We are very ambitious. When we set off on May 10, 2021 to cover the Barcelona-Madrid line with five round trips, we carried 2.9 million passengers in 15 months.. Trains are full with an average occupancy rate of 97% and the highest rates are between 99-100%. My ambition for Valencia is to have such a positive and enthusiastic commercial reception by Valencians and people from Madrid. In fact, we bet more strongly than our framework agreement assumed: with five of the three frequencies per day we will launch for Valencia from the start: 35,600 seats per week. My goal is to occupy those places. How are we going to do? Lowering the price and providing a high-quality service for people to leave their cars as it saves them more money to take the train, which is greener transport, fifty times less polluting, faster, safer and communicates in one hour and fifty minutes Madrid and Valencia.
My goal is to bring new profiles to the train. Half of our passengers are under the age of 45 and 15% prefer us to travel as a family., because children up to the age of four travel free of charge, and between the ages of 4 and 13 they pay a fixed five Euros. We also have many freelancers. The business fabric in Valencia is very diverse and we think we will be very well received. Because the travel times and spaces on board are very popular with people who have to work on the plane: XL seats if you want to rest or sleep, Wi-Fi, platform with movies or podcasts.
How many jobs will be created with AVE to Valencia and Alicante?
ouigo created a total of 300 direct and 1,000 indirect jobs. We increased the crew and drivers for Valencia. Although it is difficult to calculate because everyone works on all trains. Five round trips to Valencia and Alicante involve mobilizing 80 people. We are now preparing the traffic training so that we can start the routes to Alicante. The indirect ones are created in maintenance, food, advertising, IT… We work with Sothis, a Valencian company, for cybersecurity issues.
How is the relationship with Adif going? They criticized the high amount of wages they paid.
We are a very important customer. We will pay a billion in ten years of canon for the use of infrastructure. The figure does not include ancillary services such as traction energy or disability care provided by Adif. Adif has amazing professionals. The arrival of new operators assumes a brutal increase in passenger volume. The bid of places is multiplied by two or three. This means that technical processes must adapt. We need to rethink service and Adif does. We work side by side. We are all concerned with providing a quality service because otherwise it falls to the rest of the system. I am very comfortable working with Adif on a technical level. I am complaining about the fees because when the European directive says that ineligible costs (financial costs) can be transferred over the fee as long as the market accepts, all the costs of Adif are passed on to the operators. And what we are saying is that the market is now postcovid, we are increasing the supply greatly. Energy cost increased 4-5 times. And the thing is, the market just doesn’t accept it. The future of liberalization is at stake: whether we pass these extra costs on to the ticket price or not. If we pass, the train will not be attractive and liberalization will fail and trains will be wasted. If we want Spain’s commitment to growing capacity railways to work and to benefit from this wonderful network, which is the first of its kind in Europe, we have one condition: to grow the market, to get people to leave their cars. go to the train. This is achieved by reducing the price by 50%, as we did. Liberalization must also be successful in Valencia and Alicante.
And Renfe?
Renfe is not my competitor. my rival car. As long as we get people out of the car, there is a market for all three operators. We produce without extra cost. We are green, we are connected, we are digital. We do everything simply and pass these savings on to the customer with economies of scale. And so we maintain our ‘low pay’ model at an affordable price. As long as we can keep prices much lower than in the last three decades, there’s room for everyone. I noticed a lot of impatience in Valencia and Alicante for real liberalization to come as the competition played up and prices dropped, with a product to choose from. I believe that by opening the doors of the train to families, self-employed and young people, there will be room for a large market. As long as price elasticity works.
What kind of bike transport policy will they have?
You can travel as long as the bikes and scooters are securely fixed and disassembled in a cover, do not exceed 30 kg and pay a surcharge of 5 Euros.
Carrying a bicycle on long-distance trains is now an adventure. This is a neglected market niche.
Cycling is strongly encouraged in Valencia. It is a very nice city for cycling. It is stated that the city encourages the use of green transportation modes. It seems very logical to me that cyclists are also train users. And taking the train is a values-based decision. Traveling by train pollutes less than cars and planes. It makes perfect sense to me that we have cyclists with their own values ​​who decide to privilege the train over the car and the plane.
Are you planning to roam around? mediterranean corridor?.
We could not navigate the Mediterranean corridor for technical reasons because it is kept at 3,000 volts and we are working with 25,000. Although only common sense is clear that there is a potential market as the population is dispersed along the east coast. There are very important cores and we see that it is a very attractive market. But first we must do well what we promised. Valencia first, Alicante in the first half of 2023 and then Andalusia.
Source: Informacion
Christina Moncayo is a contributing writer for “Social Bites”. Her focus is on the gaming industry and she provides in-depth coverage of the latest news and trends in the world of gaming.