“Extremadura’s train… let Renfe take it.” The words are from Óscar Puente, Minister of Transport, and are more than two years old. With them he complained about the complex game of balancing that the company had to do between its public service obligations and its… commercial obligations.
A phrase that perfectly sums up what has been experienced in Burgos.
What happened? That Renfe will not provide more AVE frequencies for its connection to Madrid. According to Álvaro Gutiérrez, president of the Association of AVE Users of Burgos, it is known, in the collected words deal with. The association demands faster connectivity to the capital but for now it seems they will not arrive.
According to information collected by the media, Renfe will not keep any more trains of this type because “they are not profitable”, something that the association questions, this summer there were days when it was difficult to buy tickets because the offer was almost completely covered.
In Xataka We contacted the company but they told us that they do not evaluate this matter.
What did they ask for? At this time, every day you can travel between Burgos and Madrid with nine frequencies, but only two of them travel in less than 100 minutes. Only AVE trains at 6:40 and 17:21 operate during this journey. Most frequencies are around two hours and in some cases there are intercity trains that run for more than four hours.
What they ask from Burgos is that a new high-speed frequency be included, even earlier than the existing one. The current arrives at Chamartín station at 8:13. A former option increases the possibilities for those who prefer to stay in Burgos and work in Madrid or arrive for an appointment first thing in the morning.
Until a few months ago, this train was accompanied by an Intercity that left at 8:06 but it has been temporarily delayed to 8:50, moving a large section of workers and students using this option to the earlier time slot.
A busy runner. The Atlantic Corridor has become one of the busiest railway locations in recent years when high speeds have been established and, above all, since it came to Galicia. Travel has grown so much that even airlines have given way in favor of trains.
This has led more and more people to consider Valladolid as a city to live in while working in Madrid. The combo of increased prices in the city, compatibility with teleworking and high-speed trains is making the city an attractive option for a larger number of workers.
Burgos wants to be another Castilian-Leonese option. “It’s somewhat contradictory that citizens are being told that we have to use less vehicles and use more public transport, and it turns out that we then have the option of taking public transport, for example, compared to other cities,” assured Álvaro Gutiérrez. deal with As a representative of this traveling association.
We have already seen this. The high-speed train on the Atlantic axis has been so successful that Renfe is facing demands from those requesting more trains. In Sanabria (Zamora) they have fought to increase the number of trains that stop at their station. Last summer they saw 22 trains pass through their facility but only eight of them stopped. In turn, they from Galicia pressured these trains not to stop and reduced the journey by 15 minutes.
The issue was the same as that raised in Burgos. Zamora residents claimed that the train passed through the station too late and demanded an earlier frequency. If the demands were the same, so were the objectives: to be able to get work, classrooms and medical appointments quickly in Valladolid or Madrid.
But isn’t it universal? Renfe has to deal with the obligation to continue offering trains as a public operator and to keep its accounts healthy as a private company. They don’t have to deal with the latter in Ouigo or Irio, who complained in Puente in 2024 that they could well choose where they wanted to compete and with how many trains.
This has direct implications for where and how trains are offered. And for Renfe to act as a public operator (as expected with an early bird Avant if the company doesn’t end) the state would have to define this service as such. This service will be part of a contract with the General State Administration, which you will find at this link.
If the autonomous communities, despite their claims, believe that the state does not provide public services that should be used by Renfe trains, the autonomous communities can subsidize those trains.
And a problem. They are out Burgos Newspaper The high-speed line that reaches the city has problems. Damaged by the 2008 crisis, the high-speed line that was supposed to promote connections to the capital has been hit because the Venta de Baños branch is a single track, creating a funnel for the amount of traffic it can support. And not only that, delay of one train has consequences for all subsequent trains.
The great hope is that once the Madrid-Basque Country AVE arrives, part of this funnel will be open. According to this medium, the Ministry of Transport has predicted that passenger traffic will multiply by 10 because of the large number of frequencies and more attractive schedules.
Picture | Cable logger
In Xataka | Why there’s an AVE station in the middle of nowhere (and why it makes all the sense in the world)
