Renfe and Ouigo prepare their artillery against the Railway Liberalization of Cercanías

The first battle has already occurred but there is a lot (a lot) for the war to end. Because after the liberalization of the high Spanish speed, the opening of the market arrives in vicinity and medium distance. A space that is still Monopoly of Renfe but which should be able to arrive new actors in the coming years.

Among those actors is, of course, ouigo.

Liberalization. In 2021, the Spanish roads lived a historical moment: Ouigo began to operate in our country. For the first time, Renfe had competition and came from the hand of a French origin company. Later it would arrive Iro From Italy. They are currently the three companies that offer high -speed services in the Spanish roads.

Liberalization was forced with the guidelines of the Fourth Rail Package of the European Union with the idea that competition will help offer more efficient and cheap services for the user. High speed liberalized, Spain has to take the next step: near and medium distance.

A delicate theme. High speed liberalization has already meant a clash between the government, Renfe and Ouigo. But opening the doors to near and medium distance is an even more thorny issue because we talk about rail services that have public service obligations.

They explain in Five days that in 2023 these services transferred 492 million passengers and that most of them have revenues below the average. Entering this market is a real risk for companies since they must deal with accessible prices and, at the same time, costs that allow them to earn money.

A first advance. Following the railway services provided with public service obligations, government and ouigo have already collided for this reason. From the Executive They lamented in April 2024 that the new operators had the advantage of deciding where they wanted to be, while Renfe did look at the obligation to reach many more cities.

According to Óscar Puente, Minister of Transportation, this prevents Renfe from competing in the same conditions as its rivals that can afford some flexibility when playing with prices. A flexibility that from the government consider excessive in the case of Ouigo to those who have directly accused throw prices below cost sustained by the French state.

Yes, but. What we expect with the liberalization of near and medium distance is a new battle between Renfe and operators that are about to be revealed. We already know that one of them is an ouigo but the rest (at least three) remains in anonymity.

They explain in 20 minutes that now the battle to define what aspects are key to getting the future tender has begun. In Ouigo they already press to make it clear that they will only be presented to the contest if they can have access to the rolling material and the staff, which would be subrogated. In this way, the risk to run would be much less.

From Renfe they have another proposal: commission the work to the operator “that is in a better disposition to provide the service”, in words collected by the Digital newspaper. The company fears that competitors choose to offer too low prices and then cannot fulfill their obligations

Yes, but (part 2). In addition to the above conditions, Ouigo would have put another condition: compensation of one million euros if, finally, the tender would not be taken after being presented to the contest. They defend that the cost of preparing for this tender already involves a cost of three million euros, so they require being able to recover part of the investment if it goes wrong.

In The Spanish They pick up that the company also wants the first tenders to open the door to simple and little complex services. That is, start with lots that do not present cross -border circulations, for example.

When? At the moment, what we have left is to wait because the liberalization of near and medium distance can still take several years. At the moment, The Renfe contract is active until 2027 and contemplates an extension of another five years. However, the services that barely suppose 3% of the contract, can be liberalized as of January 2026.

Therefore, we would be talking that the bulk of the amounts and medium distance services operated by a player other than Renfe would not reach up to 2028 or, even, 2033 if the contract that he has right now is reached. The CNMC, yes, has already opened a Public Consultation Phase so that interested operators register their claims.

Photo | Renfe

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