Madrid, 15 September 2022
Through iryo – Trenitalia’s subsidiary in Spain – the FS Italiane Group on Sunday, 18 September will start selling Frecciarossa tickets for trips between Madrid, Barcelona and Zaragoza.
The first trips of the Frecciarossa, as the excellence of Italian railway technology, are scheduled to set off on 25 November. A few weeks later, as of 16 December, iryo will offer trips between Madrid, Valencia and Cuenca and, in the first quarter of 2023, the southbound connection shall reach the cities of Seville, Malaga and Cordoba. In June 2023, Alicante and Albacete shall become two additional cities reached by the iryo Frecciarossa.
The start of commercial activities in Spain confirms the strong presence in Europe of the FS Italiane Group and of the Passenger Hub in particular, uniting all the companies involved in passenger transport by train and bus. The Group is already present in France with Trenitalia France and through connections along the Paris-Lyon-Milan route, in the UK with Avanti West Coast and c2c, in Greece with Hellenic Train through medium- and long-distance connections plus urban and suburban connections in Athens, in Germany with regional transport operator Netinera, and in the Netherlands with road transport operator Qbuzz.
The presentation of the commercial offer took place today in Madrid’s Atocha station and aims to entice more and more people to opt for the train for their journeys, as directed by the European Union’s objectives in terms of sustainability. The sharing of knowledge gained in Italy with the High Speed trains, thanks to more than ten years of experience with Frecciarossa connections, will thus facilitate furthering the important development of rail transport between the main Iberian cities.
iryo is also committed to promoting integrated, collective and shared mobility throughout the territory through agreements with other transport and tourism operators to offer door-to-door travel. In fact, agreements will be in place with taxi services and other means of public transport in the main Spanish cities to commence and complete one’s journey.
iryo is the only railway operator with an entirely new fleet which, when fully operational, shall have 20 Frecciarossa 1000 trains, being the fastest, most sustainable and environmentally-friendly in Europe. Frecciarossa trains are made of 95% recyclable materials, have reduced fuel consumption compared to previous-generation trains and are able to limit CO2 emissions per passenger-kilometre to 28 grams. For these reasons, these are the first trains to have obtained an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD).
The possibility of offering high-speed connections in Spain forms part of a process that began in November 2019 with the allocation by ADIF, the Iberian railway infrastructure manager, of 30% of the connections on the High Speed network, an offer second only to Renfe, the Spanish national operator.