Two weeks after the French SNCF premiered the solo Barcelona – Paris route, Renfe strike back in the sphere international. The Spanish operator has announced this Friday that since December 22 it has the necessary permissions to offer the Madrid-Marseille and the Barcelona-Lyontwo services that he had done jointly for a decade with the Gauls.
Once the placet of the French Security Agency (EPSF) and European validation, Renfe aspires to be able to market these trips again before summer, sources from the railway company have reported. Its purpose is to offer 14 daily trips for each connectionthat is, 28 in total, taking advantage of the liberalization from the passenger market of the neighboring country, much less developed than the Spanish one. The first tests on the French infrastructure will start on January 16.
With consolidated Ouigo
SNCF and Renfe broke up in December after several months of negotiation, although the reasons for the discord do not match. French railway managers assured that the deficit of the company Elipsos, the joint venture between both companies, was 10 million euros per year, that is, 100 million in almost 10 years and that the only service that was not in deficit was Barcelona-Paris. However, the Spanish consider that the French decision was “unilateral”.
It was then that Renfe announced that it would maintain prices for the Avant until Figueras, despite having lost several circulations after the disagreement with SNCF, whom it accuses of having disassociated itself from the company “once its Ouigo high-speed service is consolidated in the Spanish rail market,” they reply. The French company knew that they “could operate alone and Renfe still can’t: it’s a purely strategic decision and economic reasons cannot be adduced”.
Staff training
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In order to start commercial operations in summer, as Renfe claims, it is necessary to driver training (which will last until mid-April) and intervention personnel, which has already started and will be expanded in the coming weeks, they say. The Operations Management Center to serve these new routes will be located in Barcelona.
However, the clashes between two competing rail operators are far from over. In fact, the operator run by Isaías Táboas has assured that they will continue working to obtain the Safety Certificate that allows them to circulate throughout France (“as SNCF-Ouigo already has to operate in Spain”, they emphasize from Renfe) and thus be able to take advantage of the “incipient liberalization” that the French State and the SNCF have announced.