The speedometer races up. First 50, then 100, 150. Within 20 seconds we have hit 300km/h (186.4mph). Sitting in the nose-like cabin of Spain’s bullet train, the rugged countryside whizzes past in a blur. Abelardo Carrillo Jiménez looks over and smiles, as if to say: “Pretty good eh?”

Mr Carrillo, director of Alta Velocidad Española (AVE), the high-speed train service run by Renfe, the state rail operator, is right. But not merely for the obvious reasons: this train doesn’t only get you from Madrid to Barcelona — a journey of 385 miles — in 2hr 40min, it offers passengers a competitive price. For both reasons, it has caught the eye of the British and American governments. Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, Geoff Hoon, his predecessor, and Ray LaHood, their American counterpart, have all been impressed after taking a ride. The AVE — Spanish for bird — has put Spanish transport centre stage.

Britain is about to open the High Speed One line between London St Pancras and Ashford, in Kent (a 30-minute journey at 140mph) and there are plans for a high-speed line between London and the West Midlands. The Government is considering enlisting Renfe to help on a high-speed rail link from London to Manchester.

So what is all the fuss about? Door-to-door, the train equals, or betters, the plane for time and price on most routes. Robert Preston, deputy editor of Railway Gazette International, said: “The Japanese bullet train was more geared for the executive, in terms of the cost of tickets, whereas the TGV [the French service] was consciously an everyman service. The AVE caters for business travellers but has lots of offers, too.”

When the AVE was launched last year on one of the busiest commuter routes in the world — MadridBarcelona — airlines claimed 88 per cent of the market. A year later, 47 per cent of passengers take the train. The first line opened in 1992 between Madrid and Seville. Today there are 1,600km of track stretching from Malaga in the South up to Barcelona. Plans are under way to extend into the Basque Country, then eventually into France.

Some Spaniards even claim that the AVE is transforming society. Sixty per cent of travellers are tourists keen to visit previously inaccessible corners of the country. Eta, the Basque separatist group, sees it as such a threat that they attack businesses associated with the line.

Renfe is also ambitious, aiming to put the French TGV, AVE’s main rival, in the shade. It is bidding for a contract in Saudi Arabia and has advised California on a possible AVE line.

Last year, 19 million people travelled on the AVE. By 2020, Renfe says that every Spaniard will live within 50km of the high-speed network. While this seems impossible, when Mr Carrillo draws a map, Spain’s advantages over a small, densely populated country like Britain becomes clear. “In Madrid you have Real Madrid, then on the coasts you have all the other football teams, Barça, Málaga, Seville etc. The population is the same. Between the capital and the coast there is not much, which makes things easier for us,” he said.

Expansion will come at a cost. By 2020, the Spanish Government plans to invest €119 billion (£101.5 billion) in infrastructure alone, plus millions more on trains.

But one great advantage that Renfe may have over rivals in Britain and America is that it is a state operator. Phil Marsh, of Railway magazine, said: “These European, state-funded networks do not have the same problems of privatisation that exist in the UK.”

Nevertheless, Mr Carrillo said: “We have to make a profit. It doesn’t matter if we are a state company.”

It is not difficult to see why Lord Adonis may wish to emulate the Spanish network, but it seems likely that the journey will be a long haul.

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