Competition demands Renfe to give Ouigo access to its workshops in Madrid and Barcelona

BarcelonaThe National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) has urged Renfe to allow Ouigo to use its workshops in Cerro Negro/Santa Catalina and Fuencarral (in Madrid) and in Can Tunis (in Barcelona), because it considers that these are commitments agreed upon between the two companies.

The Competition authority explains in its latest resolution that, in January 2025, Ouigo's capacity reservation agreement became multi-year (2025-2030), after Renfe Mantenimiento offered discounts on the price to all railway companies to extend the duration of their commitments.

Months later, Renfe Mantenimiento reduced the capacity granted to Ouigo, considering that some of the planned operations had to be classified as heavy maintenance and could not be carried out in light maintenance workshops.

However, the CNMC has concluded that these operations, consisting of the disassembly and assembly of components whose repair is carried out outside the workshops, constitute basic maintenance services and, therefore, all railway companies must be able to perform them in existing workshops, according to the railway sector law.

The CNMC has also noted that Renfe Mantenimiento allocated capacity to Renfe Viajeros, the group company that provides the railway service, for technically equivalent interventions. For this reason, it considers that the denial of access to Ouigo and the treatment given to this operator are contrary to current regulations.

The resolution highlights the importance of Renfe Mantenimiento having detailed information on the maintenance needs of operators to manage workshop capacity and prioritize the most frequent and essential operations for the daily provision of railway services. Likewise, it requires Ouigo to provide this information within the framework of its capacity allocation agreement.

The case of Iryo

The Competition Authority had already opened a sanctioning file against Renfe for not opening its repair and maintenance workshops to Iryo, despite a resolution having urged it to do so. Renfe described this obligation imposed by the regulator as “disproportionate,” although the reason given for denying access to Iryo was that this operator had not helped Renfe meet its maintenance needs, as the public company argued.

The minister of the sector, Óscar Puente, has already spoken several times on this matter, blaming the CNMC for allowing these two foreign companies (Iryo and Ouigo) to “parasitize” Renfe's industrial infrastructure.