“The citizen wants a train that passes on time and does not break down”

With the Government trying to boost train travel, Cercanías, conventional medium-distance and high-speed long-distance services lost travelers. That is what the CNMC report tells us, which has its annual report available on how our trains are doing.

Downwards. That’s what the CNMC data says in whose report Some details are specified about the use of the train throughout the year 2025. According to these data, the number of travelers fell last year compared to 2024 in all types of connections and types of trips offered by Renfe as a public service operator:

• Cercanías: decrease of 0.4%. Technical tie.
• Conventional medium and long distance: drop of 10.8% compared to 2024. Decrease in occupancy from 67.9% in 2024 to 60.2%.
• High-speed medium distance: decrease of 0.7% but with an occupancy of 77.5% compared to the 79.3% occupancy in 2024.

Competence. If we stick to the data where there is competition, train use has increased. And on the high-speed long distance where the roads are liberalized, the number of travelers grew by 12.2%. Madrid-Seville (+18.7%) and Madrid-Málaga (+14.1%) were the corridors that saw the most passengers board the train compared to 2024.

These figures make sense if we take into account that Ouigo has been dedicating more resources to Andalusia in the second half of the year. It also, in fact, explains that passengers on the Madrid-Barcelona route fell by 1.7%, the only corridor that reduced the number of travelers in 2024.

Punctual and reliable. The data confirms that, without competition, whether or not to get on the train depends largely on how reliable and punctual the train is. César Franco, engineer and former president of the General Council of Industrial Engineers, he pointed us out a few days ago that “the citizen prefers a conventional train that passes on time and does not break down, rather than a half-empty monumental station (…) If the answer is that we are going to spend hundreds of millions to run three trains a day, we are making an economic mistake”

Last year, Renfe published its first punctuality report. According to the data collected then, the medium distance accumulated average delays of 15.4 minutes. At the end of the year, the portal where Renfe offers its data on punctuality stated that only 59.4% of medium-distance trains arrive on time or with a delay of less than five minutes. 19.4% of trains suffered delays of more than 10 minutes.

And 2026? In 2026 we will most likely see much worse data than in 2025. It must be taken into account that the Adamuz accident (in which a Renfe Avant train derailed and collided with an Iryo train traveling in the opposite direction) closed part of the Andalusian corridor for weeks and led to a cascade of delays on all linessubjected to intense scrutiny and the decision of some drivers to reduce speed.

In fact, according to data from the Renfe portal28.8% of Renfe’s long-distance and high-speed trains have arrived late in the first five months of the year (May is the last month with consolidated data) and 11.7% have been delayed by more than 30 minutes.

an opportunity. Losing reliability in the Spanish train network is also losing the opportunity to prioritize a more efficient and less polluting transport system. In fact, it allows reducing pressure in large cities, as is happening with the Madrid workers living in Valladolid.

Salvador Galve, president of the Railway Commission of the Council of Colleges of Industrial Engineers, said a few days ago in the Senate that “when I go to Barcelona from Zaragoza and have a meeting, I go by car. When I go to Madrid I try to go by train because it usually arrives, but the majority of managers who go from Zaragoza go by car because they don’t know when they will arrive.”

And it is necessary to have the necessary frequencies and the minimum reliability required in medium and long distance trains with conventional track and high speed. It is key for thousands of people who need to take the train to, for example, go to the doctor in a big city and return to their place of residence on the same day, with the peace of mind that they will arrive and return at the expected time. Without surprises.

Photo | Nelson Silva

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