Renfe will operate again in France starting in July with routes to Lyon and Marseille

Renfe is finalizing the details to operate again in French territory. After SNCF unilaterally broke the contract they shared for almost 10 years, the Spanish railway operator has been working in recent months to recover the routes they jointly offered until last December. It will start with the lines connecting with Lyon and Marseille, with very low prices to gain market share, as Ouigo, SNCF's low-cost subsidiary, has done upon its arrival in Spain.

The first AVE train will depart on Thursday, July 13, from Sants station towards Lyon, on a five-hour journey that will stop in Girona, Figueres, Perpignan, Narbonne, Béziers, Montpellier, Nîmes, Valence, and Lyon. The departure from Barcelona will be at eight-twenty in the morning and the return from Lyon at half past two in the afternoon.

A few weeks later, on Friday, July 28, the line to Marseille will be activated. It will depart from Madrid and stop in Guadalajara, Zaragoza, Camp de Tarragona, Barcelona, Girona, and Figueres, before arriving in France, where it will call at Perpignan, Narbonne, Béziers, Montpellier, Nîmes, Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, and Marseille. The route between the Catalan capital and Marseille can be done in five hours. The departure from Barcelona will be at half past four in the afternoon and the return from Marseille at 8 in the morning.

Renfe will carry out a progressive deployment in its return to France. In summer, both routes will only run from Friday to Monday, with the exception of the inaugural train to Lyon, which will be on a Thursday. In this first stage, the railway operator's routes in France will have 16 weekly services. From September on the Barcelona-Lyon route and from October on the Madrid-Marseille route, AVE trains will start running from Monday to Sunday, growing to 28 weekly services.

Tickets for the new routes between France and Spain will go on sale this Wednesday. Prices will be especially competitive for traveling within France, with tickets at 9 euros. For the connection with Spain, tickets will initially be offered at 19 euros for travel from Montpellier and Narbonne to Barcelona, Zaragoza, and Madrid, and at 29 euros for the complete route.

For now, Renfe will only be able to operate the lines connecting Barcelona with Lyon and Marseille, pending the French infrastructure administrator enabling it on the Barcelona-Paris route. The company chaired by Raül Blanco has a special interest in reaching the French capital, a line that SNCF has kept for being the most profitable, compared to the southern ones it has left to Renfe. SNCF offers two daily round trips between Barcelona and Paris, with a duration of 6 hours and 35 minutes, with stops in Girona, Figueres, Perpignan, Narbonne, Béziers, Agde, Sète, Montpellier, Nîmes, and Valence. Starting in July, they will add a new frequency.