Renfe will begin operating in Toulouse next year. The Spanish operator continues its progress on the French High Speed map and plans to open its third route in the second quarter of 2025 to connect Barcelona and Toulouse, with stops in Girona, Figueres, Perpignan and Carcassonne. If the requested schedules are confirmed, the new route will also connect via links from Madrid, Zaragoza, Tarragona, Valencia, Lleida or Castellón.
Renfe’s map of French destinations is growing. With the addition of Toulouse and Carcassonne, there will now be eleven French cities with AVE services. This is a step towards creating a network of destinations connected directly by Renfe trains and also increasing the possibilities of travelling by connecting with other trains on both sides of the border.
As was the case with the arrival of the AVE to Lyon and Marseille, the new Renfe trains will allow the direct train connection between Toulouse, Carcassonne and Spain to be restored.
Toulouse is the fourth most populous city in France, an industrial centre and a tourist destination of international interest and gateway to the Atlantic Sector. The new AVE route will also stop in Carcassonne, a popular tourist destination in the Languedoc area.
Renfe has already submitted to the EUAR (European Union Agency for Railways) the request for an extension of the Safety Certificate to be able to operate to Toulouse. The requested business plan includes a daily frequency of departure and return with AVE s-100 material and a request for timetables that allow this offer to be connected with the rest of the AVE offer in Spain and France to optimise connections and links.
Initially, this train will operate seasonally: from spring to mid-September, but may be extended to an annual basis in the future to meet the demand of business travellers. The estimated journey time will be around 3 hours and 30 minutes between Barcelona and Toulouse.
Once the safety certificate has been obtained, Renfe will immediately begin training staff (drivers and inspectors) and will announce the date when tickets will go on sale and the service will begin.
With the entry into service of the new international route, Renfe has consolidated its position as the leading operator of cross-border connections between Spain and France with its AVE trains. From spring, Renfe will offer six daily frequencies (three in each direction) that will connect 17 cities in both countries by direct train journey.
Until Renfe came into service in France in July 2023, a large part of the routes served by international AVE trains could only be carried out by road and, in some cases, by plane. In this way, Renfe is working to guarantee the connected and sustainable mobility required by the project for a single European railway area.
Toulouse will be a new terminal for Renfe
Toulouse will be a new terminal for Renfe’s AVE routes, joining Marseille and Lyon, the three largest cities in France in terms of population after Paris, where Renfe hopes to be able to operate its high-capacity AVE S-106 trains as soon as possible, when Talgo completes its homologation.
Meanwhile, Renfe continues to work to become a reference operator for all French travellers with an operational deployment that, starting in April and with the opening of the Toulouse line, will serve eleven destinations in France, on three different routes, with six daily AVE train frequencies.
A brand that has convinced the French market. In its first year of competition in France, Renfe has been supported by demand, which has occupied its trains at 80% and positively valued its value proposition: attractive prices without losing quality and service.
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