Spain will hurtle past France as Europe’s high-speed rail leader when it opened a €6.6-billion line from Madrid to Valencia, banking on a boost to the economy.

The 438-kilometre route slashes travel time between the Spanish capital and the Mediterranean port of Valencia, Spain’s third-biggest city, from four hours to just 90 minutes.

The project, built at a cost of €6.6 billion, brings Spain’s high-speed rail network to 2,056 kilometres.

It places Spain ahead of the 1,896 kilometres of high speed rail in France and 1,285 kilometres in Germany, home to Siemens, the world’s largest manufacturer of high-speed trains.

Spain’s high-speed train service, known as Alta Velocidad Espanola, boasts trains with noses shaped like a duck-billed platypus moving at speeds of up to 300 kph.

Taking into account routes planned or under construction, Spain would be in second place globally with 5,525 kilometres of high speed rail tracks, behind China the world leader with 13,134 kilometres but ahead of pioneer Japan with 3,625 kilometres.

By 2020 Spain wants to have 90 per cent of the population within 50 kilometres of a high-speed rail station. “The AVE is very expensive. But it is an investment that generates many jobs and constributes to stimulate the economy, which is good at a time of crisis,” said the director general for travelers at state-owned rail network Renfe.

The Spanish economy slumped into recession in late 2008 due to the collapse of a property bubble that has caused the unemployment rate to soar to 20 per cent, the highest in the euro zone.