Originally Posted by
HalconBCN
Actually, Iberia does fly to BCN and the "all roads lead to Madrid" is unfortunately an example of the victim attitude we hear all too often from some of our politicians in Catalonia - who forget that the rest of Spain still lags behind in terms of infrastructure. Just try getting a train from Valladolid to Ourense.
I strongly disagree the high speed train routes are "ridiculous" - a wild distortion of the facts. Take a look at an AVE weekday morning from Barcelona to Madrid. The trains are packed with people wearing business suits, indicating the strong interdependency between our two great capitals.
Iberia does fly to Barcelona - from Madrid, and only Madrid (aside from the LHR flight which I can't imagine will last much longer). Which kinda proves my point, no?
As far as your attempt to use Barcelona-Madrid trains as an example of a
ll roads lead to Madrid being "a wild distortion of facts", well once again you're proving my point. AVE is great as long as you want to go to, you guessed it, Madrid. Tell me about taking an AVE from Barcelona to Valencia. Or to Bilbao. Or to Sevilla. Or Alicante. Or Granada.
Why, it's just 900km out of your way and a scenic trip to Madrid. With respect to your example of getting a train from Ourense to Valladolid for some reason, according to the RENFE website you'll have AVE service on that route before the end of the year. And it won't go through Madrid.
I'm going to go ahead and stand by everything I said before.