A Spanish high speed train will be en route to Paris from Madrid by 2012 This announcement has come from central government.The line will link to the Eurostar terminal in Paris meaning that passengers can then go on to London without having to cross the city.

Consequently there will now be a direct link from Madrid to London in less than three years.The plans have been agreed between the Spanish president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and the French minister Francois Fillon.

The rail link will be jointly managed by RENFE,Spain’s railway board and SNCF for France.The resulting company will have its offices in Spain.RENFE intends to invest 300 million euros in the project.The project will answer all of the prayers of those expats who prefer train to plane when it comes to travelling.The journey will be completed in about 8 hours.

As well as this rail link there will also bwe a high speed rail link between Spain and France from Figueres (Girona) to Perpignan in France.This will be a coastal link between the two countries.