The elimination of AVLO trains between Barcelona and Madrid increases ticket prices by 40%.

BarcelonaIn just one month, high-speed rail users between Barcelona and Madrid are clear: the elimination of Renfe's AVLO trains has skyrocketed prices. This has been seen by those traveling from one city to another, but also by those who took advantage of the railway operator's low-cost option to reach the Catalan capital from Tarragona, at a better price compared to the AVE.

Trainline, a train travel booking platform, estimates the price increase at 40% for this journey between Barcelona and Madrid, if data from this September is compared with the same month last year. Renfe decided to abandon the low cost On its main high-speed corridor, where it had a 15% market share, after all the problems experienced by the Talgo trains operating this service, stating that this would not affect the ticket prices paid by users. On the other corridors where the AVLOs operate, connecting Madrid with Andalusia and Galicia, the rail operator has maintained the low-cost service, despite operating with the same Talgo model.

The September price increase for high-speed trains between Barcelona and Madrid has been distributed among all operators, not just Renfe, bringing the average price to 80 euros and rising to 150 euros on weekends. Before eliminating high-speed trains, in the second quarter of this year, the average journey price was 63 euros, which was already 15% more expensive than the previous year, according to data from the National Competition Commission (CNMC). In the case of high-speed trains, it stood at 51.95 euros, while high-speed trains remained the most expensive at 73.91 euros. Despite the price increase, passenger numbers reached a new record, reaching 3.9 million in just one quarter, with a forecast of exceeding 15 million annually, compared to 8 million before liberalization.

Trainline hopes this upturn will be temporary and eventually moderate, while waiting for Renfe to fill the gap left by the other operators that serve this route, Ouigo and Iryo. "The trend is toward more liberalization," argues Pedro García, Trainline's general manager in Europe, "but all operators are reporting losses and the pressure to increase prices is evident." Despite this recent increase, the liberalization of the railway sector has caused train ticket prices between Barcelona and Madrid to fall by 35% since 2019, before the pandemic and the entry of competitors, in addition to boosting the number of passengers. A trend that is repeated in other markets such as France, with a 43% decrease in the average price of the Paris-Lyon route, or Italy, with a 40% reduction on the Milan-Rome route.

Barcelona, ​​​​gateway to southern Europe

The Catalan capital not only hosts many connections to Madrid, but also to other cities such as Seville and Valencia, where demand has grown by 113% and 90%, respectively, in recent months, according to Trainline data. Barcelona's influence extends beyond Spain, with increased traffic to Lyon (+118%), a route offered from Sants by Renfe and the French operator SNCF. It is also growing toward Paris (+38%), a destination only served by SNCF after the obstacles it put in place to allow Renfe to operate it.

Despite the data, Trainline still sees cross-border connections as a pending issue, with Spain being one of the European countries where this option is least considered for travel between neighboring countries and where the tendency is most to take a plane. While 60% of French people and 67% of Italians are aware of international train routes departing from their country, in Spain the proportion drops to 47%.