Iberia and Renfe are exploring an alliance to transfer passengers from the plane to the train through the high-speed lines to Barajas. As confirmed to the Economist sources involved in the negotiations, two of the most important transport companies in Spain are working on an intermodality solution that brings long-haul passengers closer to the main airports, with a focus on Madrid Barajas, through the AVE connections with those that the firm headed by Isaías Táboas already has.
Through this program, travelers will have the train and plane connection in a single ticket, with the flexibility that if either of the two transports is delayed, the ticket of the other will allow changes to cause the least possible disruption to the passenger. The objective is, according to sources familiar with the negotiations, to bring long-distance travelers closer to Madrid, trying to reinforce the hub of the capital and advocating for real intermodality while reducing the carbon footprint in first and second journeys. last Mille.
As of today, according to sources in the sector, it is negotiating to apply this agreement to a large part of the high-speed lines, excluding from the beginning only the one known as Puente Aéreo, that is, the connection by plane between Madrid and Barcelona, if Well, it is contemplated to apply it to other intermediate high-speed stops on the same line, such as Zaragoza. Thus, for example, sources from the sector point out, the focus is on cities near Madrid, such as Cuenca, Toledo and Ciudad Real, which do not have an air connection with the capital, but also others further away and at whose airports planes do land and take off. Iberia, as is the case of Valencia, Malaga, Seville and Ourense, whose AVE began operating this week.
The question of what will happen in the future with Iberia flights between these cities and Madrid is still a mystery to be resolved. In the sector they point out that this type of air connections are, economically and for the most part, in deficit and are maintained by the need to transport passengers in connection with long-haul flights. That is why it is possible to think, say the same sources, that if travelers can reach Barajas by train, Iberia could reduce the frequencies on these lines. “It is a movement that benefits both parties to the agreement,” they point out.
In addition, this project is in line with the 2030 Agenda and Spain 2050, two documents that advocate a more sustainable transport in which intermodality is key to achieving it. In this sense, the last of them includes the recommendation to prohibit flights on those routes that can be made by train in less than two and a half hours, that is, in most of the connections in which there is AVE. Although it is only a proposal, other countries such as France have already implemented similar measures with the airlines.
The trump card of the AVE in Barajas
Despite this, and according to sources in the sector before the questions of this medium, the project has yet to mature and, if it goes ahead as it has been proposed, it would receive a definitive push with the arrival of the high-speed connection to Barajas . At this time, in case of making one of these routes, the traveler must get off the train in Atocha or Chamartín, depending on the origin of the convoy, and take a Cercanías -free of charge- to the airport. As soon as the high-speed connection with the capital’s infrastructure becomes a reality, this transshipment will not be necessary, facilitating true intermodality.
The project for the high speed to reach Barajas will be developed in two phases, as announced a few months ago by the then head of the Ministry of Transport José Luis Ábalos. The first of them is the one that will begin in 2022 with the launch of the first of the tenders. The high-speed trains that now end their journey in Chamartín – those that come from Galicia or Castilla y León – will then be able to continue to Madrid Barajas. They will do so by taking advantage of the current Cercanías tracks, which will need an adaptation of the gauge.
In the medium-long term, the second phase will be carried out, with a specific connection to Barajas that will allow the arrival of trains that come from the connections with Barcelona and Zaragoza or from the south of the peninsula to be expanded.
This movement was launched as a pilot project, according to the same sources, at the end of January 2020, just one month before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, under the name Train & Fly. So this movement was focused on cities near Madrid.
The German Renfe, Deutsche Bahn, has similar agreements
This intermodality project has its mirror in other European countries through Deutsche Bahn, the German public railway operator. Thus, under the name of Rail & Fly, airlines such as the German-flagged Lufthansa, the Russian Aeroflot, the also German Condor, the Portuguese TAP Portugal, or Iberia itself, offer joint train and plane tickets to and from the airports of the German country. .
In the specific case of the company chaired by Javier Sánchez-Prieto, the agreement has been in force since 2014 and, as stated on its own website, it is not limited to a specific train, so the passenger, paying between 43 and 83 euros, depending on the class in which you want to travel on the train, you can access any of the company’s, regardless of the schedule. of your flight and the connections you deem appropriate.
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