Ouigo Spain will launch its Valencia-Madrid service in October, adding competition to this profitable line and decreasing train ticket prices to 9 euros.
Ouigo, French low-cost high-speed train company, will begin operating the route between Madrid and Valencia on October 7, with prices starting at 9 euros. The tickets can be bought through Ouigo Spain website, and their application from today. Due to homogenisation with the Chamartin station, operations with Alicante have been delayed until 2023.
The company will offer three round journeys to Valencia every day, total of six daily excursions between the two cities. Ouigo Spain will provide a total of 21,378 weekly seats in its latest-generation double-height Alstom Euroduplex trains – split over two levels – a first level ‘Land’ and a second level ‘Sky’. With 509 seats each, those trains are the “highest capacity trains on the Spanish market.” Ouigo’s weekly traffic will equate to 213 flights.
This was announced this Thursday at a press conference by Hélène Valenzuela, General Director of Ouigo Spain, and Federico Pareja, Commercial and Marketing Director of Ouigo Spain, who outlined that “after this, we can expect the real drop in prices on Valencia-Madrid route .”
The connection between Madrid and Valencia is made via the Chamartin-Clara Campoamor station, which will connect Turia’s capital with the Spanish capital’s financial centre at 300 kilometres per hour and will provide a direct connection to travellers who wish to continue their journey to northern Spain by train without changing stations.
According to Parejo, Ouigo Spain follows the “green business model, it is 100 percent digital business, and it offers prices never seen before in Spain,” with which it has “managed to democratise access to the train,” and that more than 2.2 million travellers have chosen the company to travel between Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, and Tarragona, “increasing the use of this line to record levels”.
From the 7th of October, Oigo Spain will provide Valencians with a “sustainable, digital, and high-quality” mode of transportation, with tickets starting at 9 euros (including a suitcase and hand luggage), a cafeteria, and the option of paying an additional 9 euros for the OuigoPlus package, which includes a choice of XL seats, an additional suitcase, and access to the OUIFUN entertainment platform with movies, series, podcasts, magazines, or games. It also provides Wi-Fi for three euros each way.
Ouigo Spain will also provide the option of “travelling à la carte,” which includes the addition of extra luggage or XL seat reservation (5 euros), a flexible ticket with unlimited changes up to 30 minutes before the train’s departure, and travelling with a pet in a carrier. Children under the age of three will travel for free, while those aged four to thirteen will pay a flat rate of five euros.
When asked if the price will change based on anticipation and demand, Parejo confirmed that the availability of seats at nine euros will “fluctuate over time,” and the cost might rise if you book just before the departure, but “more than 70% of the tickets will cost under 30 euros,” and the customer will find “average rates still 50% lower” a week before the trip.
According to Ouigo’s commercial director, after the start of operations to Valencia, the “next milestone will be to start operating towards Albacete and Alicante,” a route that “requires specific approvals because it has a different security system on the road, ERTMS2,” and that, “the start of operations to Alicante had to be postponed, until 2023”.
He has specified that this route will have two round trips every day. After Alicante, Ouigo Spain plans to bring its high-speed trains to Andalusia by the end of 2023. The company aims to offer 10 million tickets per year in Spain once it is “fully deployed.”
According to the general director of Ouigo Spain, “with only five return journeys a day between Madrid and Barcelona,” Ouigo has transported more than 2 million passengers in a year and its trains “are 100% full.” “We have managed to lower train prices by an average of 50% on the most competetive line,” she noted.
Tickets can be bought here, and we suggest you start looking now
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