Trenitalia's red trains arrive in Spain

After the Paris-Lyon route since last December, the “red arrows” - the Frecciarossa high-speed trains used by Trenitalia - are expected to enter the Spanish market on November 25, according to various media. In a country where the opening of the railway market is more than a reality. Because in addition to the high-speed trains of the national company Renfe and its low-cost subsidiary Avlo, the SNCF launched its Ouigo offer there last year. Since March 2021, its low-cost TGVs have been running on the Madrid-Barcelona line via Zaragoza and Tarragona, establishing a network that will extend from October 7 to the Madrid-Valencia route, and waiting for its extension to Seville and Malaga in 2023.

Connecting Madrid to Barcelona and Zaragoza in the north, and with Seville, Malaga, Córdoba, Valencia and Alicante in the south; through its company called Iryo, are more or less the same destinations as Trenitalia is preparing to serve in a first phase in Spain, with the objective of reaching the Basque Country and Galicia before, why not, an expansion of international lines, supporting iryo, for example, the creation of a high-speed line between Madrid and Lisbon.

For the last stage, before the train is approved and used in the Spanish railway network, technical tests began in mid-August between Madrid and Barcelona, and the first tickets are expected to go on sale between September and October. While the company plans to operate more than 80 daily routes from Madrid, including 32 to Barcelona, where passengers can enjoy the comfort of the high-speed trains used by the company in Italy and France, the Frecciarossa 1000 built by Hitachi. Some 20 completely new high-speed trains have been ordered, renowned for their sustainable qualities and their ability to save 80% of carbon dioxide per passenger per trip.

“Our trains will be equipped with intelligent Wi-Fi, a content platform, a cafeteria service and a very innovative restaurant service,” said Victor Baudelaire in 2021. In 2021, Víctor Bañares, CEO of Ilsa, the consortium behind the start-up of the company Iryo, revealed this in a interview with the Spanish magazine Expansión. In this context, iryo announced in June that its service provider would be Gate Gourmet. Another element planned at the launch of the project, but of which no outline has yet been revealed, is the development of a product for business travelers and another for leisure passengers, all included in a dynamic pricing strategy.

Parallel to its arrival in France, to establish itself in the Spanish market, the railway group Ferrovie della Stato Italiane, parent company of Trenitalia, has partnered with a subsidiary of Iberia, the regional airline Air Nostrum. The presence of this partner in the capital of the Ilsa consortium attests to the potential synergies between the train and the plane that the company Iryo intends to exploit. As it has recently done in Rome with the opening of new railway links to Naples and Florence at Fiumicino airport. Trenitalia expects to add Madrid-Barajas airport to its network. “With a third line or a dedicated corridor; but we have to get to the airport because we want to be the key provider of travelers on intercontinental air routes,” said Víctor Bañares in the aforementioned interview.

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