Related Content
Major Changes to services between France and Spain
Update! The direct trains on the Barcelona ↔ Lyon route resume from July 13th and those on the Madrid ↔ Marseille return from July 28th.
Simon HarperShare
Since the opening of the cross-border high-speed line which links Perpignan in France with Figueres in Spain, the French national rail company SNCF and the Spanish national rail company, Renge had collaborated on the services which use it.
A long-term agreement was reached in which the two companies worked together on the marketing and shared revenues, with SNCF providing the trains used on the Paris ↔ Barcelona route and Renfe providing the trains used on the L ↔ Barcelona and Marseille ↔ Madrid route.
This agreement between SNCF and Renfe was discontinued in 2022, so when the major annual timetable change occurred on December 11th, the direct trains between both Lyon and Marseille and the Spanish cities were removed.
SNCF has still been providing the direct TGV InOui service trains on the Paris ↔ Barcelona route, so there has been two daily Paris ↔ Barcelona departures per day year round, plus and additional third summer service, and for the past 7 months these have been the only services using the cross border high-speed line!
But, Renfe is bringing back the Lyon ↔ Barcelona and Marseille ↔ Madrid trains.
The service is also to be re-launched with special promotional 'Promocion' tickets already on sale.
- Barcelona, Madrid or Zaragoza ↔ Perpignan, Narbonne, Nimes and Montpellier = €19
- Barcelona ↔ Lyon = €29
- Barcelona or Madrid or Zaragoza ↔ Marseille = €29
Initially both the Barcelona ↔ Lyon and the Madrid ↔ Marseille services will be available on four days per week from Fridays to Mondays, with the trains to and from Lyon available from July 13th and the services to/from Marseille will commence on July 28th.
Simon Harper
I wanted to share my passion for train travel and explain how anyone can take the fantastic journeys I have taken.
This is one of more than 100 train travel guides available on ShowMeTheJourney, which will make it easier to take the train journeys you want or need to make. As always, all images were captured on trips taken by ShowMeTheJourney.
This second version of ShowMeTheJourney is exciting and new, so we are genuinely thrilled that you are here and reading this, but we also need your help.
We’re striving not to let anything get in the way of providing the most useful service possible, hence a facility has been set up with DonorBox which can be used to support the running costs and make improvements.
Instead of advertising or paywalls, your financial support will make a positive difference to delivering an enhanced service, as there’s a lot of ideas which we want to make happen.
So if you have found the info provided here to be useful, please consider saying thank you.
