The Talgo Avril has been in development since 2016 and has finally entered service 8 years later with Renfe on its high speed AVE and Avlo branded services. They have some good points about them, however there are A LOT more issues than benefits. Find out why in this video!
Journey details:
Date of travel – June 2024
Operator – Renfe AVE
Class of travel – Elige Comfort (first without at seat meal service)
Origin – Madrid Chamartín Clara Campoamor
Destination – Gijon
Price – €36.70/£30.99/$39.64
(Elige Comfort promo fare)
Journey time – 3 hours, 31 minutes
Distance – 530km/329 miles
Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoyed the video!
Music from EpidemicSound and used under license.
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Link to the Renfe café bar and Premium menus: https://www.renfe.com/es/en/travel/el-viaje/on-board/onboard-dining
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31 Comments
Ohh how terrible avril is!! really dissappointing! The worse in Europe.. 😂😂😂 let me laugh to be honest. Have you got in the UK high speed to compare with at least?
Yes i did enjoy watching your Talgo Avril High Speed Train review, not a bad price fare for the distance you traveled all-in-all., pitty about all those issues you experienced while onboard. That buffetcar food selection looked pretty good though, awesome travel video there OM the Rails👍
Those trains look small enough that they could run in the UK
I've only been on a Talgo train once, on the Iberian gauge (not high-speed) and I remember it being particularly bumpy and not exactly comfortable (I was in 2nd class). I imagine there have been improvements to the wheelsets now but it doesn't seem suited to high-speed running. Also, what's with the front-end design of these sets. It seems particularly uninspired and bland.
It looks very much like this is a fantastic concept executed very badly. Because of the gauge changing I can completely understand a slightly bumpier ride. What I can't understand is the 2+2 first class, 2+3 standard class and the entertainment systems. A better interior layout could result in a fantastic travel experience.
That said, this layout might make perfect sense for the low cost Avlo services where people will be more willing to compromise on comfort to have a much cheaper journey.
Why is it not possible to use the talgo system with 4 wheels? Instead of having one set of wheels for two coaches.
Rubbish vid
PONTE UN PARACAIDAS POR SI ACASO PRINGADO . JAJAJAJA
What I see is a complete FAIL…It was first introduced in 2010 at Innotrans Fair in Berlin, Germany in 2010 (concept) so its wildly beyond me that it would take 14 years to launch….Just remember how bad SEAT was in the past and maybe you all don't know, but recently SEAT was cancelled by VW Group!
We are getting Talgo trains in Denmark and I believe that they are rubbish to 😮
I'm not convinced by the potential of single axle (bogieless) wheelsets. It's basically a highspeed Pacer. We're getting these things in Germany too.
El nuevo tren de Talgo es excelente como todos los trenes de Talgo.
Estos trenes adaptan el giro de sus ejes de forma que las ruedas permanecen siempre tangentes a la via, y los ejes perpendiculares. Esto elimina la tendencia al descarrilamiento de los ejes tradicionales y de los bogies, y permite que los vagones sean mucho más ligeros manteniendo un paso por curva de alta velocidad con completa seguridad.
Además, son trenes extremadamente bajos, lo que disminuye el riesgo de vuelco y mejora su velocidad, aparte de ofrecer una accesibilidad sin rival, en la que no hay que subir ni un solo escalón para acceder al tren.
Su mayor ligereza permite remontar las subidas y acelerar con mayor facilidad, lo que permite una mayor velocidad media.
El confort de los trenes Talgo es excelente, igual o superior al resto de trenes. Esto es algo que el fabricante Talgo mide CIENTÍFICAMENTE y que tiene muy estudiado.
Yo personalmente he comprobado muchas veces cómo estos trenes a velocidades por debajo de 200 kmh PARECE QUE ESTÁN PARADOS, porque no se nota nada.
Tampoco he tenido nunca ninguna queja sobre los asientos, que siempre me han parecido perfectamente cómodos, y siempre he viajado muy a gusto en ellos y los viajes se me han hecho cortos.
Trenes como los Iryo (Frecciarossa ETR 1000) son más ruidosos y tienen igual o más vibraciones. Las vibraciones dependen mucho de las vías y poco de los trenes.
El uso de ejes simples y no dobles no aumenta el ruido ni las vibraciones sino que LAS DISMINUYE al haber MENOS RUEDAS PRODUCIENDO VIBRACIONES.
LO CIENTÍFICO ES COMPARAR LOS TRENES CIRCULANDO POR LAS MISMAS VÍAS Y A LA MISMA VELOCIDAD Y CON LA MISMA CARGA, porque todo eso afecta a las vibraciones.
Comparar trenes arbitrariamente, en líneas diferentes, en trazados diferentes y en vías diferentes, y sin hacer ninguna medida científica es totalmente arbitrario y ridículo.
Eso es totalmente SUBJETIVO y NO CIENTÍFICO.
Tú sólo eres un ignorante que se cree muy listo,
NO TIENES NI IDEA DE TRENES, NI DE FÍSICA, NI DE CIENCIA.
SÓLO ERES UN IGNORANTE INGLÉS, LLENO DE ENVIDIA PORQUE EN TU PAÍS NO TENÉIS UNA GRAN RED DE ALTA VELOCIDAD, Y MUCHO MENOS UNA COMO LA ESPAÑOLA, QUE ES LA MÁS GRANDE DE EUROPA.
Y POR SUPUESTO, TAMBIÉN TE DA ENVIDIA QUE ESPAÑA FABRIQUE TRENES DE ALTA TECNOLOGÍA COMO LOS TALGO.
Just FYI, these sets have turned out so bad Renfe is going to sue Talgo over it
What really dissapoints me is that, as soon as you guys (youtubers) see the opportunity to go and criticise something, there you are, like wolfs running for his food.
It's a new product that needs to be adjusted of course, but you don't even give the chance. It's a matter of trial and error to get better but you give your opinions like if it was the end of the world just because there are a few things to be adjusted (like everything else in life)…
You give it a dislike and I give it to you!…
The Frecciarossa 500 and 1000 are the best high-speed trains in Europe!
An interesting assessment. Unfortunately, ride quality seems to have gone downhill on modern rolling stock. Certainly true with the current class 80x in the UK compared with the old Mk3 stock. Some of that is to do with the need to fit within modern absolute gauge requirements (Uniform Structure Gauge (USG) EN 15273), with the avoidance of air suspension for that reason, but there was something well done with the old Mk3s, especially when the permanent way wasn’t perfect.
This is depending from you are from, if you are British or American, travel in a high speed train is something special and you want services on it, for Spanish, travel in high speed trains is a routine so any train that takes you to the place you want on time is a good train, and this one is the best basically because it can take you to places other models can’t, new technology comes with problems that it will be fixed, but think that you couldn’t have done this trip if this train doesn’t exist.
Excellent video, the Avril is the best high-speed train in Spain
This is more of a complex thing that it might seem, let me explain. Renfe asked for a train that basically did not exist: one capable of going through any track of Europe without any modification, and all done automatically within the train itself. This means one single train capable of ruling in different track gauges (particularly inside Spain) and changing electrical currents (AC, DC and varying voltages), whilst being certified to reach a top speed of 360 km/h commercially. On top of that, they wanted a high capacity train and preferably low floor.
Renfe’s tender consisted of two parts: a normal high speed train and the mentioned before. Since Talgo was the only one capable of doing the latter (as they already had the gauge changing technology), they won the contract. Also, their offered price was lower than the rest. However, the entry to service was delayed, as it was obvious that Renfe’s request were too much, specially with the small timeframe to design, build and test the train of 4 years. The pressures over Talgo to deliver the trains (due to Renfe not having trains to operate the newly built HS lines in northern Spain) made them deliver a train that had unfixed issues. Among these issues: high vibrations, systems shutting down, or simply the whole train stopping for no reason. Talgo blames Renfe for the pressure (also politics got involved) and Adif (the railway administrator) for not letting Talgo test the train with enough frequency in different tracks. And now Renfe wants lawsuit Talgo for the defects on the trains. A thing to notice is that the highly reduced price of these trains is not really due to the cheapness of materials/components, but because it has less bogies (or rodales as Talgo calls them), which highly reduces the price. On a side note, the seats are Renfe’s issue, nothing to do with Talgo as such (they install the seating the customer asks for), just like all the interior layout.
In my personal opinion, Talgo was too ambitious with this train. The funny part is that IT IS capable of doing all they promised, but with compromises that could not get fixed with the time they had. Also, the vibrations vary a lot with the tracks, as this train goes outside of the HS line too (the only one to do so in the Spanish network), and on wether the specific variant is gauge changing or not. Additionally, the wheels have a totally more technology that aligns them automatically with the track to reduce stress and make the train more efficient, and it’s been rumored that that’s the cause of the elevated shaking. I hope that they will fix the issues on the train as they did with the S130 back then, which has now become a pretty reliable train (although it also experiences some vibrations, but not much more than other trains). The layout and seats should just be a little investment from Renfe, which I hope they do.
I wonder how this train got signed off with poor seating and bad ride.
I hate wireless headphones. They generally have lower sound quality and batteries that go flat. I'll take my Hi Res cabled headphones every time.
Bruh. The new ICE L from DB germany is also from Talgo(ne) the new talgo(ne) trains are going also to the Netherlands Amsterdam(ned) – Berlin.
I think my Fiat Seicento rally are more comfortabel than the talgone trains haha
Great video😊
Its crazy how renfe still hasnt been able to make computers work after 10y of beeing standard on most trains. Screens dont work, wifi doesnt work, their website only does sometimes. Its crazy how can a comoany be this bad with something they can just buy ensewhere
So comparing these train sets to the high speed trains built by Alstom and Siemens which do you prefer for ride quality? (Im not familiar with Hitachi and Stadler’s high speed product line in Europe)
There was something similar happening in Poland last year, where it was discovered that the train manufacturer deliberately was messing up with train software so the trains were breaking at predefined time intervals. Obviously that given train manufacturer was the only one able to fix the issues. All this was discovered by a group of hackers employed by a train repair company…
KTX-EUM(3rd Gen KTX up to 260km/h) and EMU-320(3rd Gen KTX up to 320km/h) looks much better than that one.
I don't understand why Talgo tried to compete with Hyundai Rotem in 3rd Generation KTX Program.
The two wheels per carriage has been a point for some time. It may be that a bo-bo formation doesn’t work with the gauge change. However no excuse for 3 by 2 seating or poor quality seats. Leave that to the brits.
9:14 Renfe gives you free headphones at the Cafetería coach
Talgo💩
I'm currently travelling in One and it's awful. Specially the bathroom, what a disgusting smell!
The duck nosed Talgo and the Haramain havent been so widely criticised. Im curious as to why this one appears to have had such a bad reception
Also note that swedish trains, are 2 + 2 first class, they are 3.4 m wide. Likewise KTX EMUs and Shinkansen Green Car.