Renfe finalizes its landing in France with the AVE
Renfe is finalizing these days what will be its first disembarkation outside the Spanish railway lines with its own brand. The operator, which in the last two years has seen French and Italian rivals enter what was its monopoly, will cross the border with France before the end of June with the AVE. For now, it does not plan to compete with its low-cost brand AVLO.
The Spanish public operator will put its trains on the French tracks to connect a route that leads from Madrid to Marseille passing through Barcelona and a second from Barcelona to Lyon. In this way, it will bring to French territory the competition that it already maintains in Spain with Ouigo, the brand of the operator SCNF.
In reality, rather than taking the initiative, Renfe hits back. Until last year, both companies shared operations between France and Spain with a joint venture called Elipsos.. However, the SCNF decided to break it with the argument of the deficit that it generated and launched in 2023 to exclusively offer the connection between Paris and Barcelona with the TGVinOui brand.
The six months difference that separates the moment in which both operators have started their solo activity in the neighboring country is explained, according to Renfe, by the difficulties in complying with French regulatory requirements. The company has drivers and auditors specialized in routes and based in Barcelona. But, in fact, the step that will make it possible to put AVE tickets on sale in France in the coming days is the physical opening of a branch in Lyon station.
With this requirement fulfilled, Renfe considers that the entire French passenger rail market is now open.. The first routes obtained are the passage to a third equivalent to what is the Spanish Madrid Barcelona and which is Paris Lyon. In order to run the trains on this route, Renfe needs to receive technical authorizations from the manager of the French railway infrastructure, which is also part of the SCNF. The goal is for Renfe trains to be running through this corridor before the end of the year, but the homologation problems have spread to the Avril trains ordered from the manufacturer Talgo.
The internationalization of Renfe is the longest-term growth project of the company, which wants to export to other countries the knowledge it has of high-speed operation. If in the case of France it will be competing directly with the local operator, in the case of Saudi Arabia it is through a partnership with companies in the country.
The liberalization of the passenger market in Spain is also reinforcing the competitiveness of the company with respect to other modes of transport such as planes or private vehicles.. With Ouigo and Iryo plus AVLO and AVE, the Spanish rail market is growing at an accelerated pace, to the point that stations in cities where several operators come together are growing as connection points and airlines demand that high-speed trains make stops at Barajas airport so that the air routes on which the train operates do not disappear.
The speed at which the market evolves is so fast that the Government announced yesterday the expansion of the Atocha station in works that will have a budget of 500 million euros and will be completed in 2028. The extension will include a new underground stop with four tracks to make room for the trains of all the operators and to make it easier for the trains that today depart from Chamartín to Valencia, Alicante or Murcia to make a stop at Atocha again.