If the arrival of the high speed wanted to capture those passengers who made this route through the airlift, most for business; the railway liberalization who gave entrance to the competition of Renfe also seeks to attract people from the roadfundamentally to young people and families with children What do they use the car and the bus for your trips. The line Madrid Barcelona was the first to put the experiment to the test –Spain is the only country in Europe with three companies different in a high-speed corridor–, although with half a year late after the opening of the Adif network the December 14, 2020, because of the pandemic. The result, in the absence of consolidating the route, is estimated at almost twice as many passengers and half price tickets.
He May 10, 2021after the state of alarm disappeared, the French Ouigo trains, a SNCF brand, began their operations, thus materializing the opening of the passenger market in Spain. The French company has since reached a market share in the main Spanish high-speed route close to 30% with five daily frequencies (10 routes), according to figures from the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) until third quarter of 2022. A month later, on June 23, 2021, Renfe launched AVLO, its cheap train, with four round trips a day and has achieved a share of 14%, while the AVE stands at 57%.
He November 25, 2022 joined the three Iryo brands, an operator resulting from the Spanish-Italian consortium formed by AirNostrum, Globalvia and Trenitalia, who began his activity carrying out 12 operations a day that doubled on February 10 and in June will reach a total of 30 round-trip frequencies, although the goal is to reach 32. The company aspires to achieve a 30% market share in 2023 in the set of three routes (Madrid-Barcelona, Madrid-Valencia and Alicante and Madrid-Seville) that will be completed in mid-June with the connection Madrid-Alicante.
Despite the setbacks at the beginning, due to the pandemic, in 2022 the recovery of high-speed rail traffic exceeding pre-pandemic levels. According to Adif data, the line Madrid-Barcelona grew by 37.8%, according to Adif, and the number of travelers practically doubled those of 2019. Specifically, the passengers who used that corridor in December of last year have increased by one hundred percent compared to the same month of 2019; while travelers with origin or destination between two corridor stations or who traveled part of it have increased almost 60% compared to the same month of 2019.
The National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) stated in June 2022 that the prices of train tickets between Madrid and Barcelona had been reduced by 25%. The ticketing platform, Trainline, argues that the entry of competition has reduced average ticket price 49%, from an average of 82 euros per person up to around 40 euros at present. While the AVE used to have a fixed pricesince the entry of the competition in Spain, both Renfe and its competitors have dynamic rates that change depending on the proximity to the date of the trip or the number of benefits (suitcase, type of seat, possibility of change, etc.). Renfe’s ‘low cost’ train offers tickets from 7 euros, while Ouigo starts at around 9 euros. In both cases, children under 14 years of age pay a flat rate of 14 euros. Iryo, meanwhile, has a minimum price of 18 euros.
to other brokers
In this first phase of liberalization (Madrid-Barcelona, Madrid-Levante and Madrid-Andalusia), access to runners in competition has risen to 24.7 million citizens in 14 provinces, a 57% of the total Spanish population. But, as in the case of the AVE, the objective is to reach the entire territory, as defended by the Secretary of State for Transport, Isabel Pardo de Vera, On numerous occasions. In the case of Renfethe company wants to reach “all destinations” with its tren barato AVLO. “Reach everywherewith time, but conceptually it will come to all destinations and it will be the train that will tend to make all the stops everywhere to attract people from the road, the car and the bus”, said the president of Renfe a few days ago, Isaiah Tablesin a forum organized by the Spanish Confederation of Directors and Executives (CEDE).
Also your competitor That has announced that its intention is to cover more stops, once it launches in the middle of this year the Madrid-Alicante connection and with it, the arrival of the competition to the first three corridors in which private companies enter in Spain is inaugurated. “We will be attentive to the northern corridor and the Extremadura corridor”, said the president of AirNostrum and Ilsa a few months ago, Carlos Bartomeu. In the case of SNCF, the French company is more cautious about its expansion in Spain. In fact, the company, despite being the first private company to circulate in the country, has yet to reach Seville.