FRANCE: Spanish incumbent RENFE Viajeros reported on October 3 that its entry into the French market under open access rules has been a success.
The company has been running Barcelona – Lyon and Madrid – Marseille services under its own safety case since July; these routes are a revival of services that had previously been operated jointly by SNCF and RENFE.
According to Susanna Lozano, Head of International Development at RENFE, 105 000 passengers used the standalone services, which launched on July 13 and have run daily since October 1, and the trains have an average load factor of 81%. She added that punctuality was higher than that achieved during the cooperation with SNCF.
RENFE currently employs 25 drivers and 25 train managers and has a fleet of 10 AVE S100.F trainsets for its French operations. These were built by Alstom in the 1990s; they each have 347 seats.
Looking ahead, the company says that it still intends to use open access regulations to launch a service to and from Paris. Its initial proposals envisage five return trains per day between Paris and Lyon Part-Dieu, with one of these extending to and from Barcelona.
However, RENFE says that it still faces a number of technical and operational hurdles in launching the additional services.
It intends to run to Paris using a fleet of Talgo Avril S106 high speed trainsets currently in use in Spain, but these are still some way from being certified for operation in France. It also faces challenges in securing adequate paths and equipping the trains with the relevant Class B train control systems. But the operator says the biggest obstacle is securing an agreement to access maintenance facilities managed by SNCF Voyageurs.
Currently, RENFE expects to receive formal certification for the Avril fleet in France by June 2024, but it is not committing to a date when the trains will enter revenue service.
- RENFE says that it is interested in responding to calls for tenders for the operation of regional services in France.
