Renfe started testing its trains in France this Monday birdin order to start business Madrid D Barcelona a Marseilles D Lyonwith stops in Perpignan, Narbonne, Montpellier, Nimes and Valence.

Thus, the train, operated only by Renfe, first arrived in Lyon from Barcelonaalso with stops in Girona and Figueres, according to the Spanish public operator.

Thus, the company has already embarked on “dry runs”, which is a testing phase consisting of replicating the characteristics of a commercial service to demonstrate operational solvency.

Renfe already has its first qualified train drivers, and the rest will do so gradually over the next few weeks until an optimal workforce is formed, while the maintenance staff has already received the necessary training and qualifications.

In addition, Renfe has started the process of opening a branch in France, which will require the prior approval of the Ministry of Finance of that country, although Operations Control Center will be in Barcelona.

With this procedure, the Spanish company continues to work towards obtaining a safety certificate for operation throughout France, just like SNCF, the French state operator, has it in Spain and is already working with wugo on two main high-speed axes Madrid-Barcelona and Madrid-Valencia.

Phase one will launch high-speed trains between Madrid and Marseille, and between Barcelona and Lyon every other day, with six weekly flights on each route. In the second phase, trains will run every day of the week and twice a day, which means 28 trips per week between the two routes.

Obstacles in France

As the company has repeatedly pointed out, the French administration has created many obstacles for Renfe to work there, overcoming many of the requirements put forward by the French Security Agency (EPSF) in recent years.

Also, unlike in Spain, where the certificate applies to the entire network throughout the country, in France the certificate is only valid for a specific line. For this reason, at the moment he only has those networks that connect Perpignan with Lyon and Marseille.

Until December 10 last year and since 2013, SNCF and Renfe have jointly operated these cross-border routes. However, Gala unilaterally decided to break off this alliance, precisely when she already had permission to act alone throughout Spain, and Renfe did not have it in France. In addition, he has already worked in Spain with Ouigo since May 2021.

In the domestic market, the SNCF decision could have affected traffic from Figueres to Girona and Barcelona, ​​as the termination of the Elipsos services (which have been out of service since December 11) would have reduced traffic on this particular line (Figueres-Barcelona).

Faced with this situation, Renfe has adapted its operations to continue to maintain the largest number of seats and frequencies on the Avant services in Girona and Figueres-Vilafan, maintaining 13 frequencies in each direction with a 15% increase in seats, thus replacing the frequency that SNCF stopped supplying.