Britons who fancy taking in the Continent will be able to travel from London to Madrid by high-speed train in a journey that could take little more than eight hours.

Spain and France have agreed to form a company to build a high-speed train line linking Madrid and Paris.

The line, which was planned to be in service from 2012, will mean that British travellers will be able to take the Eurostar to Paris in 2 hours and 15 minutes. Allowing for some delay in crossing Paris, they will then be able to board a high-speed train from the French capital to Madrid, stopping off in Lyon and Barcelona.

The journey time between Paris and the Spanish capital is expected to be between 5 hours 30 minutes and six hours.

However, the journey time will depend on whether the bullet train stops off briefly in Lyon and Barcelona, or goes straight from Paris to Madrid.

José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Spanish Prime Minister, and François Fillon, his French counterpart, agreed the high-speed link between both countries.

Spain and France are to form an as yet unnamed company to run the high-speed link between the capitals of both countries.

The company will be jointly run by Renfe, the Spanish state rail operator, and SNCF, the French rail operator, with each taking a 50 per cent stake. It will be operated from Spain.

Renfe is planning to invest €300 million (£273 million) buying ten trains to service the new line.

Teofilo Serrano, the president of Renfe, told the Spanish business daily Expansion yesterday: “We need ten trains which will be operating from 2012, when this new line is expected to be in service.”

Bids to supply trains for the line will probably be opened from next year.

However, one factor that could delay the age of high-speed rail travel from London to the Iberian Peninsula is that parts of the track have not yet been finished.

Though the high-speed AVE train from Madrid to Barcelona was completed last year, the link northwards to Figueras, near the French border, is still under construction and is not expected to be completed until 2012.

On the French side of the border, work is still to begin on the high-speed rail link between Perpignan and Montpellier.

After a meeting earlier this month, French and Spanish ministers agreed to invest €108 million on the new line between Figueras — famous as the birthplace of the Spanish artist Salvador Dalí — and Perpignan.

For Renfe, the high-speed link between Madrid and Paris will represent an important part of its strategy of international expansion.

In a recent interview with The Times, Mr Serrano said that in the medium term the Spanish rail operator would consider bidding for franchises in the UK.

“This is a preliminary stage at present and we have not made any business study, but in the medium to long term we would consider bidding for any franchises,” he said. “Britain is a market which interests us.”

The company is currently bidding to win the contract to run bullet trains between Medina and Mecca in Saudi Arabia and between São Paulo and Rio.

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