The Spanish company Renfe, present on French railways since the summer of 2023, is targeting the Paris-Lyon line.

Renfe, the Spanish railway company, has high hopes for the French market after acquiring the Madrid-Lyon and Madrid-Marseille lines via Barcelona and Perpignan. “Since launching our new twice-daily lines, we have sold 510,000 tickets, significantly exceeding our original targets. Most of the traffic comes from international traffic, but also from domestic traffic in France, for example between Lyon and Montpellier with an interesting overall occupancy of 80%,” explains Susana Lozano, international manager at Renfe.

From Narbonne (Aude), the company did not hide its new ambitions: to serve Paris and especially the Paris-Lyon or even Paris-Marseille route. “We are working on it,” Susana Lozano continued, without giving a date. Renfe intends to enter into partnership agreements with tourism offices and hotel groups. In the first eight months, the stations of Lyon, Marseille, Narbonne and Montpellier, ahead of Nimes and Perpignan, became the most visited by passengers on Spanish trains.

But the most unexpected results are shown by the TGV Madrid-Marseille (8 hours) in July and August. Thanks to Renfe, you can reach Madrid from Perpignan in 4:30, from Montpellier in 6:12 and from Avignon in 7:05. With the Spaniards, the road to Barcelona from Lyon takes 7 hours, and from Montpellier – 3 hours.