The Spanish railway company, Renfe, will become the second foreign company to enter the French market since the opening to competition for high-speed lines, after the Italian company Trenitalia in December 2021. It will launch its high-speed trains on the French market on July 13.
Spanish rail company Renfe announced on Monday that it will launch its high-speed trains on the French market on July 13, with Barcelona-Lyon connections, to be followed by Madrid-Marseille connections on July 28. This launch constitutes “a historic day” for Renfe, assured, in French to the press, the president of the Spanish public company, Raul Blanco, specifying to aim for a service to Paris in 2024.
Tickets on sale from June 21
Renfe will thus become the second foreign company to enter the French market since the opening to competition for high-speed lines, after the Italian company Trenitalia in December 2021. Renfe’s AVE trains, Spanish equivalents of TGVs, will make many intermediate stops, both in Spain and France, specifies the company, which plans to put its tickets on sale on Wednesday, June 21.
For a trip between Spain and Marseille or Lyon, two cities located respectively in the south-east and the center-east of France, the first price will be 29 euros. For a journey between Spain and Narbonne or Montpellier, towns closer to the Spanish border, it will cost 19 euros. Since December, only SNCF has been operating between France and Spain: the French company has indeed ended the partnership which has linked it since 2013 to Renfe to operate the Paris-Barcelona TGVs alone, in anticipation of the launch of the Spanish group on the French market.