Alta Velocidad Española (
AVE) is a service of
high-speed rail in
Spain operated by
Renfe Operadora, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . translates to "Spanish High Speed", but the initials are also a play on the word , meaning "bird". As of June 2013, the Spanish AVE system is the longest HSR network in Europe with and the second in the world, after China's.