The Spanish national railway company Renfe, which will launch its high-speed trains in the French market on July 13 with the Lyon-Barcelona line for the first time, has already sold 31,000 tickets for its trains in France, it announced Thursday. In addition to the Barcelona-Lyon line, which lasts five hours, Renfe trains will run between Madrid and Marseille from July 28, with numerous intermediate stops in both Spain and France, that is, 17 stations in total. . “We are very happy to start like this,” Susana Lozano, international director of Renfe AVE (Spanish High Speed) said at a press conference in Lyon, celebrating the sale of 31,000 tickets in two weeks.
Up to 28 weekly runs from October
For a trip between Spain and Marseille or Lyon, the price of the first ticket is currently 29 euros and for a trip between Spain and Narbonne or Montpellier, 19 euros. Renfe will have “absolutely competitive prices in the air world,” said Susana Lozano, while she specified that with a view to the start of the school year prices must be adjusted based on the market.
The Lyon-Barcelona line, which is the most requested to date, will offer departures from Friday to Monday during the summer, then it will become daily at the start of the school year, like the one between Marseille and Madrid a month later. In October, the Spanish operator will offer up to 28 weekly trips in French territory.
The arrival of Renfe opens a new chapter in the liberalization of the railway, desired by Brussels to increase competition between operators and lower ticket prices. The Spanish company hopes to extend its AVE operation to the Lyon-Paris corridor in the medium term. In France, Trenitalia was the first foreign company to take advantage of this opening, offering a service between Paris and Milan via Lyon starting in December 2021.
Source: BFM TV
