Prices have risen 40% in the Madrid-Barcelona corridor. It is the conclusion they arrive in Trainline, a company that looks for the best prices and schedules when we want to travel by train. The departure of the Avlo de Renfe trains is pressing the upward market and the average of the ticket is already above 70 euros.
The exit. The news arrived at the end of August and is underway since September 8: Renfe only offers the AVE service between Madrid and Barcelona. The company took out its Avril trains, which offers the service low cost of his classic high speed trips.
The movement came after Renfe suffered various pressures related to failures in those Talgo S106 that made the Avlo route in that corridor. This summer, one of those trains cracked and despite the company’s attempts to hide the problem and manage the crisis with a low profile, finally ended up withdrawing them.
Prices shoot. Since then, Trainline, which adds the prices of the operators so that the user finds the prices and schedules that suck him, ensures that the average Price is now 40% more expensive than a year ago. They ensure that, now, the average price of the ticket to move between Madrid and Barcelona exceeds 80 euros.
The data is motivated by the AVLO output and the use of variable prices that are adjusted based on the demand. With an operator low cost Less, these tickets are now absorbed by AVE and the starting price already increases. That explains, according to The avant -garde That the cheapest ticket is already at 50 euros and reach up to 150 euros on a Sunday afternoon.
Expensive, but not so much. The Madrid-Barcelona corridor has long been experiencing a price increase. Although in the first Compasses ouigo and Iro, they lowered the train prices, it was expected that little by little they will rise over the months and years. More in a corridor than in the second four -month period of the year, he moved to 3,944,879 passengers and has a very high occupancy rate, according to CNMC data.
This agency publishes a report every three months with the performance of Spanish high -speed companies. The most recent refers to Q2 and does not collect, therefore, the current increases, but it does notice that the average price of the tickets had already been 63.14 euros, with a 15.3% increase over the same period last year.
That increase was marked, without any doubt, by a generalized price increase between the low cost. Ouigo rose 18.7% and Iroo 22.5%. For his part, Avlo was the one that less took care of the three, with a rise of 14.5%.
The same but more expensive. In the absence of knowing a more complete photograph (which will not come to the next year when the CNMC publishes the September data this year and the last quarter), what is clear is that Avlo’s departure has meant very bad news for the passenger.
On average, Avlo tickets were the cheapest seconds on the market in the second quarter, with a price of 51.95 euros. The jump to the bird is important since the average of these tickets reaches 73.91 euros.
But, in addition, the increase in prices will be substantial because Avlo moved 14.7% of all travelers who moved between Madrid and Barcelona. That means that almost 580,000 runner travelers have to get a place in some more saturated ouigo and Iro or, on the contrary, assume the cost of traveling in AVE.
What can we expect? However, Pedro García, responsible for Trainline in Europe, says that “as a whole, it is still cheaper than before liberalization, although leaving customers without a low -cost option directly affects the price of tickets”, in words collected by The avant -garde.
However, we must bear in mind that if the tickets have been more expensive in the corridor since Renfe faced competition, it is because the demand rewards it. The occupation rate in Madrid-Barcelona is so high that it justifies a slow but constant rise.
And a good example of the good health that Renfe enjoys in the corridor is that Ouigo derived trains that he had in operation in Madrid-Barcelona to the Andalusian corridor because he believes that he can be more competitive there. This last corridor seems more sensitive to the price where the differences between AVE and the low cost They are narrower and the cost for travelers are settled.
Photo | WorldOfSoftware and Logan Armostrong
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