Gone are the years in which the acronym of Renfe roamed freely in the railway passenger transport in Spain. Although the carrier’s weight remains crushing beyond high speed, she is no longer alone. At the end of 2020, the service was liberalized and only half a year later, on May 10, it began to be measured with the trains that the French SNCF —under its Ouigo brand— activated on the Madrid-Barcelona line. Now another new competitor who aspires to shake up the market is warming up: Iryo, which [acaba de poner a la venta](Rockstar Games) their first tickets.
This will be your landing. And so he expects things to go.
What is this Iryo? Basically the new actor that you should take into account if you usually travel by train in Spain. Or at least by some of its busiest corridors. Iryo is the brand under which ILSA will operate, a consortium made up of Air Nostrum and Trenitalia, which is set to become the third-largest Spanish high-speed rail operator and beat the odds with Ouigo and Renfe, which in turn provides the popular AVE and the much more recent AVLO, of approach low cost.
Iryo will operate with twenty Frecciarossa trains, baptized as “red arrows”. On its website it details that its vehicles (ETR 1000) manufactured by the Hitachi-Bombardier consortium reach 360 km/h and are capable of moving 419 passengers. On board they will offer several categories.
And what routes will it cover? The company will open in a matter of a couple of months, on November 25, on the Madrid-Zaragoza-Barcelona route and shortly after, on December 16, it will continue with the Madrid-Cuenca-Valencia line. His plans do not stop there. By March 2023, it plans to add to its offer the connection with the south of the peninsula (Seville, Malaga and Córdoba) and from June of next year it would add new destinations, also incorporating Albacete and Alicante.
Yesterday, the company began selling tickets for its launch in the Madrid-Zaragoza-Barcelona corridor with a promotional offer which includes 50% discounts. To enjoy it, it is necessary to register and buy with the code iryo50. Without registering, its website sells tickets between Sants and Puerta de Atocha stations for November 25 for 30.18 euros. The journey takes between two and a half hours and two hours and 45 minutes. In general, your tickets will start from 18 euros.
What are your goals? Ambitious, of course. The company details The country, aspires to reach 30% of the market share, with nearly eight million passengers a year. It also proposes the creation of 2,600 jobs. In recent days, the company emphasized its commitment to “a real model of customization and flexibility that adapts to the needs of each type of traveler”. For now, it has reached agreements with other firms to reinforce its offer.
How does it affect the sector? Waiting to find out whether or not it will achieve its objectives, what is clear is that the liberalization of the railway market, promoted first by Ouigo and now by the landing of Iryo, has made it possible to significantly reduce the cost of tickets between Madrid and Barcelona.
At least that is what a report from the Trainline platform indicates, which detects a 49% reduction in the price of tickets and a notable increase in demand. The attractiveness of the corridor explains why this year four brands will compete for it: Ouigo, Iryo and Renfe through AVE and AVLO. It’s not the only one. Ouigo will make the jump in October to the route with Valencia, on which Iryo will also disembark.
Images | iryo
Source: www.xataka.com
