(Article updated on 19 June)
After TrenitaliaThe opening up of the rail sector to competition is set to become a little more of a reality in France with the arrival of the Renfe. L'Spanish national operator plans to launch an AVE route between Lyon and Barcelona the 13th July. Renfe will then inaugurate the Marseille-Barcelona-Madridthe 28 July as announced by its Chairman on 19 June Raül Blanco. While fares on all these routes will start at €29, intermediate tickets, from Montpellier or Narbonne for example, will be available from €19 and purely national sections from €9. Ten of the sixteen stations served will be located in the south of France, including Nîmes, Montpellier, Aix-en-Provence, Béziers and Narbonne.
On the Spanish side, in addition to Barcelona and Madrid, the AVEs will stop at Figueres and Girona on the Barcelona route, and Tarragona and Zaragoza on the Madrid route. This aggressive pricing will only be temporary, however, and will be used to launch operations and introduce the new services to French customers.
The goal of leaving Paris in 2024
Renfe announces to see " France as a priority market for internalisation" . These two lines are in fact onlya first stepThe operator has made no secret of its ambitions to obtain the Safety Certificate that will enable it to operate from spring 2024 from Lyon station to Paris and thus benefit from the highly lucrative Paris-Lyon market, on which SNCF is already battling with Trenitalia. But also " offer new international routes and a public service provider" Renfe adds in its press release.
Trainline in the starting blocks
While this offer will obviously not be distributed via SNCF Connect, specialist platforms such as Trainline are already rubbing their hands in the arrival of this new player. " We are very pleased with the arrival of Renfe in France, with accessible prices that will benefit consumers." says Christopher Michau, Trailine's Managing Director for France. He goes on to citepositive impact on prices the opening up to competition, which led to an 8% drop in the average price of tickets between Paris and Lyon in the last quarter of 2022 and a 17% drop on the Paris-Milan route.
" By way of comparison, in Spain, where competition on high-speed lines has been in place for 3 years, and where 4 operators share the Madrid-Barcelona route in particular, the average price of a Madrid-Barcelona ticket has been halved since 2019." adds Christopher Michau. Other comparator-distributors such as Kombo also intend to benefit from the growth of these new operators to carve out a - small - niche for itself in the face of the behemoth that is the SNCF sales site (€4.3 billion in business volume by 2021).
Competition is already raging in Spain
Long-time partners in the Ellipsos company, Renfe and SNCF have broken off their alliance at the end of 2021 as soon as the French company announces its intention to launch in May 2022 its Ouigo offer in Spain. Since then, SNCF has also taken over solo operation of the Inoui train on the Paris-Lyon-Barcelona TGV line on which Renfe hopes to take market share this summer on the second part of the section. Renfe has also replied to Ouigo España by launching its low-cost Avlo trains. But Trenitalia came along at the end of 2022. in the Iberian Peninsula with its Frecciarossa 1000s operating between Madrid-Valencia and Madrid-Barcelona.
