The Spanish railway company Renfe is preparing to launch its high-speed trains on the Madrid-Marseille and Barcelona-Lyon lines. These lines will be open “before the summer,” Renfe said in a press release without further details.
Renfe carried out its first test on the Barcelona-Lyon line this Monday, which passes specifically through Montpellier. Over time, it intends to offer two round trips a day between Barcelona and Lyon and between Madrid and Marseille.
security certificates
The Spanish company still has to train its railway workers to be able to run its trains on the French lines, after having obtained the safety certificates for the two lines.
The representative of Renfe in Catalonia (northeast) Mayte Castillo had indicated at the end of December the intention of the Spanish company to operate on the Barcelona-Paris line “in the longer term”. Renfe’s rival, the French company SNCF launched the low-cost TGV Ouigo in the Spanish market in 2021.
In December, he also ended the partnership that had linked him to the Spanish company since 2013 and now operates the TGV Paris-Barcelona alone. The Italian company Trenitalia has already been present in France for just over a year on the Paris-Milan line via Lyon.
Source: BFM TV
