Antonio Cruz is a retired intern. Until recently, he was one of Renfe’s trainers, one of the railroad wise men responsible for shaping train drivers not only in the practical and theoretical sense, but also in the little things, the tricks that make the difference. Dressed for the street, he comes walking down one of the platforms of Sants station, with his arms behind him, in a blue polo shirt and dark trousers. An anonymous character, but a hug with two drivers Start the AVE Barcelona-Lyon route with 240 passengers on board, he gives it away. Today is Thursday, July 13 and Renfe enters for the first time France. On 28 July, the company will also commission the Madrid-Barcelona-Marseille route, taking into account mid-2024, which is expected to land in Paris. For now, things seem to be going well with one-month ticket sales: 43,000 tickets have been distributed.
The train departs from line 4 at 8:23 am. It’s punctual, the public address system is also a bit hasty French, like a Ryanair pilot daring with the Spaniards. Renfe president Raül Blanco shares his enthusiasm with the press, who were called in to ship the cotton here before he leaves. first transpirene voyage. He was delighted when he presented his sketch of the service on June 21, and wanted to jump through the underutilized Pertús tunnel, two years after the French company SNCF started operating in Spain via Ouigo and seven months after the Paris operation. -Barcelona route started. “For the first time a Spanish train driver enters French territory.“, White stressed.
Armstrong and Aldrin
That driver is Alberto Langarita. “His surname is of Basque origin, but I’m from Zaragoza,” he said. He will pilot the AVE between Barcelona and Montpellier and Jordi Gracia will take over the controls. The analogy is self-explanatory: Alberto plays Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the Moon, and Jordi plays Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on Earth’s moon. Train to Lyon. They were preparing for the jump, as the astronauts did, for the railroad in their own right.
And although it may seem that getting around Spain from the seat of the wagon is no more important than in France, each province “own regulations, own procedures, own signs‘ and it so happens that although Europe sets certain rules, each region ‘has its own peculiarities’. So they had to go back to academia, as in the wonderful comedy ‘Back to School’ starring Rodney Dangerfield.
Tour on the Tracks
For now, there are 26 train drivers who will run the Renfe routes that leap into France. The one in Lyon will be in circulation from Friday to Sunday and will be daily from September. Madrid-Barcelona-Marseille, which was activated at the end of July, will make a time jump in October. You should listen to Blanco about what happens next: “As we saw at the Tour de France, our goal is to reach Paris.” The head of the company talks about the photo exhibition on the French bike tour, which goes through all the train cars, especially the bar, where a shimmering photo of Miguel Induráin in five yellow ‘shirts’ shines. The name of the photography exhibition is ‘Queen stage, Paris destination’. The head of Renfe had already said this in mid-July. his dream is that of the Spanish Olympic athletes ” paris games July 2024 on AVE”.
Two and a half years have passed since Europe liberalized rail transport at the beginning of 2021; this implied that public or private national companies could operate in this way in other states. to promote free competitionas it is almost instantaneously with the high-speed offer in Spain where there are already AVLO, AVE, Iryo and Ouigo trains.
stones on the road
As both Blanco and her incumbent predecessors admit, Renfe has never been easy to get their trains across the Pyrenees. The company’s president suggested that once the barriers were overcome, the level of acceptance was optimal, with 43,000 tickets sold since June 21, almost equally among Spanish and French people. The price of this route, as well as the route in Marseille, ranges from 9 to 29 euros; this is a rate of destruction that will surely alarm the train company of the neighboring country, likewise Renfe agitated by high speed offers from new peninsula rivals.
For the first time, unlike the Barcelona-Madrid route, a table, a few chairs and a computer Open. There are many young people returning to Europe, seniors on a temporary visit, or families with a tourist attraction on the route. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be a professional racer. An excuse to strengthen tourist links between respective towns in addition to extreme destinations such as Girona, Figueres, Perpinyà , Narbonne, Béziers, Montpellier and Nîmes. In the case of Madrid-Marseille, the same will be true for Guadalajara Yebes, Zaragoza Delicias, Camp de Tarragona, Barcelona Sants, Girona, Figueres Vilafant, Perpinyà , Narbonne, Béziers, Montpellier, Nîmes, Avignon and Aix-en-Provence.
On December 15, 2013, Alberto and Jordi had already opened the Pertús tunnel. “ opening experts“, they joke. Since January, they have organized white marches, passenger-free excursions to prepare everything for what happened this Thursday. Be it juniors, seniors or Olympic athletes, what will happen.
Source: Informacion
James Sean is a writer for “Social Bites”. He covers a wide range of topics, bringing the latest news and developments to his readers. With a keen sense of what’s important and a passion for writing, James delivers unique and insightful articles that keep his readers informed and engaged.