Travelers have had only two high-speed trains that connect Barcelona with France since last Sunday. These are the two circulations that the French operator SNCF sells between Paris and the Catalan capital after the breakdown of the agreement between Renfe and its French counterpart to offer services between the two countries in cooperation.
The trains to Marseille and Lyon, which were carried out with Renfe trains, ran for the last time on Saturday and it is not known when they will be able to do so again. They are awaiting the safety certificate with the homologation of the trains that the French authorities must issue, just as Adif has done so that the SNCF convoys can circulate from the Pertús tunnel to Barcelona. The procedures can take several months.
"We have not continued with Renfe for economic reasons, it was a loss-making service from day one," explains Caroline Chabrol, SNCF's project director for Europe. The only runner that according to her economic analysis can be profitable, and even more so operating alone, is Barcelona-Paris. For this reason, it is the only one that has been kept alive after the end of the cooperation agreement with Renfe.
The final straw that marked its end was the entry of SNCF with its low-cost brand Ouigo in the juicy Barcelona-Madrid corridor. “It is difficult to be partners and competitors at the same time”, argues Chabrol, who defines the situation in recent months in the company that both state operators jointly maintained as “schizophrenic”.
