Are Spanish Renfe trains cheaper than SNCF?

The Spanish cities of Madrid and Barcelona will be the first served by the Renfe company.

Founded in 1941, Renfe Operadora (Red nacional de los ferrocarriles españoles or National Network of Spanish Railways in good French) is preparing to strengthen its long-distance train offerings within France.

After the modest beginnings of Trenitalia, which currently only offers routes between Paris-Lyon, Paris-Turin, and Paris-Milan, the leading operator in Spain, Renfe, is now embarking on the adventure.

The first step was taken last December, with the acquisition of the necessary safety certificates granted by the French government. With this green light, Renfe has begun training its staff on the specificities of the French and Spanish networks, particularly for the first two test routes starting today, Monday, January 16, 2023. For now, these are trial runs without passengers on two routes: Barcelona-Lyon-Barcelona and Madrid-Marseille-Madrid. An initial goal before expanding to the rest of the country and notably serving the capital, Paris.

Are prices going down?

Currently, testing of the equipment is underway. Renfe has not yet specified what the future schedules or fares will be. These details are expected to be announced in spring 2023. Sensing competition, SNCF, which had discontinued the Barcelona-Lyon-Barcelona route, has relaunched the Paris-Barcelona-Paris line with two daily departures.

The opening to competition should allow for increased offerings and destinations, as well as lower prices. Let’s hope that fares will drop significantly, as traveling by train, especially with family, is very expensive! By way of comparison, Spain, which has opened its railway network to competition (Renfe, SNCFF, and Iryo), has notably benefited users, who have experienced a price reduction of around 43% between Madrid and Barcelona, while also increasing train occupancy. Win-win?

Read also: Trenitalia: what is the bilan for the SNCF competitor?