Just a few days ago, Trainline confirmed what we began to suspect for a long time: trains are rising in price. According to their data, Renfe, Ouigo and Iryo have increased their rates up to 40% in some cases and are forgetting their price war. Or they seemed to be forgetting. Because Renfe has pressed the accelerator in Andalusia.
The offer. From Madrid to Seville or Malaga for seven euros. It is Renfe’s temporary offer which will be active between November 14 and 18. Every day a limited number of places will leave with ridiculous prices to move through the Andalusian corridor, with stops available in Ciudad Real, Puertollano, Villanueva de Córdoba, Córdoba, Puente Genil or Antequera, in addition to the cities already mentioned.
The trains, of course, are part of the AVLO offer, the service low cost of Renfe that fights with Ouigo and Iryo to attract passengers at lower prices. The difference with the AVE lies, above all, in a greater number of stops and therefore a travel time that is usually longer.
Price war? In recent months we have seen how high speed prices have risen. And they have risen a lot, in some cases. The most recent data is brought and collected by Trainline, the train ticket price comparator Expansion. Trains have become more expensive by up to 40% in one year on the Madrid-Barcelona corridor.
The data reflect something that Álvaro Fernández Heredia, president of Renfe, already warned. “If they raise the price, we will follow them”announced a few weeks ago in an interview with Chain Being in which he also attacked his rivals, warning that they would have to explain why they come to Spain to lose money.
The data of the CNMCwhich always arrive with some delay (the latest refer to the first half of the year) also point to an increase in the price of tickets but it is Madrid-Barcelona that has concentrated this growth. In the Andalusian and Valencian corridor, prices have fallen year-on-year.
The Andalusian runner. The departure of the AVLO on the Madrid-Barcelona route, which does not have a confirmed return date, confirms that this route is the most expensive in Spain because its travelers are less susceptible to price variations. In fact, it is the corridor with the highest average price for all operators and in their sum, with a cost of 63.14 euros on average for the traveler and an increase of more than 15% compared to the first half of last year.
In Andalusia, however, things are very different. Madrid-Málaga has maintained its year-on-year prices despite the fact that high speed has increased in general terms (-1.2% compared to the first half of 2024). And Madrid-Sevilla has dropped by more than 8%.
In the absence of new data from the CNMC, we do know that Renfe increased the prices of its AVLO compared to the previous year by 3.4% but reduced those of the AVE by 3.8%. Taking into account that the average ticket price of the latter is 55.92 euros compared to 42.44 euros for the AVLO, the reduction is more noticeable than the increase in its range low cost.
Ouigo in Andalusia. It must be taken into account that Ouigo arrived in Andalusia at the beginning of 2025, which is why last year two companies (Renfe and Iryo) were competing. The French company saw clearly that it had a gap to gain in the Andalusian corridor and that it was more sensitive to price variations than Madrid-Barcelona, which is why It partially removed its trains from the latter and focused them on the southern corridor.
Consequently, prices fell and in the absence of the CNMC making public the report that includes the data for July, August and September, already in June we saw a substantial reduction in the price of tickets compared to 2024, with falls of more than 28% in Iryo, greater than 22% in the AVE and 26% in AVLO. On average, prices that month fell 25.4%.
In recent months, the battle in the southern corridor has continued. To the Renfe offer we must add the one that promoted Ouigo just a few weeks agoconnecting Barcelona with Seville for just over 20 euros. A way to continue competing in Madrid-Barcelona while maximizing resources.
direct marking. The launch of new offers shows how Ouigo and Renfe mark each other closely. The Andalusian corridor in the first half of the year has been the place where Ouigo has put the most effort and where it has differentiated its prices the most from its competitors.
In Madrid-Barcelona, the difference in the average price between Ouigo and Renfe remained below two euros. In Madrid-Valencia and Madrid-Alicante it was even less, just a few cents. In the Andalusian corridor, however, Ouigo tickets were sold almost five euros cheaper than AVLO tickets in Madrid-Seville and the same situation was repeated in Madrid-Málaga.
Photo | Smiley.toerist on Wikimedia
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