stations along the way, the journey from Madrid to Barcelona will take nearly 10 hours.

Based on the average speed of passenger trains in Europe, the journey from Madrid to Barcelona takes only about 7 hours, and even with stops along the way, it takes only 8 hours.

Compared to the speed of trains in Spain, European trains can save at least 2 hours of travel time, which is quite an impressive figure.

And this is just a short journey from Madrid to Barcelona. Traveling from the easternmost point of Spain to the westernmost point would take much longer, with more time wasted along the way.

In order to save time for trains to travel to various cities, the Royal Power Laboratory, after a long period of exploration and research, finally made some improvements to the train's power system, ensuring that it had more powerful propulsion and could propel the train to higher speeds.

This technology remained in the research and development stage until January 1919, when Carlo learned of the experimental data on the latest train from a report by experts from the Royal Power Laboratory.

To ensure the authenticity and validity of the experiment, the experiment was conducted on existing railway lines in Spain and operated for more than 100 hours, with the average result taken.

After numerous experiments, the speed of the latest improved train has been increased to approximately 95 kilometers per hour.

This is just the average speed for the entire journey. In flat plains, the train speed can reach about 110 kilometers per hour, which is already among the fastest train speeds in Europe.

Freight trains are relatively slower, but they can still reach speeds of around 80 kilometers per hour, which is also among the best in Europe.

It's important to understand that this speed was achieved even with Spain's broad-gauge railway system. Broad-gauge railways have a greater freight capacity, meaning that at the same speed, Spanish railways offer significantly better transport capacity and logistical support.

Tests have shown that at the current fastest train speeds, the journey from Madrid to Barcelona has been shortened to 8 hours, even with the train stopping at various stations along the way.

This not only means that it will be more convenient for Spaniards to travel to cities throughout the country, but also that with the current speed of trains, Spain's population movement and economic development will become more rapid.

Upon learning the news, Carlo immediately sent people to the Royal Power Laboratory to express his condolences to the scientists there and to distribute their rewards.

Carlo demanded that the train power module developed by the Royal Power Laboratory be installed on all trains in Spain as soon as possible.

While there's still considerable room for improvement compared to later train speeds, this train speed is quite impressive for today's technology and perfectly adequate for modern Spain. The increased train speed also brings another piece of good news for Spain: it promotes the development of the subway system.

Yes, it's the subway. Subways weren't common back then; they were only found in larger cities.

However, this does not mean that the subway was invented very late. On the contrary, the world's first subway was invented in 1863, less than forty years later than the train.

It's actually quite easy to understand when you think about it. The subway itself isn't complicated, because the meaning of subway is simply underground railway, a train line that runs specifically underground in a city.

Subways are even rarer for two reasons: firstly, most cities simply don't need such an exaggerated carrying capacity as subways; and secondly, subway construction is extremely difficult, and many cities simply don't have the capacity to build them.

Subway platforms, railways, and trains are all located underground, which means that building a subway involves a huge amount of work and is extremely difficult.

London had the subway for two reasons. First, the British Empire was the most powerful country in the world at the time, and Britain's technology was also the best in the world.

On the other hand, the British government was also entirely out of necessity. At the time, London was the world's largest city, and its traffic congestion was immense, making a mode of transport like the subway extremely necessary to alleviate the problem.

The subway was born under such circumstances, and it played a huge role from the moment it was born. This is also why the subway later became popular all over the world and became one of the factors for judging whether a city is developed.

Although Britain built its first subway in 1863, building one today is no easy feat, even with today's technology.

Since the birth of the subway in 1863, it wasn't until 1896 that the second country to have a subway was the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

It is worth mentioning that the Austro-Hungarian Metro was not built in the capital Vienna, but in Hungary.

This also means that now that Hungary has separated from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Austrian Empire is no longer a country with a subway system.

Around 1900, the United States, France, and Germany successively built subways, which can be considered as officially starting the prelude to subway construction.

Compared to these countries, Spain started building its subway much later. The actual initiation of the Spanish subway project dates back to 1910, when Barcelona's population had exceeded 240 million, and urban development necessitated the construction of a subway system.

Although Madrid's population is also close to 190 million, because Spain built urban tram systems much earlier, Madrid's traffic pressure is not as great as Barcelona's. Therefore, the construction of Madrid's metro started later than that of Barcelona.

The Barcelona Metro project was initiated in 1910, and after six years of construction, it was officially opened to traffic in 1916.

The Madrid Metro project was initiated in 1914 and was scheduled for completion in 1919.

The combined length of the Barcelona and Madrid metro systems exceeds 70 kilometers, making Spain one of the top three metro cities in the world in terms of metro mileage.

It must be admitted that the subway has a greater passenger capacity than cars and can greatly alleviate urban traffic pressure.

Madrid and Barcelona are now quite prosperous cities, and with such large populations, they naturally have a large number of cars.

These cars caused traffic jams on the streets of Madrid and Barcelona, ​​severely impacting the daily lives of citizens. After the Barcelona Metro was built, traffic congestion on the city streets decreased significantly, not only making life more convenient for residents but also making travel within the city more efficient and faster.

Like previous city trams, the Barcelona Metro is not expensive, and it only earns enough to cover basic operating costs.

Carlo didn't want to make money from public transportation either, since most of those who could afford to ride the subway were ordinary people who weren't well-off.

The truly wealthy don't squeeze onto the subway with ordinary people, which is why subway fares in Spain aren't expensive.

The reactions from Barcelona residents today show that life has indeed become much more convenient since the Barcelona Metro was completed and put into operation.

This has further fueled the anticipation of Madrid residents for the metro's construction. If construction proceeds smoothly, the Madrid metro is expected to be completed and operational by the middle of this year.

By then, Spain will become one of the few countries in the world with subways in two cities, putting it at the forefront of European countries in this regard.

The increase in train speed also benefits the subway, since the subway also uses trains, only the train carriages have been modified.

The increased speed of the subway will not only make daily travel more convenient for citizens, but also improve the city's traffic efficiency, which is good news for Spain.

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(End of this chapter)