Three and a half years after its implementation, today marks the end of the first phase of the liberalisation of passenger rail transport in Spain. Ouigo has inaugurated their last pending routes, Madrid-Seville and Madrid-Malaga.
The inaugural event, which was held in Seville Santa Justa station, was presided over by Hélène Valenzuela, General Director of Ouigo Spain, accompanied by Alain Krakovitch, General Director of SNCF Voyageurs and TGV-Intercités.
The service will start on Thursday 16 January. Ouigo will offer 5 outward journeys and 5 return journeys per day. Of these, three will connect Madrid with Seville (there will be two until 24 January) and the other two will connect Madrid with Malaga.
Two daily Madrid-Seville and one Madrid-Malaga trains will also stop in Cordoba in both directions. However, until 24 January, there will only be two trains per direction per day. From that day onwards, the last Madrid-Seville train of the day will spend the night in the Andalusian capital and leave for Puerta de Atocha the following day.
The arrival of Ouigo in Andalusia has been delayed due to the need to develop the STM module to make the line’s LZB system compatible with the on-board ETCS equipment.
