The new high-speed operator Ouigo will enter new routes
20 September, 2023The Spanish Administrator of Railway Infrastructures (Adif) has provisionally authorised Ouigo, the low-cost high-speed operator of the French group SNCF, to operate on the Madrid-Elche-Murcia line from 2024. The definitive go-ahead is expected in October.
It has been reported that Ouigo will start the homologation tests of AVE trains from this provisional authorisation. The process will take time, so it is not possible to confirm the date from which the trains will start running. However, it is estimated that services could start in the first half of 2024.
Note that Ouigo began competing in the Spanish market on 10 May 2021 when it inaugurated its first Madrid-Zaragoza-Tarragona-Barcelona line, breaking the 29-year monopoly that Renfe had held on Spain's powerful Alta Velocidad Española (AVE) since 1992. And in April this year it opened its third route within Spain.