{"id":150645,"date":"2023-06-16T12:30:12","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T10:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/?p=150645"},"modified":"2023-09-18T14:48:37","modified_gmt":"2023-09-18T12:48:37","slug":"renfe-liaisons-france-espagne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/renfe-liaisons-france-espagne","title":{"rendered":"Renfe, SNCF's competitor on France-Spain routes"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Article updated on 19 June)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Trenitalia<\/strong><\/a>The 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<\/strong>. L'Spanish national operator<\/a> plans to launch an AVE route between Lyon and Barcelona <\/strong>the 13th July<\/strong>. Renfe will then inaugurate the Marseille-Barcelona-Madrid<\/strong>the 28 July <\/strong>as announced by its Chairman on 19 June Ra\u00fcl Blanco<\/strong>. While fares on all these routes will start at \u20ac29, intermediate tickets, from Montpellier or Narbonne for example, will be available from \u20ac19 and purely national sections from \u20ac9. Ten of the sixteen stations served will be located in the south of France, including N\u00eemes, Montpellier, Aix-en-Provence, B\u00e9ziers and Narbonne. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/strong> will only be temporary, however, and will be used to launch operations and introduce the new services to French customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal of leaving Paris in 2024<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Renfe announces to see \"\u00a0France as a priority market for internalisation<\/em>\" . These two lines are in fact onlya first step<\/strong>The 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 <\/a>to Paris and thus benefit from the highly lucrative Paris-Lyon market, on which SNCF is already battling with Trenitalia. But also \"\u00a0offer new international routes and a public service provider<\/em>\" Renfe adds in its press release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trainline in the starting blocks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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. \"\u00a0We are very pleased with the arrival of Renfe in France, with accessible prices that will benefit consumers.<\/em>\" says Christopher Michau, Trailine's Managing Director for France. He goes on to citepositive impact on prices<\/strong> 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\u00a0By 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.<\/em>\" adds Christopher Michau. Other comparator-distributors such as Kombo also intend to benefit from the growth of these new operators <\/strong>to carve out a - small - niche for itself in the face of the behemoth that is the SNCF sales site (\u20ac4.3 billion in business volume by 2021).<\/p>\n\n\n\n