SPAIN: SNCF’s low-cost subsidiary Ouigo has additional expanded its operations in Spain, launching Madrid – Valladolid companies on April 19, consisting of two return journeys per day.
Single fares begin at €9, and initially 14 000 tickets per week have been made obtainable. The operator may make extra low-cost fares obtainable by operating its Duplex trainsets in a number of if demand warrants it, Ouigo instructed.
In the meantime, from June 1, these companies will likely be prolonged throughout Madrid to serve Alacant and Albacete, with most trains additionally calling at Cuenca.
In the course of the the rest of 2024, Ouigo plans to increase its companies to Murcia, with trains anticipated to start out across the finish of June. In the course of the second half of the 12 months, the operator expects so as to add trains to Sevilla, Córdoba and Málaga.
The announcement of the low-cost operator’s newest enlargement plans triggered a row within the native media, amid feedback attributed to Transport Minister Óscar Puente’s suggesting that Ouigo and fellow Open entry operator Iryo had been utilizing ‘worth dumping’ techniques. Puente has threatened to report the 2 operators to competitors authority CNMC over what he termed ‘extremely disloyal techniques’.
Puente mentioned that the fares coverage risked dragging incumbent operator RENFE ‘into some very poor outcomes on these routes which had been as soon as very worthwhile’. Noting the €1bn annual fee Ouigo makes to infrastructure supervisor ADIF AV in entry expenses, he added that ‘I’ll bear this very a lot in thoughts throughout the subsequent assembly they’ve with us after they request that ADIF ought to decrease its expenses. My reply will likely be that they’re able to paying them.’
Ouigo España’s Managing Director Hélène Valenzuela responded that ‘that is the primary time that [the minister] has scolded us for providing low fares. Neither dumping, nor subsidies — they don’t exist. I’m in touch with all of the authorities and want to welcome the minister quickly onboard our trains. There’s politics and there may be enterprise, and we’re in enterprise.’
