The presidents of Spain’s Renfe, Raül Blanco, and Portugal’s CP, Pedro Moreira, met this morning in Madrid to study new possibilities for future collaboration between the two companies.
The main objective is to provide international services to facilitate the mobility of fans attending the 2030 Men’s World Cup matches in both countries.
As well as discussing cooperation for the sporting event, the two leaders also discussed other issues such as the cooperation agreement on tourist trains, the leasing of Renfe rolling stock to CP and possible future cooperation on international services.
As far as the Portuguese market is concerned, a year ago Renfe expressed its interest in operating Alvia trains with 130 or 730 units between Madrid and Oporto via Salamanca, and between Madrid and Lisbon via Badajoz, once the new high-speed line between Elvas and Évora is operational.
In addition, the purple operator is planning an Alvia service between Lisbon and La Coruña, via Oporto, Vigo, Pontevedra and Santiago de Compostela. As reported a year ago, this route would be served by 120-series trains.
At present, Renfe and CP only co-operate on the Tren Celta between Oporto and Vigo. They jointly operated the Trenhotel Lusitania (Madrid-Salamanca-Lisbon) and the Trenhotel Surexpreso (Irún-Salamanca-Lisbon) until the outbreak of the pandemic.
The refusal of Renfe and the Ministry of Transport to reinstate the night trains has prevented their return, despite CP’s interest in reinstating them.
