An Ouigo TGV in Paris (illustrative image).

-

JACQUES DEMARTHON / AFP

Enough to go to Madrid, Zaragoza, Tarragona and Barcelona.

SNCF announced on Tuesday the launch on March 15, 2021 of the low cost Ouigo service to and from these four Spanish cities.

Five daily round trips will be provided.

SNCF was granted in November 2019 running rights for five round trips per day between Madrid, Aragon and Catalonia (northeast), five between Madrid and the region of Valencia (east) and five others. between Madrid and Andalusia (south).

In April, it signed its contract with the public operator of Spanish railways, Adif.

Other lines to come

“Despite the losses that we have experienced and that we still know (because of the coronavirus crisis), it was important for SNCF to maintain the project.

(…) There is real logic in offering a low cost product in Spain which did not exist until now, ”SNCF Travel General Manager Alain Krakovitch told AFP.

"On average, our prices will be 50% below current prices," said Hélène Valenzuela, director of Ouigo Spain.

SNCF, which planned to launch in December, took because of the pandemic "three months behind the preparation of trains with Alstom and their approval" in Spain, noted Alain Krakovitch.

“We are still in the process of equipping the trains,” he noted, considering a launch on Madrid-Valencia / Alicante around “end of 2021-beginning of 2022” and Madrid-Cordoba-Seville / Malaga in 2023.

A bar in the Spanish Ouigo

On the model of the French Ouigo, SNCF will use 14 duplex TGV trains in Spain, taken from its fleet and refitted in its workshops in Bischheim, near Strasbourg.

She also kept the name Ouigo.

"We have made studies of brands which show that Ouigo works very well in Spanish", noted the manager.

“In Spain, it is not a question of copying and pasting the French offer, but of taking the best of what we know how to do to respond to what Spanish travelers have told us to expect,” he said. he added at a press conference in Madrid.

The Spanish Ouigo will thus have a bar, unlike its big French brother.

Faced with this competition from France, the Spanish incumbent Renfe was to launch its own low cost high-speed trains on April 6, but postponed its project because of the pandemic.

A third operator called Ilsa - a joint subsidiary of the Italian public company Trenitalia and the Spanish airline Air Nostrum - must for its part approach the Spanish market in 2022, with new trains.

At the same time, Renfe and Trenitalia have announced their intention to enter the French high-speed train market, starting with the Lyon-Marseille and Paris-Lyon-Milan connections respectively.

Economy

Low prices and armored trains ... What results for Ouigo, the low cost offer of the SNCF?

Reindeer

Stronger than the LGV, Ouigo blows up traffic at Rennes station

  • TGV

  • Ouigo

  • Spain

  • Society

  • SNCF