Train: Toulouse will be 3h30 away from Barcelona in 2025

The Spanish railway company Renfe will connect Toulouse to Barcelona in 3h30 next year, compared to over 4 hours currently.

Renfe is expanding its reach in France, primarily benefiting travelers with more options and lower prices. Competition can be beneficial in reinventing the SNCF and its sometimes outrageous prices at a time when motivating the French to swap their cars for more sustainable transport is crucial.

After opening routes in Lyon, Marseille, Valencia, as well as Nîmes, Montpellier, Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, and Narbonne, three new destinations are on the horizon for 2025. These will include Toulouse, Carcassonne, and Perpignan. One might think this poses competition to the SNCF, but not really, as these cities were not directly connected to Spain. Travelers had to change trains along the way. The Spanish cities of Figueras (Dali Museum) and Girona will also be accessible from now on.

The Renfe network in France

The Toulouse-Barcelona line (with the option to extend to Madrid) will open in April 2025 and will operate daily until mid-September. At that point, a decision will be made regarding its continuation either as a permanent service or limited to a seasonal summer service.

The same review process was conducted for Lyon and Marseille before they were confirmed for the year-round service. Renfe also reveals that since its entry into the French market in the summer of 2023, 620,000 passengers have traveled on its trains to Spain. The occupancy rate is reportedly 80%.

Paris in sight?

Renfe will provide high-speed trains for this Toulouse-Barcelona connection, with a travel time of 3h30. Factually, the speed will never reach 300 km/h, as the current route, with a connection in Perpignan, takes a little over 4 hours. Therefore, this is not a revolution, but rather an additional and practical service that does not require changing trains.

Now, Renfe has a new target in mind: connecting the capital of France, Paris, similar to how Trenitalia operates routes to Italy. The current hurdle is the choice to use Spanish Talgo trains, which are not yet approved to run on the high-speed network. Launched in spring 2024, the Talgo trains are still facing numerous incidents, delaying their deployment abroad… and therefore in France. This is a boon for SNCF and less so for travelers.

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