The train line in Spain experiencing significant delays is currently the high-speed train between Malaga and Spain’s capital, Madrid. Due to such delays, people are leaning more towards flights to reach their destination. The National Commission for Markets and Competitions reports that 8.6% of high-speed trains have a delay of more than 15 minutes. Additionally, the high-speed train line between Madrid and Granada also experience similar issue with 8.5% delayed trains.
Loss of competitiveness
The punctuality issue with high speed trains leads to a loss of competitiveness for train travels. The market share of rails for Malaga-Madrid has dropped by 8% when usually this route was dominating air travel. Several reasons can be attributed to these constant delays. First off, a surge of traffic on high speed routes and signaling equipment. Additionally, train operators can be blamed for these delays depending on how they manage things. Renfe trains currently beat all other train operators when it comes to having delays. Furthermore, factors such as old infrastructure can be the cause of these delays. When you think about how Spain’s oldest high speed rail line is still running, this adds up to the problem.
There’s a current talk on upgrading trains and routes to address these problems. With a 650 million euros investment, there is hope for improvement. However, implementing this upgrade mainly occurs during summer which can have several seasonal impacts on services. Despite all this, on the bright side, passengers are benefiting from this rail travel issue. That’s mainly because, train operators are offering reduced fares to attract more passengers back. More and more operators are using this time to enter the rail market making competition even higher for existing ones. Again, for passengers that’s a good news as fares might continue to decrease from one operator to the other.