We are by your side as a benchmark in urban mobility for Cercanías (commuter), regional connections for Media Distancia (mid-distance) and the best option for travel on Alta Velocidad (high-speed) and Larga Distancia (Long Distance) trains.
As a subsidiary of the Renfe Group, we were created as a passenger transport operator and tourism service provider in 2013.
Almost 40 million passengers use Alta Velocidad (high-speed) services every year in Spain. The modernisation of our railway throughout much of the Iberian peninsula as regards Larga Distancia (Long Distance) and Media Distancia (Mid-distance) services involves an Alta Velocidad (high-speed) network that has been developed in connection with the conventional network. Development over the years places the cumulative number of passengers who have used the Alta Velocidad (high-speed) network in Spain at more than 400 million passengers.
28 years after the first Alta Velocidad (high-speed) service, the train is the main mode of collective transport chosen in Spain for long-distance routes on the peninsula.
The implications of this fact are connected with the Spanish industrial and rail sector, a world reference; with the tourism sector, where Spain is an international benchmark; and with a low-carbon economy; in addition to the safety, reliability and punctuality of services that provide the user with added value.
The effect that the expansion of the Alta Velocidad (high-speed) network has progressively generated means that, together with the millions of annual passengers on AVE (high-speed) services, 65% of Larga Distancia (Long Distance) passengers on services running on the conventional network partially use the Alta Velocidad (high-speed) network, designed to connect end points on unfinished corridors.
The average commercial speed of services over the Spanish Alta Velocidad (high-speed) network is 222 km/h, higher than in pioneering countries such as Japan or France. This is one of the key technological factors of this transformation.
Rail is one of the central elements for a low-carbon economy and for reducing the externalities caused by transport, avoiding costs and reducing emissions.
This technological development has placed the Spanish railway sector and the industrial sector linked to it at the forefront of the global high-speed market. Renfe and Adif are leaders in interoperability and signalling and traffic systems. Spain is the country with the highest deployment of the ERTMS traffic management system, the most advanced standard defined by the European Union for the community bloc, both as regards the track and on board trains.
The development of Alta Velocidad (high-speed) has allowed us to export this knowledge and technology to countries such as Saudi Arabia or the United States for the design, construction and operation of high-speed services.
The growth in demand for Alta Velocidad (high-speed) services is a result of the factors that distinguish them (average speed, safety, comfort, reliability and punctuality) and service commitment. The network has been extended and Renfe's Alta Velocidad (high-speed) services have gradually been increased while maintaining outstanding levels of perceived quality that are above average within the transport sector.
Cercanías (Commuter), with its focus on large cities, forms an essential network for urban and intercity mobility and allows more than one million passengers to get around daily via the local railway.
The concentration of pollutants in cities creates a challenge that can find an answer in the Cercanías (Commuter) railway. The European Commission recognises transport as the pending subject for decarbonisation in Europe. Mobility is the sector that generates the most greenhouse gases – 27% of total EU emissions.
Our goal is to get more customers using sustainable transport such as urban trains, through management and modernisation, allowing them to reduce their individual carbon footprints, their environmental impact, and increase the sustainability of their travel and business.
Renfe has a total of 12 urban areas with Cercanías and they are Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Murcia–Alicante, Cadiz, Zaragoza, Malaga, Cantabria and Asturias. More than one million passengers a day and more than 400 million journeys a year help to decontaminate our big cities.
The train is a great ally in the fight against global warming and for more sustainable mobility. Not only is it the ideal mode of transport for replacing planes and cars for long-distance travel but, even more importantly, it plays a central role in everyday mobility due to its capacity and efficiency: movement in big cities and the millions of short and mid-distance trips that we make every day for work, study and other routines.
We have invested 3 billion euros in the purchase of new trains to completely refurbish the fleet that Renfe uses for the provision of public services, i.e. Cercanías (Commuter) and Media Distancia (Mid-distance) trains.
On 14 December 2016, the European Parliament approved the Fourth Railway Package, the framework for a railway reform to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of the railway throughout the European Union, while removing the current institutional, legal and technical obstacles, creating a fully integrated and liberalised European rail network.
The liberalisation process included in the Fourth Railway Package has already been transposed into Spanish law. In particular, Royal Decree-Law 23/2018, on the Railway Sector, which set December 2020 as the start date for new railway companies to start transporting passengers by rail using long-distance and high-speed services.
From that date onwards, any company with a railway company licence and a safety certificate issued by the Agencia Estatal de Seguridad Ferroviaria (Spanish Railway Safety Agency) that has submitted an application to use the railway infrastructure may provide services in competition with Renfe.
To organise this new environment, the Infrastructures Manager (Adif) selected three railway corridors (Madrid-Barcelona-French Border, Madrid-Levante and Madrid-Toledo-Seville-Malaga) and three different levels of operating capacity for each of them, categorised as packages (A, B and C).
On 27 November 2019, Adif pre-awarded the different packages as follows:
This opening up of traffic in Spain will lead to a 65% increase in the capacity offered: there will be a 50% increase on the Madrid-Barcelona route, 40% on the Madrid-Levante one and 60% on the Madrid-Sur route.
With regards to the services subject to the public service obligation (Cercanías, Regional trains, Alta Velocidad Media Distancia (AVANT (mid-distance high-speed) and Metric gauge), European regulations allow member states to choose not to mandatorily put PSO services out to tender until 2023, which can be extended if there is an agreement in place at that date.
The liberalisation of the rail transport market for goods began in Spain in 2005, although other private rail companies did not effectively start until 2007. The sector operates under a system of free competition.