Abstract
The purpose of this note is to discuss the decisions on railway policy recently taken by the Spanish government, both in their historical context and in relation to the railway infrastructure policy of the European Commission. The authors make particular reference to the policy guidelines of the 1987 Plan de Transporte Ferroviario (PTF), and the government decision in 1988 to adopt the 1435 mm European gauge for the 2 routes selected for the introduction of the high speed train (Madrid-Cordoba-Sevilla and Madrid-Zaragoza-Barcelona-French border). RENFE (Red Nacional de Ferrocarriles Espanoles) has been commissioned to produce a feasibility study on adopting the European railway gauge across the whole network of 12,000 kilometres.