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This is what Spain's new low-cost (and brightly coloured) trains will look like

The Local Spain
The Local Spain - [email protected]
This is what Spain's new low-cost (and brightly coloured) trains will look like
Photo: RENFE/Cinco Días

It won't be hard to spot the jazzy new trains zipping around the country from Easter 2020.

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Spanish national rail service RENFE has decided to give its new rage of low-cost, high-speed AVE trains a very eye-catching coat of paint. 

Photos of the first models being tested (published by El País on Wednesday) show how the carriages will have a striking purple paint job, with a silver strip running along the top and the doors being given a bright, Easyjet-style orange finish.

The striking purple pigment is in fact RENFE’s official logo colour, although current high-speed AVE trains only sport a splash of this, having primarily a more sober white finish overall.

It remains to be seen whether the carriages’ interiors will be quite as loud (in colour that is) as the exteriors.

RENFE announced back in February 2018 that it was planning to launch this low-cost alternative to its fleet as a means of getting more Spaniards off the roads and onto the train tracks.

The initial route of the trains (dubbed EVAs rather than AVEs) will be from Madrid to Barcelona, with five trains going in each direction every day.

Spain’s public rail provider hopes to kick-start the new services during next year’s Semana Santa (Easter) holidays.

Authorities are aiming to transport over a million passengers in the first year, Spain's former minister of Publics Works Íñigo de la Serna announced back in 2018. 

Ticket prices will be at least 25 percent cheaper than the current service between Madrid and Barcelona and would operate not from Barcelona-Sants station in the centre of the Catalan capital but from a new hub in El Prat de Llobregat, a satellite town near the airport.

The current AVE service hurtles the 621km (386 miles) between Madrid and Barcelona in under three hours reaching a speed above 310 km/h.

The route was inaugurated in 2008 and competes with flights between the two cities  but tickets cost an average of €98 each way, althougher cheaper deals are available to savvy travellers who book in advance.

The new budget service is designed to attract a younger generation who generally make the journey by coach, explained the minister.

Spain by train: Everything you need to know about rail travel


 

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