This Wednesday marks 20 years since the entry into operation of the AVE between Madrid and Lleida. Since October 11, 2003, Renfe has transported 16 million travelers at high speed between Barcelona, Camp de Tarragona, Girona, Figueres, Zaragoza, Madrid, Andalusia or northern Spain, according to the company. Companies, users and some institutions agree that the first Catalan province with high-speed connections is the one that needs the most investments. They demand affordable frequencies and prices and a stop to low-cost trains.
The service began with four trains in each direction. Getting to Madrid cost 2 hours and 40 minutes. Lleida now has more than 40 daily AVE, Avlo, Alvia or Avant services. “Having AVE in Lleida has connected us with big cities: Barcelona in one hour and Madrid in two hours and five minutes. I work at the Arnau de Vilanova hospital and many colleagues live in Zaragoza and Barcelona. “Before it was impossible.” José Manuel Porcel, medical director of the hospital, told it on Thursday while waiting for the train that would take him to Madrid and which arrived a quarter of an hour late. He also said that a train that left Zaragoza at seven in the morning has not been recovered, which has made it “very difficult” to hire Aragonese professionals at the hospital.
Carles Feixa, professor of Social Anthropology at the Pompeu Fabra University, shares the complaint. He goes back and forth from Lleida to Barcelona twice a week. He is part of the Whatsapp group Avanteros pringats, the embryo of the Usuaris Avant Catalunya Platform, which asks for more frequencies and more affordable prices. “The situation – he says – is dramatic. There are only two trains in the morning, old ones, they fill up quickly and if you don't order three or four days in advance there are no places. “They suppressed the nine o’clock train before the pandemic and it has not recovered.”
The president of the Chamber of Commerce, Jaume Saltó, considers the lack of frequencies to go to work in Barcelona a problem and assures that the cost of the ticket is “very expensive, it is one of the most expensive high-speed sections.” He proposes that the institutions talk to the low-cost lines so that their trains stop in Lleida, recover eliminated trains and more seats on the seven in the morning train to Madrid: “There are people who are traveling by car to Zaragoza and there take the train.”
Saltó believes that a common front of institutions and employers, unions and neighbors would be needed, “to all go together and start with serious things.” “The parties – he adds – could include it in the negotiations they have now to form a government as one more thing, this is relatively simple.”
The president of the Lleida Provincial Council, Joan Talarn, insists that services have been degrading in recent years “due to the inexplicable decision by Renfe and Adif not to recover the transit frequencies that were cut due to the pandemic.” The Provincial Council shares with the Avant platform, promoted by CC.OO. and the FAV of Lleida, the need to adjust schedules and prices to make working and living in Lleida and Barcelona or Madrid compatible and guarantee a connection with local transport.
For the delegate of the Generalitat in Lleida, Montse Bergés, high speed has a positive impact on the economy and people's lives and also pending issues. “Institutions and users demand an increase in frequencies and that the AVE be part of the public service and have subsidies,” she says.
The mayor, Fèlix Larrosa, believes that Lleida has to be proud that the station is in the center and maintains that being connected to high speed is a historic opportunity for the city. “You are not – he asserts – 160 km from Barcelona or almost 500 from Madrid, you are one hour from Barcelona and two from Madrid, it brings you closer to the world and the world comes closer to you.”
Twenty years later, with the entry of new operators, the mayor believes that it is time to demand the stop in Lleida and to face challenges such as the recovery of pre-pandemic frequencies. A few days ago he already proposed it to the president of Renfe, Raúl Blanco: "Place Avant seats on the AVE to go to Barcelona and Zaragoza." He told him that every morning buses chartered by officials arriving from the Aragonese capital to work arrive in Lleida. Another battle for Larrosa is that the international convoys that leave Madrid stop in Lleida.
