Low cost AVE in Renfe's plan to face competition after 2020

Renfe is working on the design of a five-year strategic plan (2019-2023) to address the opening to competition of passenger transport by train and that includes a low-cost AVE service. From 2020 onwards, European Union countries will have to accept the entry of other high-speed rail operators into the market.

According to the appearance in the Senate of the Minister of Public Works, José Luis Ábalos, collected by the agency Europa Press, the new strategy will include ‘ among other measures, the announced ‘macrocontract’ purchase of new trains that Renfe has pending to undertake;Among other measures, the announced ‘macrocontract’ for the purchase of new trains that Renfe has pending to undertake, whose investment, according to industry estimates, amounts to about 3.3 billion euros.

Ábalos indirectly referred to the eventual implementation of a low-cost high-speed service, as the previous Executive left it (low cost), as the previous Executive left it; designed by indicating that Renfe must “develop the most suitable products to compete in the segments in which competition is expected”.

In parallel, the minister indicated that work is underway to sign the contract-program between Renfe and the State, the document by which the operator assumes the operation of the trains considered public service, the commuter and regional trains, in exchange for receiving the corresponding public contribution, about 900 million euros per year.

According to the minister, in addition to preparing for competition, under the plan, the public rail monopoly must also improve its internal processes, n “improve its internal processes”, as wellí as well as addressing a “digital transformation, betting on innovation and undertaking a cultural change towards a dynamic and modern public company”. Aacute;balos also framed in this "update" the "mandatory, due to age", renewal of a large part of the company's workforce.