For a little over a month, renfe is testing its trains on the line between Barcelona-Lyon and also true Marseille. Traumatic break with French operator SNCF, with whom they shared commercial operations as far as Paris more than ten yearsforced railway company from Spanish to ‘via crucis’ of technical approvals, staff and articles of all kinds. The aim is to provide service. before summer because they say it’s economically viable.
This Monday machinists Ricard Codina Codina, Arcadi Estrada López-Franco and Javier García Calvo do turns to get from the station to Lyon saints. there is a need about five hours from Barcelona. They are the three most experienced Renfe experts and a international trade route periodically in company history. Spanish firm operates by train in Saudi Arabia Mekka or in Czechoslovakiabut there he does it with the locals, different from how he would encounter service in France.
Swap in controls
This high speed line Total between the Catalan capital and Lyon and Marseille 25 mechanics And 21 intrusive. As of March 6, the next professionals will be included, who will gradually follow in the footsteps of Ricard, Arcadi and Javier, who have already covered the journey between Madrid, Barcelona, u200bu200bGirona and Perpinyà in recent years. From this last city, its SNCF colleagues who took control train (shared thanks to the community ellipses) to go to Paris. And in the opposite direction roles were swapped.
” main difficulty three rules we must learn circulationIt’s not the same regulation as in all-in-one air transport, which requires an effort to know the safety systems in the cabin and on the ground,” he says excitedly. Ricardo Codina. “Of course it’s difficult because in France we travel partly on the traditional route: there are level crossings, there are stops halfway through, and all this requires more attention.” Rodians.
300 km/h from Nîmes
Thus, the route between Barcelona and Lyon not equal for infrastructure. AVE almost reaches 300 kilometers per hour from Nimes, a high-speed network where the signal is in the TVM (like the Spanish ERTMS, which is read by the train itself, not the driver). carlos nietoHead of international high-speed operations for Renfe.
In the last weeks and the following weeks, while making “histories”, future mechanicsso the whole journey between the two cities, rehearse the stops at planned stations, changes in signaling, adjustments. What are known as “empty walks”, applications so that everything goes well from the summer, marketing history The number of tickets has not yet been announced.
paris at the end of the year
For now the trains will be old acquaintances S100-Frelated to alstom, with a capacity of eight cars and 347 seats. Have 32 years and they were released on the Madrid-Seville AVE line, although they were completely remodeled. However, the Spanish operator is a Talgo S106 because it is aimed to gradually reach 28 circulations per week for the Lyon and Marseille destinations.
Then it will come to Paris in 2023, he continues. manager the company’s international high-speed operations, Juan Ricardo Zambranaas the tested AVE passes through the station narbonne. Zambrana, French they didn’t make things easy Beyond SNCF’s “sudden notice” to the Spanish rail company to suspend the relationship. They’ve been picky with their paperwork and so far they don’t let them advertise their trains in screen tests.
Allow line by line
However, Renfe plans in france. After rail liberalization, different operators are exploring where to expand their business. in Spain, ouigo And iris offers different services for months high speed. The biggest difference is that railway safety agency Spain gives a single permission to work across the network, while in France, for example, you have to request them line by line; obstacles massive commercial expansion.
Actually, Renfe’s strategic plan It predicts that in 2028 10% of its revenue will come from international markets, for example not only high-speed trains, but also European or American commuter or regional trains.